Jeffrey Wright’s Felix Leiter may have proven to be the only one other than Jack Lord’s who can rival Bond’s style and cool demeanour. In Quantum of Solace he wears a tan linen suit that’s just as nice as any of Bond’s tropical suits. The suit jacket is probably a button two and has natural shoulders and a clean fit. The jacket also has open patch hip pockets, a welt breast pocket and a four buttons on the cuffs. The jacket’s buttons are a summery white mother of pearl. The suit trousers have a flat front and a plain hem.
Leiter’s white shirt has a button-down collar, front placket and rounded single-button cuffs. The button-down collar looks great open since the buttons keep the collar standing up, even with the first button of the shirt open. The button-down collar also identifies Leiter as an American, even though Cec Linder was the only Leiter to previously wear a button-down collar. The only part of this outfit that isn’t done so well are the shoes. They’re brown slip-ons with a rather bulbous toe and thick black rubber soles. But since they’re only seen in publicity stills and not in the film they’re not worth complaining about too much.
Leiter’s tan suit and white shirt outfit has similarities to the original Felix Leiter’s beige suit in Dr. No and, especially, James Bond’s tan linen suit in GoldenEye. The balanced proportions and classic fit of this suit make it one of the most timeless suits worn by any character in the Bond films.
Nice – and looks much better than the suits worn by Cec Linder and Jack Lord (not to speak of Rik van Nutter’s linen suit in Thunderball). Perhaps Jeffrey Wright is the best-dressed Felix Leiter. There have always been rumours that costume designers deliberately dressed the character less sophisticated than Bond – in order to demonstrate the superiority of English style.
Forgive me, But does the shirt really have double cuffs? It looks like single cuffs to me…
Besides that, it is a very nice suit. Thanks for sharing your expertise!
My mistake. The shirt has rounded single-button cuffs. I’ve corrected the article.
This is a great suit. Any idea who made it? I especially like the button the use of the down collar here, which as you point out, identifies Leiter as an American. I typically wear button down collars in this fashion as well because their propensity to stand up when the collar is left open. I’ve never liked them with ties, though.
I hope Leiter returns in Bond 24, both for the character and his clothes.
Great style and suit! I could very well imagine myself turning that into my signature summer style.
Great, cool style. Looks like it’s a solaro cloth ?
I was thinking that, since I can see both blue and tan in it, but it’s hard to tell for sure with the lighting.
Nice post Matt.
I really like Jeffrey Wright as Leiter. In QoS, I think he sounds even more jaded than Bond.
And this suit looks very good on him. I think it gives him a very nice contrast to Gregg Beam.
So then, any ideas behind the decision not to put Bond in a tan/beige/light brown suit?
Maybe because it would wash out Craig’s complexion?
Suits in the tan family looks great on Daniel Craig. Just look at the cream suit in Layer Cake. The really dark suits he more often wears (especially in Quantum of Solace) are the ones that wash him out.
They did put him in brown, albeit dark:
https://www.bondsuits.com/brown-suit-in-bolivia/
I think that lighter colours wouldn’t match his emotions in QoS.
Lighter brown or tan would certainly look better on him and also better match the setting. Lindy Hemming was the only costume designer who really seemed intent to make Daniel Craig look his best, even though the Brioni suit shoulders didn’t really work for him.
Matt, a question about those Brioni shoulders you were referring to in your comment.
Do you think they exist anymore now ? it looks like the shoulders of their ready-to-wear suits are very soft now and have nothing to do with them anymore (at least in Europe). I am really disappointed, I am even considering going to their store to ask them if they could bulk them a bit…
Thanks in advance for your reply !
It has been a few years since I’ve been to a store selling Brioni. I just had a look at Brioni’s site and I don’t see these shoulders anymore! It looks like they’re given up their classic style for popular fashions.
Lighter colours would definitely look better on him and match the geographic location, but I wasn’t talking about that. He feels grief, pain and anger throughout the movie. Personally, I associate lighter colours with happiness. Therefore, I think the colours they put him in are appropriate, even though he doesn’t look his best. Just my two cents.
I understood your point. It seems part of putting Daniel Craig in dark suits was to make him look washed out, thus reflecting his mood.
But, do we need a Bond who constantly seems to be wracked by “pain, grief and anger”. I would just rather be entertained!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all three of Craig’s Bond films. That said, I am in complete agreement with you that it’s time to have a little fun again. I think another introspective, dark Bond film would be a flop at this moment in time.
It worked splendidly for Dalton and Brosnan. Craig is just continuing the tradition set by his predecessors!
Dalton wasn’t that way in The Living Daylights, and Brosnan was hardly ever wracked by “pain, grief and anger” except for in a few moments of GoldenEye. The torture in Die Another Day didn’t seem to have any affect on him!
I agree with FS. The direction they took with Daniel Craig was a nice change, and consistent with Fleming’s books, but I think it’s time to make a film without Bond having emotional or physical issues. I wouldn’t like a tongue-in-cheek movie because that wouldn’t work with Craig, but something in line with Goldfinger or Thunderball would.
That could also mean more versatile clothes, such as cream or tan suits. Something I would really like is the return of white dinner jacket, but that’s unlikely to happen because they established the rule that Bond has to wear black/midnight blue tuxedo. The only chance for a white dinner jacket to appear is that Bond has to wear black tie twice.
“But, do we need a Bond who constantly seems to be wracked by “pain, grief and anger”. I would just rather be entertained!”
– I disagree (most emphatically! :-)) I think after many (painful !!) years with Pierce Brosnan who IMHO was the worst Bond of all times (Think of “Die Another Day” – what a NONSENSE) I very much appreciate Craig’s way of playing the role. In fact it is very close to the literary Bond who is certainly not a comedian or some sort of Indiana Jones. He is rather – forgive me – a badass and even sometimes a son of a bitch. I am not a big fan of “Skyfall” – this was Bond as a cartoon-like figure.
But I don’t see why a badass Bond should not wear lighter colours. Think of Connery in “Thunderball” – even in his pink gingham check shirt he remains a very smooth and dangerous killer (harpooning Vargas, for instance).