James Bond’s choice of bronze and blue tie made sense after he donned a fawn-coloured cashmere overcoat over his blue birdseye suit for his arrival in Hamburg, Germany in Tomorrow Never Dies. The overcoat is more than just an afterthought. Typically one doesn’t coordinate his overcoat with the tie, but costume designer Lindy Hemming saw the overcoat as an integral part of the outfit. The full-length coat is tailored by Brioni with softly-padded shoulders and a full cut through the body.
The double-breasted coat has six buttons on the front in a button two, show three configuration. The button two style of the coat is more formal than one that buttons to the top, and the button stance is very low to match the low stance of the suit jacket, while it helps to show off more of the suit. The lapels are peaked with a buttonhole in each, the pockets are straight with flaps, and the cuffs have four buttons.
I wasn't impressed with this look. The overcoat seems too flashy, especially when compared with the understated elegance of Moore's magnificent Chesterfield in LALD.
The tie looks much better when matched with this coat. Very nice coat, but it is also quite flashy and obviously extremely pricey. I too prefer Moore's coat from Live and Let Die, or Connery's from Dr. No and Thunderball.
the overcoat looks great. Moore's overcoat in LALD is too short.
I've been enjoying this blog for some time now, but there's something lacking — your commentary.
I'd love to hear _your_ take on the clothing choices, how they fit into the time (and the story) and how they hold up. We've heard some, and, if you could just cut Dalton a break, it'd be great to get more opinions.
^^ I concur.
I'd also like to hear more of your opinions, Matt.
The overall look of the coat might be improved if buttoned??
Surely the overcoat should be "an integral part of the outfit". In thia case I don't see it as such, but as it is double-breasted it should be buttoned.
I think matching the tie with the overcoat is too affected.
On the other hand, he is undercover as a wealthy banker (so as to get into Carver's party later that night), so the flashy overcoat being matched to the tie might actually be considered a subtle quirk for his "character".
looking at the picture where you can see the shoes, the overall look is to flashy/stunning, matt isn’t he wearing to many colors? navy, black, brown and copper?
It’s actually very few colours. It’s mostly blue and light brown. Those are the colours in the suit, tie and overcoat. Black shoes and a cream shirt are neutral and really don’t add to the colour count. Black shoes are the standard and the cream shirt harmonizes well with the light brown in the tie. It’s not uncommon for a sports coat to have more colours in it than this whole outfit.
Does Bond change his shirt from Cream to white when he wears this coat? Or are my eyes playing tricks on me?
No, the shirt is still cream.
I noticed that some of the comments think this overcoat is flashy, but not as flashy as Q’s red sport coat.
Speaking about Q I think I noticed a belt imprint underneath his sweater vest. I know that you should never where a belt with a 3 piece suit, but does that same rule apply on a sweater vest?
Q is wearing a uniform, so that’s a good excuse. A belt is better under a sweater vest than a waistcoat but still not ideal.
Could you review Q’s Uniform outfit in the future please.
Are there any brands that still sell these style of full length overcoats RTW? This seems to have sadly died out since the early 2000s.
I don’t know. You’d probably have to get made-to-measure, just make sure the button-stance is positioned properly since the buttons will need to be higher than they are used to being in proportion to shorter coats.