Pierce Brosnan’s cream herringbone linen suit in The World is Not Enough takes the suit down to a more casual level. Linen is a more casual fabric because of how easily it wrinkles, and this suit has casual details such as patch pockets and a single vent. But it still has the strong Brioni silhouette, with straight shoulders and a clean chest. The suit coat has a button three front and four buttons on the cuffs, with tan corozo buttons. The trousers have double reverse pleats, which surely helped Bond when he was strapped to the torture chair. The trousers have slanted side pockets and two rear pockets. The tapered trouser legs are finished with turn-ups.
Because a linen suit is more casual than most and it’s worn only in warm weather, the absence of a tie is acceptable. Bond’s open-neck, French blue Turnbull & Asser shirt is made in oxford cloth. Though oxford cloth is heavier, the weave breathes well in warm weather. It has a point collar, placket front, and Turnbull & Asser’s signature three-button cuffs. Bond wears light brown monk shoes from Church’s, dark brown socks and a dark brown belt. Actually, the belt looks black to me, but I don’t want to believe that it’s black because that would be a terrible mistake. Ideally, the belt should have been light brown to match the shoes.
The suit and shirt were put up for auction at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, London on 6 March 2007 but did not sell. They sold there at a later auction on 16 June 2009 for £2,400. The auction identifies the shirt material as Sea Island Cotton. The listing incorrectly says the suit was from GoldenEye, but in the pictures it looks identical to the linen suit from The World is Not Enough and does not resemble any suit from GoldenEye. Additionally, if the shirt in the auction is actually the one that Bond wore with the suit, it would have been a Sulka shirt because Turnbull & Asser wasn’t even used in GoldenEye.
Hi Matt,
thanks for the great blog! Enjoying each post.
Taking a closer look at stills from the movie although, I think its a little bit of a stretch believing the belt is brown, especially when compared to the other colors.
And as far as I remember that "rule" is again broken in Quantum of Solace (although with casual clothing). Maybe it isn't followed at all anymore? Also, in my opinion, I'd prefer Bond wearing the suit without a belt at all.
Cheers, Ben
Very elegant and a good example of "casual" working for Bond. In marked contrast to some other less successful attempts at "casual" by some other actors who shall remain nameless.
I agree re: the belt, Matt, as the rest of the ensemble is faultless.
Matching the belt to the shoes is one of the most basic rules of men's clothing. Perhaps we've seen otherwise since Bond has been dressed by women. Anon, I agree that it would be better for the suit to be worn without a belt. But Italian suit trousers are cut with a lower rise that works better with a belt. But both the belt and the lower rise disrupt the flow of the suit.
Lower rise? They look fairly normal or even high by most 2011 standards.
By 2011 standards the rise is high. But by traditional standards I'd say they could use another inch to make it up where Connery's and Moore's suit trousers sat. The rise doesn't look so low because the jacket has a slightly low button stance.
Very nice but… where is his tie?
It was a warmer climate and a linen suit which makes the absence acceptable.
Cool look, and vastly superior to the Beige linen in Diamonds. Brosnan pulls this off with aplomb.
Fabulous suit. How does he keep the creases at bay so well?
Matt , is this suit a pure linen one or a blend ?
Infact , are ANY of the suits in the James Bond series pure linen ?
This suit is pure linen. There are others in the series, like in Diamonds Are Forever and Casino Royale.
The linen suit looks greyer then cream to my eye and it would work better for Brosnan’s cool complexion then a true cream. It almost stone in colour.
Three button shirt cuffs? How excessive.
It’s the signature Turnbull & Asser cuff, they’ve done this for many years.
It looks like this shirt has darts on the back, if I’m not mistaken. We rarely see Pierce without his jacket but there’s a brief glimpse when he’s about to dive after the submarine. (Of at least, the one his stuntman wears has them…).
Not true of the ones he wears in Thomas Crown Affair though…
I recently decided to rewatch the scenes where Bond wears this rather elegant outfit (one of his best casually suited outfits in the entire series for sure) just to be sure if the belt really is black. Correct me if I’m wrong Matt, but is it possible that Brosnan’s belt could be a dark burgundy and not black?
I came to this conclusion as I happen to own a dark burgundy belt that matches my dark burgundy slip-ons and indeed depending on the lighting it almost looks black but in better lighting it looks warmer. I think Bond’s belt looked warmer than black and more like a dark burgundy particularly in the scene when he and Christmas Jones were captured by Elektra’s men (after they were narrowly caught in the explosion) and in the scene when Bond removes his linen suit jacket before diving to the submarine. (This scene in particular: https://www.bondsuits.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-World-Is-Not-Enough-Cream-Linen-Suit-Blue-Shirt.jpg). In some scenes in the submarine even, Bond’s belt looks also closer to dark brown and in others with poor lighting it looks black.