From his time in the Royal Navy to his traditional business dress in London, black shoes are a significant part of James Bond’s sartorial identity. When Italians wear brown and Americans wear oxblood, the British often reach for black shoes, whether it’s daytime or nighttime.
Loafers are Bond’s original choice of black shoe, starting with Ian Fleming’s novels. In Moonraker Bond wears ‘black casual shoes’ because he ‘abhorred’ laces, and in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, he wears ‘well-polished black moccasin shoes’. These black loafers could take Bond almost anywhere, from his suits to his casual outfits, except he wore black sandals with his suit in Thunderball and he needed climbing boots in the short story ‘For Your Eyes Only’. This follows Fleming’s own shoe preference, as he frequently wore various types of slip-on shoes, from the traditional mocassin-toe loafer to plain-toe slip-ons with elastic, which Sean Connery wore in both shoe and demi-boot forms in his James Bond films.
The black moccasin shoes that Fleming wrote about in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service are the most specific description of a shoe he gave Bond after the ‘nailed Saxones’ Bond wears for golf in Goldfinger. ‘Moccasin’ is a fairly broad term, but it implies that Bond wore slip-on leather shoes with a moccasin toe. The ‘casual shoes’ in Moonraker could be the same pair, but it’s possible they could also be the elastic kind with a plain toe, which Fleming also wore himself.
Black is not the most versatile shoe colour. That title goes to oxblood, a deep burgundy that seemingly complements any colour of trousers, maybe even black. Nevertheless, if Bond is going to have one shoe, it has to be black. Bond wears more cool colours like greys and blues than he wears earth tones, so he can wear his black shoes with most of his wardrobe.
In Moonraker, Bond wears one pair of black loafers with many different outfits in a way that would make the minimalist literary Bond proud. His shoes are a pair of horsebit loafers with a slightly squared apron toe, trim leather soles and a tall heel. The silvery bit is updated with a modernist shape, though Fleming would be unlikely to have approved of any kind of bit on Bond’s shoes. The bit has little effect on the formality of the shoes and merely adds a touch of flashiness. These are smart shoes, but they’re neither particularly casual nor formal. Black slightly raises the formality over dark brown or burgundy, but the overall style is relaxed because it’s a loafer. However, not all loafers are equal, and the contoured last with a neat apron toe them much smarter than a hand-stitched moccasin toe. The shoes are possibly from Ferragamo, who made the smarter black plain-toe slip-ons that he wears with his dinner suit.
Bond’s first outfit, a double-breasted blue blazer with a cream roll-neck and grey flannel trousers, is the one where these shoes are most at home compared to any other outfit in the film. Everything about the look is smart and polished but quite informal. The black shoes pair perfectly with the grey trousers and blue blazer, both cool tones.
The formality again matches perfect with the single-breasted navy blazer, but the colour isn’t ideal with either the fawn or the tan trousers he wears with the blazer. Brown shoes in any shade, preferably a medium to dark brown, would have looked significantly better with both trousers. The black shoes aren’t bad with the cool tones of the fawn trousers and give the outfit a more military look. With the tan trousers, black shoes could work if the blazer were black rather than navy, but the shoes clash without anything any other black in the outfit.
Black shoes, on the other hand, are perfect with the dark grey pinstripe suit at the office and the light grey silk suit in Venice. In the 21st century it has become trendier to wear brown shoes with grey suits, especially light grey suits, but black harmonises with any shade of grey. Tradition would dictate a more formal style of shoe than an apron-toe loafer to wear with suits, especially the three-piece pinstripe suit in London. However, since Bond of the books always wore casual slip-ons with his city suits it follows that the film version of the character can as well.
The light grey silk suit is a less formal suit and, like the blazers, pairs well with smarter bit loafers. The Italian shoe style is also fitting for the Venetian setting.
The shoes are not clearly visible with the cool brown tweed suit at Drax’s estate, but they could be the same black loafers if Bond had not packed any other shoes on his trip to ‘California’. Black shoes would clash with brown tweed, though if the suit were worsted in the same cool shade of brown the black shoes would work. Black shoes have a greater clash with the suit’s brown suede elbow patches. Loafers with a trim sole are a bigger problem with a tweed suit, especially outdoors when sturdy, heavy-soled country shoes like derby brogues or boots are needed for practical reasons. There are possibly no shots of Bond’s shoes with this suit because the costume department did not procure an appropriate shoe in wardrobe for this outfit.
Bond wears dark bit loafers with his cream suit when he arrives in Rio, but they appear dark brown on screen. It’s possible that they are black but with warm lighting that makes them appear brown. They may have only acquired brown shoes by the time of filming this scene, otherwise Bond would likely have worn them with his single-breasted blazer. While brown shoes would be ideal with a pale, warm-toned suit, particularly with the light brown shirt, black shoes would pair well with this suit for the same reason why an ivory dinner jacket looks good with a black bow tie and black trousers. The suit is a shade of white more than it’s an earth tone. While black shoes may not clash with a cream suit, they can look jarring against it because there is too much contrast and black looks too serious with it. Black shoes with a cream suit can give off a flashy playboy look, which would suit Roger Moore’s portrayal of Bond.
Bond also dresses down the black bit loafers with his black half-zip jersey shirt and black worsted trousers. This is a ‘smart casual’ outfit that demands a smart shoe, and while any type of loafer would work, this smarter style of loafer meshes perfectly with the tailored wool trousers. This is as much as one can stylishly dress down such shoes.
Though Bond’s use of these black loafers isn’t always ideal, he demonstrates how they can be worn in practically any setting, from smart casual to business formal. If Bond were not British, he could wear dark brown shoes will every outfit but the all-black casual look. But since he is British, if he can only have one pair of shoes it has to be black.
Somehow, black bit loafers are indeed some of the most versatile shoes that can be worn with anything, from jeans to black tie and anything in between. Of course, wearing them with evening formalwear would be quite unorthodox, but it would be a style choice that’s aesthetically inoffensive, even if certain “rules” are broken.
I find it odd that Fleming consistently uses the term “moccasin”, instead of a “loafer” or slip-on. To me, a moccasin would be a very casual American shoe from a company like LLBean, meant to be worn in rural areas, for hiking or camping. Maybe a classic American “penny loafer” could also be described as a “moccasin”, but certainly not a British city shoe made by a Northamptonshire maker.
Terms change over time, and they can be highly specific to regions and traditions. You can find five different British shoemakers each with a different descriptive name for the same style of shoe, especially when it comes to slip-ons. While have seen apron toes and moccasin toes described as the same thing, there can be a tremendous difference between the two, but Fleming may not be seeing them as any different.
Yeah agreed Matt. Growing up in England pre internet I never heard the term ‘loafers’ they were called mocassins or maybe slip-ons!
Fleming is characteristically vague about Bond’s shoes (as he is about clothes) I still prefer to think of Bond wearing something a bit more robust like an Alden-style Penny loafer rather than the dainty Italian Gucci horsebit style. I realise Alden’s and penny loafers are traditionally American (by way of Norway?) and I have no idea what might have been easily accessible to Bond in mid fifties England, but if he got into a scrap he’d be able to deal a heftier kick in the nuts with some double soled long vamped GYWs rather than if he was wearing Roger’s house slippers!
Fleming didn’t always use the same terms most people would use to describe clothes. He calls Bond’s shirts “sleeveless” instead of short-sleeved; and he uses the term “dark blue” for both Bond’s suits and his shirts, when he likely meant a navy suit and a medium-to-French-blue shirt.
It’s not that Fleming was using different words than “most people”. He was using the British English terminology of his time as Matt and Rod the Mod have pointed out. One needs only look on John Lobb St. James’s website and the names they give the models of their shoes to understand how greatly shoe and menswear terminology has changed.
With respect to Rod’s query regarding what sort of shoes Fleming’s Bond would have available to him in 50s England, one need not look much further than Cary Grant’s footwear in To Catch a Thief (1955). Like Bond, Grant’s Robie wears black penny loafers with his suit:
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They appear to be quite classically English in style, with the only unusual feature being a large extended tongue/vamp (not sure of the correct terminology for that part of a slip-on shoe). I would assume they were made by Grant’s usual bespoke shoemaker, Henry Maxwell of London.
I wonder whether Grant’s tailoring in that film is from Quintero or Kilgour. The suit he wears has a lot of similarities to his famous North by Northwest suit, with some minor concessions to changing trends. However, it has reverse pleats instead of forward English pleats, which makes you wonder if it was an American make instead.
When I think slip on moccasin, I think of the Gucci “Roos” also known as the 1953 leather horse-bit loafer.
Those would’ve already been super popular when Ian Flemming was writing his books.
I suspect the shoes with the cream suit are brown, judging by how clearly black the lady’s shoes are in the back. In the provided shot Moore’s shoes are helpfully in both direct sunlight and in the shade and they look brown in both, so I’d bet that they are just that.
It does beg the question as to why they’re only worn with this one suit, though.
One imagines that it would warm the cockles of the literary Bond’s heart to see his cinematic self stick so resolutely to a single pair of shoes, rather than carry a verifiable wardrobe department along with him (Especially when it comes to the most indefatigably dapper of his screen incarnations).