Octopussy‘s Kamal Khan, played by French actor Louis Jourdan, is one of the best-dressed villains of the James Bond series. When he’s not wearing a villainous Nehru jacket he’s wearing well-tailored suits, and he dresses for dinner in a classic peak-lapel dinner jacket. The button one black dinner jacket has natural shoulders with roped sleeve heads, and it is cut with a little drape in the chest and gentle waist suppression. It has single-button cuffs, jetted pockets and no vents. The lapels are satin-faced and buttons and trouser stripe match the lapels. The trousers are cut with a straight leg.
Kamal Khan wears a pleat-front shirt with a spread collar and double cuffs, probably made by Frank Foster like Roger Moore’s is. It’s essentially the same shirt as what Bond is also wearing in the scene. He finishes the ensemble with a black satin silk, thistle-shaped bow tie, and a matching cummerbund.
A wonderful outfit, and a timeless classic. As you just wrote, most certainly the best dressed villain of the series. I do have one question, actually: are his cuffs’ single-buttons link-buttons (like on Cyril Castle’s jackets) ?
By the way, since you’ve displayed the same picture twice, I assume you meant to show this picture (to illustrate the shirt and tie) :
http://www.bondsuits.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Kamal-Khan-Dinner-Jacket.jpg
The cuffs are just regular cuffs with one button. Thanks for pointing out the image mistake. I’m not sure what happened there.
Single buttons on the cuff seem a little odd to me. I know it was very Carnaby Street in the 1960s but that presumably isn’t the look that they were going for here. Aren’t more buttons standard on a dinner jacket?
The standard in England for any jacket cuff would be 4 buttons, with some tailors preferring 3.
I recall he wore rather higher-heeled pumps with this outfit.
Who was kamal khan tailor ?
Louis Jourdan was a regular customer of the Parisian tailor Max Evzeline (member of the Groupe des Cinq (Austen, Camps, Waltener, Evzeline. André Bardot)). Some of his outfits (as the tuxedo) come from his personal wardrobe.
Having just watched this film (the most underrated Bond film in the entire series, the tiger hunt notwithstanding), Jordan’s dinner suit here has a nicely worn look. Makes me wonder if it was his personal clothing.
Are the suit and the lapels both midnight blue ?
No, the suit is black, as I wrote.
Do you believe Khan wears braces or side adjusters with this ensemble?
Does he wear patent leather slip on shoes?