Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) is introduced in Octopussy at Sotheby’s wearing an elegant navy suit. The suit is made by the same tailor who made the dinner suit and grey jacket that he wears later in the film. The suit jacket has straight shoulders with roped sleeve heads, a clean chest and gentle waist suppression. The suit jacket is made in a very minimalist style, with a single-button front, single-button cuffs, jetted pockets and no vent. The jacket’s slightly narrow notch lapels have a long, gentle roll to the single button. The suit trousers are cut with a wide leg and likely have pleats.
The cream shirt is made by Roger Moore’s and the James Bond series’ shirtmaker Frank Foster, and it has a moderate spread collar, large rounded single-button cuffs and a front placket. The satin silk tie is solid navy in almost exactly the same colour as his suit. Khan ties it in a narrow four-in-hand knot in some shots (pictured above) and a square half-windsor knot in other shots (pictured below). Though I ordinarily prefer the four-in-hand knot, this tie looks better in the half-windsor knot because the tie’s interlining appears to be very lightweight. The elegant solid navy suit with a matching navy tie and white shirt recalls the clothes that Sean Connery and George Lazenby wore as James Bond in the 1960s. Khan also wears a white pocket handkerchief like Connery wore, though instead of folding it he puffs it with only a little peaking out of the breast pocket. Khan’s socks and shoes are black.
This monochrome “all blue” suit does not suit everyone, on some persons it might look boring. But Khan is the right one to pull it off – and it flatters his complexion (a typical winter I would assume). In its simplicity it almost looks like black tie.
A blue shirt (and not white like this) should make it a monochrome all-blue outfit, am I right?
But to be honest, this is indeed a real nice outfit(like most of Kamal Khan’s suits).
Great outfit, looks very modern today.
This is certainly the best dressed baddie we’ve had in the series. He carries the suits well with the similar charisma of Sir Roger. As Hardy Aimes said “a man should look as if he had bought his clothes with intelligence, put them together with care and then forgotten all about them”.
I heartily second that. One of my favorites–thanks for finally covering it, Matt.
Timeless and clean clothing are never “boring”.
In 1983 Louis Jordan had 62 years…Wow! it seesms much more young!
When you consider that the French have a sunnier climate and are outside more it is especially surprising.
I’m no sure which knot I like better with his tie.
Although it’s simply my personal taste and not a rule, I believe a tie knot should be as long (or as close as possible) to the length of the collar. Knots half the size of the collar just look silly and imbalanced to me.
So here the four-in-hand has a good length, but you’re right that it’s too thin. The half-windsor does pad it out a bit.
Both have their good and bad elements. A big reason why I like thicker, chunkier ties that make a strong knot, like most of Sir Roger’s.
I noticed in the second picture, all of the men who are seated are wearing thin to medium-width ties and lapels. However, standing in the back are some men who are clearly stuck in the previous decade.
That’s interesting about the different knots. Could it be that one is just a bit tighter and they’re both four-in-hand? I find it odd, unless different people dressed Louis Jordan whilst he slept in the make up chair, that anyone would choose one knot one day, and another the next for the same outfit, character and scene.
He certainly doesn’t look his age and was a brilliant but of casting. The whole film has great casting, even the stunt casting of sports personality Vijay Amritraj works.
The knot in the last picture is much too square too be a four-in-hand, especially with the way the four-in-hand looks in the first picture. The knots look very different for them to be the same knot. I’m assuming that different people tied his tie.
I suppose it is possible the Kamal Kahn’s sartorial resemblence to 1964-era Connery was intentional. Octopussy and Never Say Never Again were to compete directly that summer until production delays pushed NSNA to the fall (probably to the box office benefit of both films). Having the entrance of Octopussy’s villain resemble earlier Bond actors (Connery’s look, though the haircut is Lazenby’s) seems like something the production team might do. The actors playing the other 00 agents in the Gibraltar-located precredits sequence in The Living Daylights were supposedly chosen for their resemblence to Moore and Lazenby. And of course they killed off Blofeld in the opening of For Your Eyes Only seemingly to get a jump on the rival McClory production that was then taking shape.
Jordan’s suit (and the ease with which he wears it) is near perfect. And I would not have guessed he was 7 or so years older than Moore when Octopussy was filmed.
Not seems resemble to Connery and Lazenby to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCs9THK0pSo
Is the shirt Kamala Khan wears in this suit really white, because for some reason, in some photos, I see the shirt as cream sometimes?
Thank you for the correction. It is indeed a cream shirt!
Could it – like Moore’s formal shirts – also be made of silk? Judging from the stills it seems to have the typical sheen of silk.
Yes, it certainly is possible.
Are the shoes slip-ons ?