For The World Is Not Enough, costume designer Lindy Hemming toned down James Bond’s wardrobe and brought back the minimalism of Sean Connery’s suits. The outfit that best exemplifies this is Pierce Brosnan’s grey pick-and-pick suit from Brioni. Pick-and-pick is also known as sharkskin, but don’t confuse this with the polyester blend fabric also called sharkskin. Pick-and-pick is a twill weave made with picks in alternating colours. The suit pictured has alternating picks in light and dark grey. Up close pick-and-pick looks like small zigzagging lines of the two colours in the weave. But from a distance it looks like dark grey with a cross-hatch effect, and it looks far more interesting and elegant than a flat grey.
This suit’s pick-and-pick cloth is from Dormeuil. Below is a diagram of a what the cloth looks like close up:
Like most of Pierce Brosnan’s suits from Brioni, this one has a button three front. Brioni tailors a distinctive built-up shoulder line that is flattering to Brosnan’s physique. However, the jackets were always cut very loose through the body and don’t mesh well with the slimmer trouser leg. This jacket has straight, flapped pockets, double vents and four-button cuffs, and the darted front trousers are belted and finished with turn-ups. The shirt is white with a spread collar and double cuffs. Bond’s shoes are black monks, which will be the topic of the next article.
This suit is worn twice in the movie, each time with a different tie. The first tie is dark blue and light brown in a pointed twill weave, made by Turnbull & Asser. It’s the same tie as in the Bilbao scenes. The second tie has a warm, dark blue ground with a neat pattern of light brown ticks. Below is a picture of the back of the tie, now identified as from Herbie Frogg. Both ties are a mix of blue and brown, which is a favourite combination of Lindy Hemming on Pierce Brosnan. The blue and brown of the ties mix together to a neutral to complement the grey suit.
The second tie might be from Benson & Clegg, but I'm not sure about it.
What a great blog, I just discovered it from Clothes on Film. You can check out my Bond blog at http://affordablebond007.blogspot.com/
After over 10 years of guessing, it has been confirmed that the TWINE "pipeline tie" was made by Herbie Frogg: http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/35802/dunhill-cufflinks/
Thanks Brandon! That's definitely a H. Frogg label.
They did a better job in this movie than others with Brosnan.
I love this suit, one of my favorites. I own a very similar one from Brioni, except mine has a two button jacket and ticket pocket. This movie is one of Brosnan's finest, sartorially speaking.
A very good suit, and it looks its best with the black herringbone tie. And as noted, it's a nice throwback to the suits of Sean Connery
Very strange cufflinks worn in the pipeline. Check this out:
http://affordablebond007.blogspot.com/2010/07/twine-pipeline-cufflinks.html
This was Brosnan’s peak Bond film, in my opinion. However, the collar of the shirt is not a traditional Turnbull and Asser collar. When I spoke to the shirt cutter at Turnbull and Asser in beverly hills, he informed that the collar of the shirt was slight taller than the traditional Turnbull Asser collar. I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this, seeing as how the minimum number of shirts to order from T&A is six and they are very expensive and my tailor can do an equally just as good of a job , but wont charge me a mortgage payment.
This collar spread also looks wider than the classic T&A collar. It has less tie space than the classic collar but the same outer curve.
Hi Matt,
Can you expand a little bit on the T&A shirt worn here? Is it poplin, royal oxford, etc?
I am unable to tell because white doesn’t show the fine texture of royal oxford very well. It could be royal oxford, as many of of Brosnan’s white shirts are that. If not, it’s poplin.
Maybe once there’s a 4k UHD release of the Bond movies we’ll be able to tell. Right now on iTunes they have 4k versions for streaming, although in my opinion it’s a compressed version that doesn’t even meet Blu-ray quality in some areas.
Hey, so you’ve revised the article to say the pick-and-pick is light and dark grey, rather than some combination of blue and brown. What managed to change your evaluation?
I discovered official materials that described the suit as grey.
>> darted front trousers
Is that another way of saying single pleat?
No, darts are like pleats that are sewn shut. You can read more about them here: https://www.bondsuits.com/darted-trousers/
https://ibb.co/CzTnWrV
What do you guys think, is this the pipeline Herbie Frogg tie?
Pic looks to be pre-TWINE… wonder if this might be another example of Pierce contributing something to the wardrobe? (Hence it being an atypical brand for Hemming, much like the GJ cufflinks)
That isn’t the right colour for the pipeline tie.
Apparently, Herbie Frogg ties were made by Turnbull & Asser, so the choice was not as unusual as it seems.
Matt, could you venture a guess as to the weight of this suit cloth? Thanks!
It’s likely Dormeuil’s usual 9 oz/260 g.
Would a sharkskin cloth made with black and white threads have the same overall color as one made with light and dark grey threads, or would one cloth be darker than the other ?
Yes, the colour overall should be the same, but it may seem darker without the white threads.
Could a pick and pick cloth look a bit like a serge if you are not that close to it ?
Not usually. Serge usually looks more flat while pick-and-pick is much livelier.
Would you say that this suit here or the grey sharkskin suit from From Russia with Love (https://www.bondsuits.com/somersets-grey-pick-and-pick-suit-in-from-russia-with-love/) is more “medium/middle of the road” grey?
They’re roughly the same and both are a little darker than a perfect mid-grey. The Skyfall pick-and-pick suit is closer to a mid-grey, but it has a warmer cast. https://www.bondsuits.com/the-skyfall-grey-pick-and-pick-suit/
Thanks. After looking at these and the Skyfall suit, I think the one in FRWL or the one shown here would be more versatile/better for business, even if they aren’t exactly medium grey. The Skyfall one (poor fit notwithstanding) is a bit too “shiny” for my taste.
You mention a slimmer trousers leg in TWINE (and DAD I guess). What would you say is the trousers width at the bottom ? Also how long would you say the jacket back is (including collar) ? Thanks !
The hem is about 16.5 to 17 inches around. It’s difficult to say what the jacket length is since I don’t know how Pierce is proportioned.
What would the trouser hem have been on the GE trousers?
I would guess it’s about 17 to 17.5 inches.
Interesting. Most trousers in the mid-90s would have been around 18-19 inch hem in my experience.