For visiting the office in The World Is Not Enough, James Bond wears a dark charcoal three-piece suit with grey pinstripes. The grey stripes are hardly visible from a distance but give the suit a more business-like look that is most appropriate for London. Though the suit is a Brioni with a strong Roman silhouette, it has many English details, such as slanted pockets and a ticket pocket, double vents and lapels on the six-button waistcoat. And the waistcoat’s lower pockets have flaps, which is a rather country touch for a city suit.
More unusual for a Brioni suit is the jacket’s single-button front, something most people associate with the Savile Row tailor H. Huntsman. The single button gives the suit a dressier look, and in some opinions a flashier look. But on such a dark and staid suit, a single-button front can hardly make this suit flashy.
This suit, along with the majority of the suits in The World Is Not Enough, has darted-front trousers. This film marks the first time Bond has worn a suit with non-pleated trousers since Roger Moore left the role in 1985. But starting in The World is Not Enough Bond wears his non-pleated trousers finished with turn-ups.
The only problem with this suit is that the trousers are worn with a belt. A belt disrupts the flowing line from waistcoat to trousers, and the buckle leaves a bulge. Pierce Brosnan always wears a belt with his three-piece suits not only in the James Bond films but in Remington Steele as well.
Like Sean Connery’s shirts and ties, Pierce Brosnan’s shirts and ties in The World Is Not Enough are also made by Turnbull & Asser. Brosnan’s shirt here is white with a spread collar, front placket and double cuffs. The tie is a colourful woven geometric pattern in red, silver and gold on a black ground, and it’s probably the least Bondian tie in the series. Brosnan brought back the pocket square (something he always wears in Remington Steele) to the Bond films in GoldenEye and he can be seen with a silver silk handkerchief here, puffed rather than folded. This would be Bond’s last pocket square until Quantum of Solace.
The shoes are black wing-tip brogues with six pairs of eyelets. They’re the Douglas model from Church’s. A pair from The World Is Not Enough sold at Christie’s in South Kensington on 14 February 2001 for £1,528. In some shots Brosnan is also wearing black calf penny loafers with this suit.
And here’s a picture of the tie from the Turnbull & Asser website:
I mustve seen this movie a thousand times and even on blu ray I never noticed that his vest had lapels…and I usually notice such things.
Does the one button front make it more formal?
Stuart, it's hard to say. While it can be seen as more formal since it is the style used on a dinner jacket or a black lounge coat to be worn with striped trousers, this suit is not any more formal with one button than it would be if it has two or three buttons.
Interesting, ive always seen it black, tough i wasnt sure because bond is mostly navy or gray rarely black, but makes me wonder if the suit in the spanish bank is also black or is it navy? maybe they wanted to experiment black suits on brosnan this movie…
The suit at the bank is charcoal.
The outfit at the bank is similar to the one in TND in the hotel room.
Ah, this is the suit which I mentioned recently that I hadn’t recalled you posting but I think that that’s just because it was far back in your blog’s history. I agree that, perhaps, the ties isn’t really “Bondian” but I have to admit that I do like it and I actually aspired to a similar one having watched the movie in the cinema at the time!
Anybody know the type of fabric use to cut this suit? My tailor wants to make this suit for me but finding who supplied to the fabric has been a pain in the martini
It’s a typical worsted wool, probably from an English merchant like Holland and Sherry. Finding the exact wool will mean a trip to 1999.
Matt, any clue on the type of lapels in the vest? My prom is in july and i want to emulate this look, i have the tie, and i want my local tailor to tailor me a black vest for my black suit.
The lapels are regular notch lapels. Unless this tailor made your suit and has the same bolt of black cloth the original suit was made from, the black vest won’t match the black suit. Matching different blacks is very risky. Blacks can vary more than you think.
For haters of this tie (and there seem to be many in that club), it’s worth noting it almost didn’t make it in the movie. I have to find the original reference (I think it’s either the Making of TWINE book or James Bond’s London), but I believe Hemming had commented somewhere that originally the Bilbao suit was meant to be worn in the MI6 scenes as well, until it was decided that “some time had passed” between the Bilbao and London scenes.
That means the chevron tie would’ve originally anchored the entire first half of the movie! (apart from the funeral wool knit tie)
Nice bit of trivia, tredstone. A coworker of mine actually had something like this tie, except in more muted earth tones. It was better than the loud tie chosen here (a red tie in the vain of the other, restrained ones worn in this movie would have been better), but still not really to my taste. I’m pretty sure he told me it wasn’t Turnbull & Asser, but I didn’t get the name of the manufacturer. I have no idea why someone would copy this design but in the incorrect colours.
It may have been! T&A did release this tie in multiple (and some truly bizarre) color combinations. Here’s one of the more offensive ones:
https://ibb.co/N2WSHk1
I’ve always theorized that Lindy designed the original tie the way she did because she wanted something that would still have some slight “pop” on the screen even after being completely soaked and muted by river water.
Fascinating. I guess that goes along with the DAD tie that they’ve released in multiple colours. He might have been wrong about it not being T&A, of course, but said that he got it secondhand.
Even if that was the purpose, I can’t count myself a fan of that tie. It looks like it’s not from the same movie when you look at the other outfits.
Tell you this I actually went looking for the wool knit twine funeral necktie and turnbull and asser kept trying to tell me it was the black grenadine necktie. If any necktie is going to be difficult to find its going to be that one …
Was it ever confirmed T&A made that tie?
I never heard of anyone confirming it. In my many travels to vintage shops an older gentleman did tell me that those types of ties are extremely vintage and have a thick feel with a bit of stretch. Mr.spaiser told me the same thing.
By the way thank you for the information on the regent collar being the basis for the twine collar. I will be putting in my order for regent shirt in a couple of weeks.
My offer on the shirt and the Cohiba Gigante stands…
Don’t see too many celebrities wearing the Bond ties, but here’s one with the TWINE tie:
Director Paul Feig: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZxvNkgwO_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link