Like M, Q wears a black morning coat to Royal Ascot in A View to a Kill. The morning coat has a link closure, which I wrote about in the description of M’s morning coat. Q leaves his morning coat open and the inner button of the link clousure is left dangling, but both the outer and inner buttons are present unlike on M’s coat, which is missing the outer button. There are four buttons on the cuffs, and the coat’s buttons are either plastic or polished horn. Q’s morning coat is cut with natural shoulders, and as usual they are a little too wide for him. Q’s trousers are dark grey striped, though the stripes aren’t as bold as they traditionally should be. They are cut with a high rise and traditional English double forward pleats and have a plain hem.
Many consider the double-breasted waistcoat to be the most elegant style of waistcoat for morning dress, but it’s just as equally appropriate as the single-breasted waistcoat. Q’s taupe waistcoat has six buttons with three to button. The buttons are spaced close together and in a keystone formation. The buttons are mother-of-pearl, which is common for morning dress waistcoats. The waistcoat has peaked lapels, and the peaks are very low on the chest. The bottom of the waistcoat is cut straight across, and the length just covers the waistband of the trousers. The length of the waistcoat is very important because when it’s too long it throws off the proportions of the body, and the right or wrong length is more noticeable in a waistcoat cut straight across the bottom. A shorter waistcoat and high rise trousers is much more flattering than the longer waistcoat and low rise trousers that are seen today.
The khaki knitted tie closely matches to the waistcoat in colour but not in dressiness. A knitted tie is the least formal of all ties and thus isn’t suitable with morning dress, which is the dressiest of daytime clothes that people still wear today. However, khaki knitted ties are worn as part of Royal Artillery service dress, and Q could very well be wearing the tie for that significance.
Q wears a regular white formal shirt with his morning dress, which has an unflatteringly short point collar and double cuffs. Like M, Q also wears a white linen handkerchief in his breast pocket, and he wears his in a straight fold. Q’s shoes are black derbies with an apron toe, and, like his tie, they aren’t as dressy as shoes should be for morning dress. Q follows the others in his group and wears a white carnation in his lapel and a light grey felt top hat with a black ribbon when he is at the race . However, Q is the only man in the bunch who does not wear gloves.
I have two theories about Q’s morning dress. 1) Emma Porteous, the costume designer of AVTAK, was ignorant of what constitutes proper attire for Royal Ascot. 2) Porteous was not ignorant. Rather, she wanted to emphasize Q’s eccentricity – hence the knitted tie.
It’s the outfit I prefer between the 4 ; apart from the fit of the coat that is not perfect-perfect, and the shoes, I think mixing the light brown knitted tie with the taupe waistcoat is rather daring and dapper, and it works pretty well !
Funny how Q’s outftits are so different in the cut in every movie. Once he’s wearing a suit jacket that seems one size too large, and sometimes he just looks great. I think he is wearing a rather well-fitting light grey glen plaid suit in The Living Daylights.
Matt, if you could look into it in the future, that would be appreciated !…