As Bond clothing fans, we may desire to wear the same clothes that James Bond wore. I personally use Bond as a guide for my wardrobe, although I rarely seek perfect replicas of what Bond wears and often look to combine Bond’s style with my own. I look to Bond for both inspiration and a seal of approval when I’m interested in a clothing item. Most of what Bond wears is no longer made, so we look for replicas. Some people look for screen-accurate replicas, while others are more interested in updated replicas that fit better with contemporary fashions or with their own tastes.
Bond has worn clothes by many world-class clothiers, especially bespoke tailors and shirtmakers. To replicate these clothes requires as much talent as that of the artisans who originally made the clothes. This kind of talent is rare. The clothes have many intricacies in style and fit that necessitate immense skill, certain training and experience, and a good eye to copy. Those with this level of talent usually have their own ideas, and their ideas should be respected. Those who have the talent to accurately replicate Bond’s clothes may not want to replicate Bond’s clothes because it doesn’t align with their own brand and their own vision. Those without their own vision are rarely talented enough to accurately replicate what James Bond wears. This is a paradox to overcome when looking for someone who can replicate the clothes we love, but there are still people and brands who are able to replicate Bond’s clothes.
Authenticity is an important concept when looking for replicas of Bond clothes. Authenticity exists in many areas, and not just whether or not the replica is a perfect match for what’s on screen.
Going to the original brands that made Bond’s clothes is usually the best way to get the most authentic replicas, but these brands may not always be able to come through with accurate reproductions. They may not offer the same clothes now that they did when Bond wore them. Maybe the product was discontinued, or the product has seen modifications from season to season. Brands change and evolve, and the updated product may be more aligned with the brand today. Brands desire to stay true to who they are in the present, and sometimes it means moving on from the past.
Anthony Sinclair is a brand that goes out of its way to replicate what James Bond wore. It’s a brand that today, along with its parent company Mason & Sons, is all about history and heritage. All of their products reference what we love about the past, which is much needed at a time when many of us are uninspired by what’s new and mainstream in the fashion industry. Brands too often forget their history and what once made them great, instead believing they’ll find more success in following the latest trends at the expense of their own identity.
The original Anthony Sinclair suits that Sean Connery wore as James Bond were made bespoke, and bespoke is the only accurate way that the modern iteration of Anthony Sinclair can replicate Connery’s clothes today. Bespoke is the traditional and unique English bespoke tailoring method that the originals were made with. However, Anthony Sinclair himself is no longer around and someone else is cutting the suits. A well-trained cutter in the Savile Row style can cut a suit very similarly to how Anthony Sinclair cut, but cutting is just as much an art as it is a science, and the artistic aspect means that there will be a signature in the cut that nobody else can copy. Anthony Sinclair also offer made-to-measure, which can come extremely close to the original, but it lacks some of what makes the bespoke suits special in fit, style and silhouette.
Clothing design isn’t copyrightable except for prints and patterns on the surface of clothes. One could replicate a suit, a jacket or a shirt without being successfully sued. A Savile Row style of tailoring like Anthony Sinclair made is practised by many tailors in London and by a few others throughout the world. There are many minute variations on Savile Row tailoring, but nothing Anthony Sinclair did in his tailoring was exclusive to him. The same goes for the other British tailors who dressed James Bond. They each have their own way of blending different details and features in their suits, but nothing can be pinpointed as unique to one tailor. When tailors were creating innovative designs with their suits in London in the 1960s and 1970s, as Roger Moore’s tailor Cyril Castle did, they were all copying each other. The unique traits of each tailor are mainly found in the subtlety of the shape, something that is difficult to define.
Shirtmaker and tiemaker Turnbull & Asser have relatively recently started replicating James Bond’s shirts and ties in their ready-to-wear collection, with varying degrees of accuracy. They’ve also become more willing to replicate James Bond’s shirts in bespoke than they have been in the past. They don’t have patterns from Sean Connery’s original James Bond films, only the patterns from Never Say Never Again (with incomplete information on how to make the cuff), but they did a very good job replicating the Dr. No shirt collar and cuff. Some details, like the collar and placket interfacings, follow their modern standards rather than how they made shirts in the 1960s and 1970s, but in bespoke, they can make them more like they did in Connery’s Bond era. Most of the Pierce Brosnan-era shirts are more accurate because they’re closer to how shirts are made now, but there are a few details that are 99% accurate rather than 100%. They still make the Casino Royale dress shirt in accurate form. Nobody else can make a replica of the original shirts that they made for Bond as closely as they can, even when they don’t get things 100% right. Most of their Bond ties are accurate to the originals, with some exceptions. They’re still the most authentic place to get the Bond ties they originally made.
Turnbull & Asser are the quintessential English shirt and tie maker. Many other London shirtmakers, from their Jermyn Street neighbours to shirtmakers in Savile Row and beyond, make shirts in similar styles. Some fine details, like the way the narrow placket is stitched about 3/8-inch from the edge, are shared amongst English shirtmakers. Like with tailoring, English shirtmaking varies in the subtleties of shape, but the overall style remains consistent from one shirtmaker to the next when making at a similarly high level. The classic ties Turnbull & Asser made for James Bond in silk grenadine and knitted silk, are available from clothiers all over London and the rest of the world.
If a brand or artisan is making a replica of someone else’s original work, authenticity can mean an interpretation that is authentic to who is making the replica. Orlebar Brown and N.Peal have made many replicas of classic Bond styles, and authenticity is a combination of aligning the original with their own brands. Few of the 007 items from these two brands—apart from the items they originally made for the Bond films—look the same as the original, and that’s because these brands are not in the business of making replicas of someone else’s clothes. They’re interested in using Bond as inspiration to make something uniquely their own.
When asking a bespoke clothier to replicate a Bond item, consider how close the Bond item is to their house style. If they don’t already produce similar clothes, they may not be the right ones to ask to make a replica. These artisans should be respected for their own style and for how they make clothes. While a client should state their preferences, it’s disrespectful to micromanage how they approach creating a replica because they have their own methods and their own artistic sense. They want the clothes they make to look like their own, not a replica of what someone else makes. Like any kind of artist, a clothing maker gets ahead by making their own mark on the world.
There’s also a concept of wearing clothes that are authentic to ourselves. We are not James Bond, and replicas of his clothes may not be right for us. Most of us won’t look like James Bond in his clothes. The people at shirtmaker Frank Foster don’t believe that Roger Moore’s large collars are right for me because I’m much smaller than Roger Moore. And as much as I love those collars, the large collars probably aren’t right for me because they would overpower my face and frame, especially if I’m wearing them buttoned up with a tie. The collars they usually make for me are still larger than the average English collar, which I appreciate.
While the shape of a tie or bow tie is free to be copied, the pattern on the surface of a tie is copyrightable. There are makers who replicate the patterns of Bond’s ties, and I personally have no problem with replicas being made as long as the original maker is no longer making the original tie.
I believe that when a clothing maker has a unique signature style, it should not be copied as long as the original maker is still producing it. The Classic Turnbull & Asser collar, which Bond wears on his dress shirt in Die Another Day, is such a unique and recognisable shape due to the curve of its outer edge that copying it is like counterfeiting a shirt rather than simply making an English-style shirt. Replicating Frank Foster’s signature shirt placket that is stitched close to the centre would likewise be like making a counterfeit. Most of Bond’s clothes do not have features that are highly unique to the original makers. Most aspects of Bond’s clothes that are unique to them, like the shape of a Tom Ford suit, are so difficult to replicate that when copied may still not look the same. I also see nothing wrong with copying a Tom Ford suit, as their suits are themselves variations on Tommy Nutter suit designs. When an original item is so expensive, it leaves room in the market for a budget alternative. A budget alternative that’s a fraction of the price of the original is not competing with the original, and it’s not usually matching the quality of the original either.
Another excellent article, thank you!
Surprised not to see more comments on this one already.
A very good article. For me, the dress designs of the Bond girls are almost certainly not able to be purchased from the original makers due to the vagaries of women’s fashion, with the exception of Paloma’s. (Even then, I have difficulty with the idea of spending $1300 for a little satin silk number when they won’t even make certain sizes, the same issue I have with Tom Ford’s clothing to be honest.)
Dressmaking is not dissimilar to what you discussed, it’s a combination of all sorts of ideas over the years. But there’s probably going to be a heated discussion over whether it’s ethical to make a lower-priced replica of a Michael Lo Sordo design within the women’s clothing community. Personally, I see no issue with having a replica of the Baroness Franka Stael Von Holstein design from The Spy Who Loved Me, given the original is no longer made, it was almost 50 years ago, and it was modified by costume designer Ronald Patterson to have the Swarovski crystals which made it iconic to begin with.
While I don’t know a lot about dress design, they can certainly be far more unique than most men’s clothes. Copying a highly unique design that is still produced by the original designer doesn’t seen ethical to me, but I think it’s fair game if it’s not made anymore.
I always catch myself looking in awe at the perfect fit of that dinner suit! Once upon a time I used to try to perfectly copy Bond outfits, but now I prefer to make it mine. That said, I love my three button grey sharkskin suit, ala Brosnan in TWINE, but since that’s such a classic I give myself the pass.
I agree, Matt. I also think fans are sometimes too slavish about copying particular looks, rather than thinking about how Bond dresses/chooses his clothing, and figuring out how they can replicate that process for themselves.
Whilst we all have our favourite looks from the series, and there is no harm in replicating them for our own enjoyment, its also good to have the flexibility to interpret and apply Bond’s dressing approach in our own way.
I’ve often been bemused – basically from the early 2000s to now (so from late Brosnan through the whole Craig era) – that whenever a new Bond film comes out and there’s some cool new look, outfit or clothing item for Bond featured, fans fall over themselves to source the item (often at great expense) and the item inevitably sells out or was only ever part of a limited run, so then goes for heaps on the secondary market. (I admit to being caught up in this process once or twice myself). It’s funny to me because the desirability for that item or ensemble probably didn’t exist before the costume designer dreamt it up and some good on-set or action photos were taken. But when it is something that really captures the imagination and expresses one of the essences of Bond (whether formal or casual), then in most cases it means the costume designer has either interpreted and applied the Bondian style guidelines and principles you regularly discuss, or they are diving into the history of the Bond films to bring something back in perhaps a slightly different way. This is something we can all do.
And that’s where knowing the heritage brands and knowing the Bondian style guidelines and principles can support us to make our own new – but legitimately Bondian – outfits without having to follow a screenshot.
This is a lesson I’ll admit to learning the hard way. My first custom suit was a budget copy of the “Goldfinger” suit, right down to the waistcoat lapels, and it looked like cosplay. (It didn’t fit me, either, but that’s another story.) My more recent custom suits aren’t direct copies of any Bond outfit, but are more inspired by Roger Moore’s Hayward suits in his 80’s Bond movies. In a time and place where wearing *any* suit will make you stick out, it’s enough just to have a suit unique only in how well it fits you. Pleats, turn-ups, surgeon’s cuffs, ticket pockets – it’s all gravy.
The dinner suit with peaked lapels looks superb on you and, in my opinion, a better look than the shawl collar.
A good recap of your previous articles and great photography as always! Although I have bought only limited articles from Mason Sons (shirts and ties) it would useful to know your opinion of who makes the best close replicas to 60s Bond style today? Do you still swear by M&S and T&A and Foster or are there others in America just as capable?
Wishing you happy holidays, Michel.
The Anthony Sinclair suits from Mason & Sons are the closest replicas to 60s Bond suits, especially in bespoke. Other English bespoke tailors can get close too. Their made-to-measure suits can approximate the look very well in my experience, but it’s not the same. I don’t know of any place that does made-to-measure with a closer look. Turnbull & Asser and Frank Foster also do the older look very well, especially now that Turnbull & Asser have replicated the Connery cuff and now have it available, along with their approximation of the Connery collar (New Regent) available in made-to-measure as well as bespoke. Frank Foster still do things similarly to how they did things in the 1960s. In America, I know of a few English tailors, but none capture the Bond look in the same as Anthony Sinclair and a few others in England. I did get a blazer from Alan David Custom, and while I copied some of Roger Moore’s 1970s looks, if the lapels were narrowerer the silhouette would have the Connery look. The biggest difference is in the canvas, which is much softer and lighter with Alan David and has an Italian feel. The trouser silhouette they gave me is fairly American. I’m not sure if they know how to make it more English.
I enjoy old and current Turnbull & Asser shirts immensely, but regarding suits, sports coats and outerwear, second hand has became a paradise to me. Vintage Savile Row and vintage Brioni stuff are my favorites and are both quite affordable and easy to find, available in many sizes and in many different kind of suitings and jacketings. Vintage Savile Row (or off Row of course) is a great way to discover the English drape cut and old English fabrics, which are way heavier than today’s and drape extremely well. Vintage Brioni (before being bought by Kering in 2011) and vintage Italian bespoke I especially like for the fineness of the handwork and the way they cut their lapels, as well as their shoulder line. There’s something for every taste. Structure and clean, strong lines ? Go for tailoring from Milan to Rome. Want a softer, lighter look ? Go check Neapolitan and Sicilian tailors. Being French, I also have to mention French bespoke in second hand is really an excellent deal as well, French tailors being obsessed with the attention to detail -and their famous Parisian gorge, but its not something present constantly. As long as you have a good alteration tailor, and ask for reasonable alterations -the less the better-, you can develop quickly a whole qualitative wardrobe without paying the price you would pay for, let’s say, a made to measure item. It’s also a great way to try a particular look or a bold pattern without worrying too much about the financial aspect. For example, you can try a 1970s bespoke sports coat with a bold check and realize the look suits you perfectly, even though you always thought it would not !
I wish everyone who talks about James Bond “clothing” and “lifestyle” internalised this article.
I agree with you Matt, I too am sick of clothing that only replicates James Bond 99%. For my tastes, I demand 100% accuracy, and anything less gets dumped in the refuse bin and I threaten a lawsuit against the shameful clothier.
I think you missed the point I’m making that a 100% perfect replica is not needed for authenticity.