Today is Roger Moore’s 84th birthday and we will be looking at his classic riding ensemble from A View to a Kill. The outfit closely resembles Connery’s country outfit in Goldfinger. Moore wears a very similar button two brown barleycorn tweed sports coat, but this one does not have hacking pockets despite its intended equestrian use. The pockets are straight and include a ticket pocket. But the jacket does have a single vent, which is most practical on horseback since it splits evenly over the back of the horse. Also, though the tweed cloth on Moore’s jacket is similar to Connery’s, especially in colour, the barleycorn pattern is slightly different. Moore’s barleycorn is actually a broken twill, which changes direction every two warp yarns. See the pattern below.
If you look closely at the jacket’s lapels you’ll see that they are not typical notch lapels. This type of angled notch lapel is known as cran Necker and often found in Parisian tailoring. The scenes at Zorin’s estate were filmed in France and it’s possible that this jacket came from a French source. Though the jacket has soft shoulders with roped sleeve heads, a clean chest and a low button stance like Douglas Hayward—Moore’s usual tailor at the time—makes, there are difference with Hayward’s usual jackets. The shoulders are narrower, the lapels have a gentler roll and the pocket flaps are more rounded. The rounded pocket flaps can also be found on the tan suit that Moore wears later in the film. Still, it’s possible that Hayward made this jacket.
Bond wears an ecru shirt made by Frank Foster with a spread collar, front placket stitched close to the centre and deep, rounded one-button cuffs. His tie is a yellow wool knit, tied in a four-in-hand knot that gives it the long shape. His trousers are dark brown jodhpurs, which tuck inside his tall black leather riding boots.
Completing the ensemble are a brown velvet riding helmet and gloves in beige ribbed knit wool and brown leather. This outfit is the last James Bond wears in A View to a Kill as his alias St. John Smythe.
It is indeed a very French style of lapel, popularized by tailors Camps de Lucca and more famously Smalto. French Premier, François Fillon is an adept of the style with his impeccable tailored suits and jackets from Rive Gauche maker Arnys. His suits and style look very British to a Frenchman (mainly because of ticket and slanted pockets and nipped waist and his choice of ties and shirts) and he is a known Anglophile, but those lapels and bright red Gamarelli socks give him a more continental look. Dormeuil, my personal purveyor, had them on their 2004 to 2006 suits.
Are cran necker lapels wider or less wider than traditional lapels?
The width has nothing to do with this style lapel.
Thanks for that article, I really like this ensemble. The last picture is very interesting, beacause it shows Roger Moore’s personal watch : a Rolex datejust with Jubilee bracelet. Much more beautiful than Bond’s official watch, wich was an ugly Seiko !
Hate to nitpick over comments, however, Bond is still wearing his Seiko in this scene. While this does resemble the Rolex style, Seiko provided production with various different models for Bond to wear in this film.
I’ve been looking at this watch more, and it is indeed a Rolex Datejust as Adrien says. A very similar Seiko is in the previous scene.
Really nice outfit!
I dont know the rules about dressing for horseback riding, but wouldnt it be nicer of he had brown boots to match the gloves?
I actually had a pair of gloves that looked exactly like that, my favourite pair ever. Unfourtunatly I lost them somhow.
From what I can tell, those high gloss riding boots come in almost no colour besides black.
They are solid black. Unless the only other distinctive feature is the brass buckle.
The coat clearly does have a ticket pocket; do the pockets not qualify as “hacking pockets” because they are not slanted?
Hacking pockets mean that the pockets have a steep slant and have nothing to do with the presence of a ticket pocket.
Isn’t a silk tie one where there is a flat blade rather than a point on it?
Secondly, the jacket is button 2.
Thirdly, Moore almost always tied his ties in a four in hand.
A silk tie is made of silk. You must be thinking of knitted ties, which this is one. It’s a wool knit, which has the straight-hemmed ends.
I mentioned in the post that this is a button two jacket and the tie is in a four in hand knot.
The wool knit tie doesn’t have the v shaped point.
I confused the silk tie with the knotted tie re: the straight hemmed ends.
Does soft shoulders mean less padding?
Yes, it means that the shoulder have little or no padding.