Scaramanga: The White Suit

“He usually wears a white linen suit, black tie, and jewellery, all gold.” Miss Anders described Scaramanga’s dress to Bond after he twisted her arm. Scaramanga’s (Christopher Lee) suit not actually a pure white, but a little off white. The jacket has a button three front, a single vent, three-button cuffs, slanted hip pockets and no breast pocket. The collar is essentially a camp collar, even though it’s a term usually used for shirts. This type of collar was commonly found on leisure suits in the 1970s. Like typical leisure suits, this is also made of polyester, not linen. It is trimmed with mother-of-pearl-effect buttons and a cream satin lining. This jacket was auctioned at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on 6 March 2007 and sold for £5,520.

The cream trousers were also sold at Bonhams, two years later on 16 June 2009 and sold for £480. According to the auction these trousers are wool (with a waffle texture), and since they are not the same material as the jacket the outfit is not actually the suit that Andrea Anders describes. The trousers have a narrow leg, darted front, belt loops (with a belt buckle keeper), a hook closure and plain bottoms. The jacket and the trousers were made by costumiers Bermans & Nathans.

Scaramanga’s cream shirt has a moderate spread collar and double cuffs, worn with gold cuff links of course. The left cuff link becomes the trigger for the golden gun. Scaramanga makes no secret of his admiration for James Bond, and he even has an element of Bond’s dress in his own: the black knitted silk tie. It is the tie of the literary Bond, and Roger Moore wears one off of Scaramanga’s James Bond mannequin in the end of the film. Scaramanga completes his outfit with white shoes.