Sean Connery’s suits in Goldfinger aren’t the only clothes to have been worn by a James Bond actor in a previous non-Bond film. In Connery’s case, many of his clothes in Goldfinger were originally made for Woman of Straw. During his longest break between Bond films, Roger Moore made an Italian film called Street People in 1976. Though Street People was released half a year before filming in Egypt began for The Spy Who Loved Me, a certain cotton suit jacket from Roger Moore’s Street People wardrobe was reused. That cotton jacket is the tan jacket with safari details that Moore wears in the Cairo and Giza scenes in The Spy Who Loved Me.
In Street People, the cotton jacket was part of a tan suit with matching trousers, possibly made by Angelo Roma, Moore’s tailor at the time. In most cases, suit jackets don’t work well without the matching trousers, but the casual cotton material as well as the sporty safari details make this jacket work well on its own. It may even work better with the stoned-coloured trousers that Moore wears it with in The Spy Who Loved Me. In Street People, the details on the jacket are brought to attention more by the wearing trousers that don’t distract from the jacket (not that the trousers in The Spy Who Loved Me are distracting).
Tan is one of the best colours for a cotton suit since it looks great for warmer weather and fits the suit’s casual material. Tan also looks great with Roger Moore’s warm tan complexion and golden brown hair.
The structured suit jacket could have been made by Angelo Roma since the silhouette is similar to the other suit jackets that Roger Moore wears in both The Spy Who Loved Me and in Street People. It has a clean, trim cut with straight shoulders, roped sleeve heads and a suppressed waist. If the wide lapels don’t make the jacket look dated, the safari-esque details do. It has shoulder straps, a belted back with a deep single vent, belted sleeves, patch hip pockets with flaps and a set-in breast pocket with a flap. The jacket has swelled edges all over to reinforce the garment.
Differing from Roger Moore’s typical suit jackets at the time, the lapels have a slight fishmouth shape and the front quarters are cut closed with the bottom corners only a little rounded. The closed, straight quarters give this jacket a more military look that goes with the safari details. The jacket’s brown buttons are probably made from the Tagua nut which comes from the seed of a tropical palm and is similar to ivory. These buttons are also known as corozo and are commonly used by Italian makers for suit buttons since they can be dyed in colours to match the suit. In brown they go especially well with the safari jacket look.
The suit trousers are similar to the Angelo Roma suit trousers that Roger Moore wears in The Spy Who Loved Me. They have a flat front, no belt loops and wide, flared legs. They differ from Moore’s trousers in his Bond films by having turn-ups. The turn-ups are approximately two inches, but they don’t look so tall because the bottoms of the trouser legs are so wide. Ordinary 1 1/2 inch turn ups would look very short on such a wide hem. Despite the suit being one of the most fashion-forward items Roger Moore has ever worn, it is well tailored and creatively tailored.
Moore wears this suit either with a open-neck cobalt blue shirt or a dark brown polo neck jumper. The cobalt blue shirt has a long point collar, a front placket and cocktail cuffs with a rounded and contoured shape. The shirt is made by Frank Foster. The contoured shape of the cuffs is different from the straighter cocktail cuff design that Foster made for The Man with the Golden Gun and Moonraker before and after this film, respectively, but Foster used to experiment more with cocktail cuff shapes. The collar and collar band shapes on this shirt are very similar to the collars Foster made for The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, but this collar is a little shorter. The shirt’s buttons are shiny medium blue and possibly made of shell. Moore wears the collar button as well as the first three buttons below the collar open. The buttons are spaced a little closer together and higher than on an ordinary shirt, but it’s still a lot of buttons to have open and looks a bit sleazy.
The dark brown ribbed polo neck jumper must be lightweight to be comfortable in the seemingly warm weather in this film. However, even a lightweight jumper looks too heavy to wear with a light cotton suit.
With the suit, Moore wears dark brown socks, except for one shot where light brown socks are visible. His shoes are chestnut brown square-toe slip-ons. Briefly he wears a pair of large plastic oval sunglasses.
This suit epitomizes everything I dislike about the Moore era Bond and his threads. Awful, dated, unflattering … He wouldn’t look out of place standing next to Travolta in the 2001 Odyssey Disco.
Those caricatured high rise trousers paired with the plunging low neck line of that cobalt shirt! For some reason he decided not to go with a gold medallion and some chest hair to complete the 70s look. Truly hideous!
He manages to look a lot better with the jacket in TSWLM. I would guess that he must have really liked it to have had more made for his Bond film.
Actually he would look out a little out of place. If you look at the suits and the cuts in Saturday Night Fever, they are coming down from the very wide style of the early to mid seventies. Not the skinny lapel and tie look yet of 79 or the early eighties, but trending that way. Everything is still wide and flared, but it’s more tapered than the Moore look here. Even the hair is short(er) for the time on Travolta and his posse. The shirts are still open though.
A sporty suit with military/safari features which were popular at the time but have their roots in British tradition but here courtesy of a top Italian tailor so a touch of that Italian flair is present. Whereas in Spy the jacket was worn as a sports coat with shirt and tie (and conversely a slightly more formal look) the (excessively ) open neck shirt and polo neck make the whole look more casual; on account if colour, material and styling, a very casual if impeccably tailored suit. The turn ups on the trousers are, as you say, most unusual for Moore. I can only recall him having worn turn ups on the earlier “Saint” series. “Sleazy” seems a little harsh a description for the way the shirt (a great colour on Moore and most suitable for the outfit as a whole) is worn; rather it’s too fashionable a look, at odds with his usual persona (although he plays an Italian/American here so that’s different) and yes, very much of it’s era, for better or worse, yet, ironically if Daniel Craig were in his 40’s at that time I’ve little doubt that it’d be precisely the look he’d go for!
David M., I agree with your comment to Matt’s 2011 post about the jacket of this suit, worn as a sport coat, in TSWLM. It’s part of a great outfit — and the military flourishes hold up rather well, especially in the context of other 1970s-era excesses. For me, though, the comparison of that outfit with this “Street People” suit shows the importance of not going whole-hog in any fashion-forward direction. The trousers and proper shirt and tie in TSWLM keep the ensemble from being to out there. Put me in the camp of those who find the “Street People” get-up sleazy!
Actually, I think the most fashion-forward part of this outfit are those ridiculously oversized sunglasses. Although I must confess finding the idea of a turn-up with such widely flared trousers quite comical, too.
Otherwise I must say the two outfits are quite interesting -the blue shirt and brown polo neck both go well with the suit material. About the jacket, some features are really too much for me -the shoulders straps and belted sleeves-, but it’s a good example of how to cut well a close-fitting jacket (no, I am not thinking about the Skyfall suits, of course).
Interesting detail about how the front quarters are cut -they are almost straight from the ‘top’ to the bottom, so even Connery’s suit jackets front quarters were more rounded in comparison !
“The horror, the horror”! (Joseph Conrad,”Heart of Darkness”)
Well, it was the mid-70’s, for better and worse. Actually points out how comparatively conservatively Moore dressed as Bond. Though he always seemed to relish giving off the playboy/swinger 70’s vibe.
The rights trouser leg looks long to me. I like a full-break, but dies anyone else think it is too long?
And David, I am sure Craig would be at least as fashionable if he were 45 in ’76!
Yes, I also think his trousers look too long. I am not sure a break or turn-ups work on flared trousers. I think Moore’s flares look cleaner and neater in his Bond films.
The suit is soaked in that picture, so it’s not fair to judge the trouser length by it. In other shots in the film the trouser length is the same as it is in the Bond films.
Ghastly. Moore really lives up to his “oldest swinger in town” and “medallion man” image here
Does anyone know the brand of those oversized sunglasses? To me they look like Persol but if anyone knows a model number I’d be grateful. I think they’re brilliant- classic mid-seventies cool.