For The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Frank Foster made Roger Moore’s shirts with a special kind of cuff: the tab cuff. Foster calls it the “Lapidus cuff”, after the French fashion designer Ted Lapidus who invented this cuff. The Lapidus cuff is a square barrel cuff with an extended tab to fasten the cuff. Though there doesn’t appear to be any special benefit to the cuff design, the Lapidus cuff pivots in a unique way compared to typical single-button cuffs.
Roger Moore wears his Lapidus cuff shirts with his suits and sports coats in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, as well as with his dinner suit in the former film. Moore’s Lapidus cuffs are stitched 1/4 inch from the edge all around, but on my own lilac pinpoint example from Frank Foster (see below) the tab portion is stitched on the edge whilst the rest of the cuff has regular 1/4 inch stitching. Foster puts a 25 ligne button on the cuff instead of the typical 16 ligne button, which makes the cuff stand out more than it already would. This large button makes the cuff slightly less formal than an ordinary single-button cuff, but it can be worn anywhere that a normal button cuff is appropriate. An unconventional shirt cuff is a rather subtle—but also unique—way to make a fashion statement.
Dear Matt,
I remember seeing Ted Lapidus shirts in the late 90s in Paris with that cuff. But I have not seen them since and regret not buying then.
Strategically, the Ted Lapidus company has followed the same path as Pierre Cardin with plenty of licencing.
Regards,
Wow, I never noticed that before. Interesting design, although I don’t think that I’d ever wear it with a suit. While a cocktail cuff (IMHO) adds a bit of dash and formality to a shirt (it gets it closer to a French cuff but not quite) this appears to me to dress down the shirt. I can see this really working on a shirt that has flapped breast pockets or epaulets. On a dress shirt it seems a bit at odds with itself. Of course, with an outfit worn in a setting such as hunting it could seem more appropriate.
A very interesting style, although I don’t particarly care for it with a suit and would not wear it that way myself. Nevertheless, the sartorial appeal of Roger Moore’s Bond for me is that he was not afraid to experiment and he almost always did so within the confines of good taste.
I don’t care for this style of cuff. It’s just a flashy barrel cuff.
Robert De Niro wore shirts with these same cuffs in Casino.
I take it your feelings towards this cuff design have softened since you reviewed it for Moore’s dinner suit in The Spy Who Loved Me, where you couldn’t see the appeal of it. It is an interesting but I’m not sure it adds much to the normal barrel cuff. It certainly fits better with the less formal shooting outfit than the dinner jacket.
No real inclinations towards the cuff one way or the other. To me it has a little military flair to it.
Hmmm, so it was in The Spy Who Loved Me, and was called Lapidus?
“Did you notice the shape of her cuffs?”
“There’s no record of this shirt being worn anywhere in the last 18 months.”
etc.
I do appreciate why this cuff style could be deemed by some to be a little affected and I suppose you either like it or you don’t. If one is going this route then my preference is probably for the cocktail cuff (it’s almost indelibly associated with Bond by now). Having said all that, I have ordered some shirts with this particular cuff style, some from an order I placed with Frank Foster over a year ago (and which I’m assured will arrive in the next weeks!) plus a couple from an initial order with Hemrajani/MyTailor (who Matt got these shirts from; https://www.bondsuits.com/?p=3797) which I expect will still arrive quicker than Foster’s!
Still, it’s an interesting style to have in ones wardrobe for the sake of diversity and like Foster and his cocktail cuff it seems to be the invention of Ted Lapidus himself. According to this article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4046652/Ted-Lapidus.html) Lapidus set up a store in Bond Street in 1975, a year before the first of Moore’s shirts with this cuff style were first seen on film so I’m sure he must have been an influence for both Moore and Foster and I’m guessing Moore may have been Foster’s first client to request the style.
For me, the larger button dimension enhances the cuff, as a regular sized button might look a little lost and for what it’s worth I think it’s fine for suits and sports coats etc. but with a dinner jacket it’s not really formal enough. This is probably why they reverted to the cocktail cuff with the dinner suit in “Moonraker”. I must watch out for De Niro’s in “Casino”. I wonder who produced these?
I saw a royal wedding in a magazine where one of the members of the wedding party was a cuff with the watch embedded into the cuff and all you could see was the face of the watch. I asked my tailor and he said he knew of that cuff but was unable to do it,, would anyone know the name of it?
Saul…
http://angelogalasso-giovanniagnelli.com
Dan,
If we ever meet, the first round is on me…
best,
Saul
Interestingly, I saw a British TV presenter, Bruce Forsyth, wearing these cuffs today. Here’s the only picture I could find though: http://pigeonproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_0697.jpg You can see them just peeking out of his suit.
Forsyth always looks really good, clothing wise, is it possible his shirts are Frank Foster?
A better image here too: http://www.tvcream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/didnttheydowell.jpg Looks like the buttons might be some kind of colour different to the shirt.
Foster is a possibility, though the tab on Forsyth’s cuffs looks shorter. They could be from Lapidus.
Johnny Carson also used these cuffs, even during 2 of his shows with guest Roger Moore
Great INFO — like the cocktail cuff, never knew about this one either.
I’m looking for a tailor that can produce a shirt with lapidus cuff. Besides Frank Foster gave you had any other tailors that you have used for shirts with this cuff. I’d really love to have a fde
I have never seen any other shirtmakers do this cuff except Tom Ford, who offer variation on it in made to measure. Any good bespoke shirtmaker should be able to make it, though apparently it’s very challenging to sew because of the angles.