Moonraker featured Roger Moore’s first three-piece suit as Bond. For next twenty years after this through The World is Not Enough, Bond always visited M’s office in a three-piece suit. The only exception to this is GoldenEye, and that suit was actually made with a waistcoat though it wasn’t used. The three-piece suit in Moonraker is charcoal grey with a narrow white pinstripe, but the pinstripes are so closely spaced that from a distance the suit appears solid. Overall it’s a semi-solid appearance rather than a stripe. Though it’s the first suit of this kind worn by Bond, Roger Moore wore a number of narrow pinstripe suits in The Saint.
The suit is cut like the others from Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me. The suit coat has a two-button front, extra wide lapels, straight shoulder and roped sleeve heads, clean chest, nipped waist and deep double vents. The sleeves have a traditional four-button cuff. The lower pockets are straight with flaps. Apart from the wide lapels the coat has a traditional military-influenced cut, which can also be noted by its longer length. The trousers have a wide leg and are cut with a slight flare. The waistcoat has either five or six buttons but we don’t get to see the bottom. All we can tell is that it doesn’t have lapels.
The shirt from Frank Foster is made of light ecru silk crepe de chine and has a tall, long point collar, Ted Lapidus-inspired tab cuffs and a front placket. Bond’s tie is silver with black stripes (in the British direction) and dots in between, and it is tied with a tight four-in-hand knot and no dimple. Bond wears black Italian-style horsebit loafers from Ferragamo with an apron toe and a tall heel. Some consider any slip-on shoe to be too casual to wear with a suit, especially those in conservative London environments.
He sure loved his moccasins.
I think M has a rather nice pinstripe suit here as well. He also sported a great charcoal suit earlier in the film.
Any chance you will cover either of the two suits?
Do you think the suit is a charcoal grey instead of navy? It looks like it has a blue-ish tint to it.
The suit is charcoal grey. I think the blue tint is a result of the film’s colour grading, which is making both M’s and the Minister’s blue suits both more vivid than they likely are. When colour-correcting this scene, Moore’s suit looks more obviously grey.