The single-breasted suit with peaked lapels is uncommon in James Bond’s wardrobe, but most of the actors who have played Bond have worn it in other roles. Peaked lapels—or peak lapel, pointed lapel or double-breasted lapel—are typically found on double-breasted jackets and coats. It likely originated from the functional Ulster collar that is found on double-breasted coats like the greatcoat and pea coat. The peaked lapel is a formal style because it’s more decorative than functional. When the lapels fold over each other, the peaks come together awkwardly, not neatly like notched lapels or an Ulster collar.
The single-breasted jacket and coat most commonly take notched lapels, since it’s the natural shape that the revers form when not folded. On single-breasted jackets and coats, peaked lapels are traditionally found on formal garments such as dinner jackets and morning coats, not suits or odd jackets. Even though it was never the standard style, the single-breasted suit with peaked lapels still has a long history. It was trendy in the 1930s-1950s. British politician Anthony Eden famously wore the style then, as did the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. Desi Arnaz wore it as Ricky Ricardo in the mid 1950s on I Love Lucy. Savile Row designer Tommy Nutter brought it back in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, but it didn’t take off as a mainstream style. Nutter’s tailors Edward Sexton, Roy Chittleborough and Joe Morgan continued this style with their own London tailoring films, as did Andrew Ramroop through Maurice Sedwell. Roger Moore wore a few suits in the 1970s inspired by Nutter in The Persuaders! and in Street People, but it was never a staple of his wardrobe.
The single-breasted peaked-lapel suit was not common in the 1980s and 1990s, but it wasn’t absent either. Pierce Brosnan wears such a suit in a charcoal chalk stripe with large shoulders in Remington Steele starting in late 1983, giving off the full power suit look. Michael Douglas more famously wears a charcoal single-breasted peaked-lapel suit in Wall Street in 1987, exemplifying the power suit look in its most sophisticated form. Tom Ford brought the single-breasted peaked-lapel suit to Gucci in the 1990s. Brosnan returns to the single-breasted peaked-lapel suit in The Thomas Crown Affair in 1999, this time in an elegant navy herringbone for an evening out. The style became more popular in 2007 when Tom Ford made it the primary look of his new eponymous menswear brand, and thanks to Ford, it has remained a popular suit style ever since.
There are no rules for how peaked lapels can be used on a single-breasted jacket. It comes across as a showier style, so it’s best worn for social occasions rather than for business. The boldness of peaked lapels complements bolder cloths, such as mohair, silk, stronger colours or bold stripes or checks. While the single-breasted peaked-lapel suit is not a traditional business suit, in a dark worsted it makes for a true power suit, especially if the suit has a stripe. If someone simply likes peaked lapels on a single-breasted jacket, they can wear them on any suit or jacket they choose. Tom Ford has proven how well the style can work on any kind of cloth. The jacket can have one, two or three buttons. It can have formal jetted pockets, standard flap pockets or sporty patch pockets—as long as the pocket choice is appropriate for the cloth. Slanted hacking pockets are a beautiful complement to the angles of the peaked lapel.
Peaked lapels on a single-breasted jacket can be made in any width—from narrow to wide—but medium to wide peaked lapels usually look better than narrow. Narrow peaked lapels often lack enough substance, but it’s a matter of taste. A lower button stance can help give peaked lapels more presence and provide room for an attractive shape, and it’s especially important if the lapels are narrower.
The single-breasted peaked-lapel suit as a three-piece suit has the potential to be the smartest of all lounge suits. Daniel Craig’s black herringbone three-piece suit from Tom Ford in Spectre is the classic example of this. He wears it for a funeral scene in Rome to look smart and dressed up. The suit is made in Tom Ford’s signature ‘Windsor’ style, which was inspired by Tommy Nutter’s designs. Ford carefully perfected the design to look bold but balanced. While it’s not nearly as ostentatious as Nutter’s original designs, the ‘Windsor’ was chosen to give Bond a flashy disguise compared to his regular suits for a gangster funeral. The suit has two buttons on the front with wider pocket flaps to balance the lapels. It also has a ticket pocket to balance the weight of the lapels.
While peaked lapels can make a single-breasted suit more formal than notched lapels, they don’t always do so. They can be used on less formal suits for a flashier or more youthful look. Daniel Craig’s light grey linen suit from Brioni in Casino Royale is such an example. The cloth and colour ensure it’s an informal suit, no matter its style, but the peaked lapels give it some extra panache. This suit jacket has three buttons down the front in a high stance, with the lapel slightly rolling into the top button. This style shortens the lapel line, downplaying the peaked lapel. The lapels end up looking rather desultory. The lapels on his dinner jacket in Casino Royale make the kind of statement that peaked lapels should be making without going over the top.
James Bond isn’t the only character in Casino Royale who wears a single-breasted suit with peaked lapels. Mads Mikkelsen wears a silk single-breasted peaked-lapel suit as Le Chiffre. The dark suit with peaked lapels, along with the dark shirt and tie, present him as an ostentatious villain. These peaked lapels are wider and have a lower gorge, giving them more purpose than the peaked on Bond’s grey suit in the same film.
George Lazenby wears a black peaked-lapel lounge coat for James Bond’s wedding in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Though it’s not a suit, it was historically worn as a smarter alternative to the lounge suit for both business and daytime social events. This form of dress was created as an informal alternative to the morning coat, and it’s traditionally worn with either a black or a pale contrasting waistcoat and grey striped or checked trousers in the morning dress tradition. Lazenby wears his with a light grey waistcoat and matching trousers. Though they commonly have one button to take after the morning coat, Lazenby’s coat has two buttons on the front. Lazenby’s coat has jetted pockets for a dressy look.
While Sean Connery didn’t wear any as James Bond, Anthony Sinclair made a single-breasted peaked-lapel suit in marine blue for him to wear in a wedding scene in Woman of Straw. The suit loosely carries on the morning coat and black lounge wedding traditions through its peaked lapels and single button on the front of the jacket. This jacket’s style takes directly after the ivory dinner jacket that Anthony Sinclair made for the same film, which Connery would later wear in Goldfinger. The jetted pockets on this suit reflect its formality, while its vivid blue shade confirms that this suit is meant for special occasions.
Single-breasted coats may also take peaked lapels, which look dramatic if the collar is worn folded up. Sean Connery carried a grey herringbone peaked-lapel coat with him in a few scenes in From Russia with Love, but he unfortunately does not wear it in the film. Anthony Sinclair made the coat in a Chesterfield style with a fly front, and if it were a darker colour, it would be a very formal coat. The peaked lapels add flair to the coat, but its lighter shade keeps it from being particularly formal. Connery wears a similar brown Donegal tweed coat with peaked lapels in Woman of Straw. The coat has hacking pockets, which stylishly complement the angles of the lapels while fitting in with the coat’s country cloth and the film’s setting.
I’ve learned a new word today in “desultory”, and it’s always a good day when that happens!
On the topic of the lapels, it’s a style I like but rarely do I go for it. If I want visual flair I’ll almost always opt for a waistcoat, and if I really want the lapels I’ll sooner get a proper double-breasted suit, like I wore for my wedding. Strangely enough, I’m more inclined to get single-breasted peak-lapels on an odd jacket rather than a suit, but only in special, flashy fabrics like silk. In other words, very infrequently.
French President Macron occasionnally wears them on a sharkskin mid-gray suit. But they take the only pocket option that does not fit IMHO, i.e. a ticket pocket.
Maybe the single-breasted peak-lapel was first seen in GoldenEye! Not the movie, but in 1956, when Eden was “recuperating” at Fleming’s home, following the Suez Crisis. ;-)
Coincidentally, recently bought my first single-breasted, peaked-lapel suit, and wore it for the first time today
I’ve always wondered if the gray linen “Casino Royale” suit is supposed to be off-the-rack in universe, just like the suit Bond later wears on the train is supposed to be British bespoke. (In reality, of course, they’re both custom Brioni suits.) The weird mishmash of styles – a high 3-button stance, overly padded shoulders, and of course, the peak lapels – look a bit like something you might have found in a department store at the time the movie was filmed, and it’s the kind of suit this version of Bond might have bought for himself before meeting Vesper and embracing her sartorial influences.
All of the Brioni suits in Casino Royale have the same cut, and the only difference after Vesper’s influence is that Bond switches to a three-piece suit and wears it with a different attitude. The style of the suits is trying to follow the latest in fashion, and they’re all using Brioni’s latest models.
I could do it with Anthony Sinclair’s style of lapel. Thin, discreet, and doesn’t take up so high. Like the dinner coat in Goldfinger.
Tommy Nutter’s final cutter, Terry Haste, has also shown a fondness for single-breasted peaks, but his apprentice (now a full cutter) Suyamba Kumaresan even more so. She cuts some really stunning peak lapels, up there with the coolest 1930s stuff.
It’s funny, despite appreciating the little details of tailoring and the variety and quirks they can bring, I have never been fond of this style. Partly I feel it is a balance issue. Unless it is a button one, a single breasted jacket comes across as top heavy with peaks, made even worse by higher button stances. Double breasted jackets, with the wrap and double column of buttons, provide the base I feel peaks require.
The other issue is that I associate peaks on a single breasted jacket with more formal outfits and I prefer clear distinctions between these more formal outfits and less formal ones; similarly, I do not like black tie with notches. This is where the balance issue above comes in. A button one jacket can somewhat alleviate the balance issue, but with peaks I associate this style with formal attire and thus the distinction issue is made worse.
That’s just me however. If you like the look and can pull it off, more power to you.
Lee,
I agree with you. That’s why you’ll never see me caught dead in a Nutter or Chittle Borough and Morgan suit.
However, in its defense, I’d say it’s doable. Look at the Goldfinger ecru dinner jacket. It’s elegant, balanced, and is humble. I cannot remember the tailor’s name, but once upon a time, a tailor said, “Balance is key”. Of all things being equal, really, balance really is key, as with so many other things. For example, a semi brogue is better than a full brogue, for that purpose.
Don’t shy away from the idea. I encourage you try. Could be a nice daytime event suit, who knows? But make sure all things are balanced.
Also, I agree with the sentiment, because I have a thing against the pitti uomo that overdid many things with their peacock stupidity. Same goes for the overused “sprezza turra” that carries more in name than spirit for years on end.
I’m a lot less open minded over the last decade, but there are times, I hope you’d agree, we find a common ground. Peak lapel single breasted isn’t really faulty, but an imbalanced version is, I’d agree, revolting.
I could not agree more on your point about balance. And I concede the concept of the single breasted peak lapel informal jacket is not always bad, just often the execution is.
I think Matt made a really good point in his post about British style being foreign to him – you develop style by learning about the clothes and by trying things out. So my hang ups here should be mine alone. Maybe one day I’ll give this look another shot, but I don’t want to dissuade anyone else from it.
Nutters/C&M suits are mostly about structure and meticulous construction. They don’t necessarily look dramatic.
They’re known for wide peaked lapels and bigger shoulders with prominent roping. That’s what I consider a dramatic suit.
Kamal,
I firmly disagree. Their gigantic lapels, outlandish proportions, no context for chest drape, and all else otherwise, made Nutters/C&M pretty much a better tailored peacock affair, but no better an outfitter of a better person.
Besides, their prices are outlandish proportionately for anyone with taste, for the style that they executed.
Structurally, Huntsman and affiliated tailors can do much better.
I want to add, Lee,
A single breasted odd jacket/sports coat with any kind or level of peak lapel is disgusting. It shows that the individual is just showing off, and it’s a revolting, d**chy behavior. It shows vanity in the most despicable manner possible. So that’s another no-go.
Single breasted peak lapels requires a lot of understanding and self-tempering. It’s also what I’d call a test of self-respect. No, it’s not a temple, not a benchmark, not another “sartorial” demonstration. It is what demonstrates a proper person, who can separate good from bad, moderation, and humility, from the rest of the crowd.
We dress, not only because we need clothes, not only because we need to look good, but also to present ourselves how we are.
I guess this is why I choose Anthony Sinclair and his philosophy over so many others, despite the time and era we are in right now.
(Sorry, Lee, and Matt, it got a bit philosophical this early in the morning).
It’s interesting to read this and compare it to women’s clothing, because the single breasted peak lapel is far more ubiquitous in feminine cuts than it is masculine. Especially, right now, with a single button. Meanwhile, it’s also very common for women’s double breasted jackets to have notch lapels. I don’t care for the latter style. It looks rather incomplete without an ulster collar.
I think you nailed what looks slightly off about the Casino Royale linen suit to me. It would have looked better with notch lapels and patch pockets like Hemming previously designed for Brosnan. Maybe she thought it would have more impact for its few seconds of screen time with peak lapels? But that’s just it, he whips it right off when setting off to the Ocean Club, so it doesn’t have much time to make any impression.
You know, I contemplated and kind of simmered myself with you remark.
If I have to get my girlfriend a suit immediately tomorrow, yes, peak lapel, probably button two would be it. The style fits feminine figures in a way that is inexplicable.
However, of all things being equal, simplicity is the best of anything, and everything. Extravagance and anything related to it only results in pure disrespect to both self and all others.
I said it to Lee above, and I’m beating the “untimely deceased” horse here, but we dress to present ourselves in the best ways we can. That means we honor humility, respect (both ourselves and others), and in moderation, as should all else.
I do suppose my opinion is controversial, but the single breasted peak lapel also is. I love it, but it must be executed absolutely right and correct.
And, again, I won’t be caught dead wearing either Nutters or Chittle Borough and Morgan. LOL. I know.
*your remark*
Screw Google corrective system.
You are welcome to your opinion! To me, life is too short to dress merely for the benefit of others.
Well, Giselle, I don’t regard much of the opinions of others, either. It’s just, I personally take a certain level of humility, be it personally as a person, or in dressing. It’s a trait I entailed into my habit and styling of dressing. I show a certain level of respect, but if anything, I also show I am one of my own. I’d say this, we’d show respect until it’s disregarded/discarded, and we dress accordingly, as we behave accordingly.
Sorry, Sunday philosophy, I guess.
Chittleborough & Morgan is one of the most meticulous firms in the world. Most of their clothes are extremely conservative.
Bear in mind that even in Tommy Nutter’s day, his firms mainly made understated conservative blue and grey suits.
Have to side with Kamal here, I don’t personally find a Nutters-style suit in a conservative colour or cloth to be all that ostentatious. It’s basically like Tom Ford’s Windsor with thicker roping at the shoulders, maybe pleated and wider trousers should you wish. All the Nutters disciples have made some fantastic women’s clothes as well. However, I’m aware I could probably get something close and not quite as pricey elsewhere!
Are peaked lapels appropriate on a single-breasted blazer or sport coat?
They are, and Tom Ford has examples of how it can be done well. They’re easier to do on a blue blazer or a silk jacket than they are on a tweed.
That is one thing I will say, I don’t like peak lapels on rougher fabrics because it seems vastly at odds. I don’t even particularly like double breasted tweed jackets either. We sold one at my store and it only went off the shelves when significantly discounted.
Giselle, quite true. Actually, any kind of double breasted sports coat that isn’t a navy blazer, I find it odd by nature. Peak lapels have a formality, a seriousness about them. They go best with dark, simple business cloths, solid or striped. I like a notch lapel in most widths, but a slim peak lapel like the ones that were trendy in the mid 60s really looks off to me. Brosnan’s peak lapel suit in TCA looks perfectly balanced and reminds me of many single breasted peak lapels suits Cary Grant wore in the 1940s.
Single-breasted with peaked lapels have often been the favorite of rock stars. Often in luxurious fabrics.
That’s all thanks to Tommy Nutter.