Turnbull & Asser is one of the brands most-associated with James Bond. All six actors to play the role have shopped there, and most have worn Turnbull & Asser shirts in the role. They’ve just released a number of Bond items that readers of this blog have been demanding for decades! As a fan of classic Bond clothes and of English clothes in general, this is a very exciting release!
For a number of years now they have sold the Casino Royale waffle-weave dress shirt, three ties from Pierce Brosnan’s series and a Dr. No cocktail cuff shirt as part of their Bond line. They also have consistently sold the grenadine and knit ties as well as black bow ties they originally provided for Bond.
Now Turnbull & Asser have added a number of ties, shirts and a pocket square to their James Bond Collection.
An Updated Dr. No Shirt
There is a new blue Dr. No shirt, with a cocktail cuff — or two-button turnback cuff — that is accurately based on Sean Connery’s cuff. For decades, Turnbull & Asser have made a different cuff design that is less cut away and less rounded, reminiscent of the cocktail cuffs that another shirtmaker made for Roger Moore’s Bond films. They used this cuff on their former Dr. No shirt. It was even difficult to get an accurate Connery cuff from Turnbull & Asser in bespoke.
Now the cuff is spot on to the original, more so than any recreation I’ve ever attempted to design. Turnbull & Asser put in the effort to study their archives, film stills and hours of footage. They did the work for the fans who want an accurate cuff.
I personally find the accurate cuff’s simpler design to be a more aesthetically pleasing and a more interesting design. Since the two-button cocktail cuff has no practical purpose compared to an ordinary two-button button cuff, its look is the most important thing. Seeing that they got this correct is extremely satisfying.
This shirt also features a collar unique to this shirt, which is a Regent collar — a wide spread collar — that has been scaled up slightly in height and point length. A standard Regent collar would have looked undersized for Sean Connery’s tremendous stature. The collar is the most important part of a shirt, and this is also an area the shirt gets right. This collar is the same as the collar Connery wore in Dr. No and You Only Live Twice, when his shirts had the widest collars.
Though Sean Connery’s shirts were mostly made of Sea Island cotton, I appreciate them not doing this shirt in Sea Island cotton because their standard cotton winkles less, is easier to iron, is harder-wearing and costs less. On the other hand, I would have liked to see them do this shirt in a pale periwinkle that’s closer to Connery’s original shirt rather than the sky blue here, but it’s not far off.
Three New Pierce Brosnan Ties
The three Pierce Brosnan-era ties might be the most special part of the collection. They’ve added the first tie from Tomorrow Never Dies, a gold-coloured tie with blue squares (above right) that Brosnan wears to his briefing at the start of the film with a navy birdseye suit and later with a fawn-coloured double-breasted overcoat when he arrives in Hamburg. This tie goes well with almost anything, but it goes particularly well with blue and brown suits and sports coats.
They’re calling this the ‘diamond’ tie, but the darker tie that was already part of the collection (above left) seems more like a ‘diamond’ tie than a ‘square’ tie to me.
The second tie is the blue and brown zig-zag tie (above left) from the opening scene of The World Is Not Enough when Brosnan is in Bilbao, Spain wearing a charcoal suit. Brosnan wears it again with his grey sharkskin suit in Azerbaijan. With two outfits and a lot of screen time, this is one of the most iconic ties of The World Is Not Enough. Its colour combination makes it a neutral tie that pairs well with anything, from the mid-grey and charcoal suits that Brosnan wears it with to navy and brown suits and sports coats.
The pattern is much more pronounced in real life than it is on screen, but it still has a sophisticated and Bondian look. This is my favourite tie of the Brosnan era and the one I was most looking forward to seeing released.
The third tie is the one that Brosnan wears to the Rubyeon Hotel in Hong Kong in Die Another Day (above right). It has a stripe effect that is achieved by a basketweave-like pattern of red, orange, gold and blue, but the overall effect from a distance somehow blends to become a brick red stripe. This tie can also pair well with just about anything, considering the four colours it has.
These three ties are all timeless patterns that are easy to wear. They are beautifully recreated based on original ties that fans sent to Turnbull & Asser.
Casino Royale Bow Tie
Turnbull & Asser are now also offering an accurate version of the bow tie they originally made for Daniel Craig to wear in Casino Royale. This bow tie is black silk shantung.
They previously made a bow tie in the Casino Royale shape only in silk satin, but Craig wore one in silk shantung. The slubby texture and less shiny look of shantung is the perfect complement to the ribbed, matte facings on Daniel Craig’s dinner jacket in Casino Royale.
The Pleated Voile Shirt
They created a shirt inspired by Pierce Brosnan’s dress shirt in Die Another Day, copying the original shirt’s narrow pleats exactly. However, the shirt is not a complete replica of the Die Another Day shirt.
Although Brosnan’s shirt had a covered placket, this shirt has visible buttons down the front. And while only the body and sleeves of Brosnan’s shirt was voile with the collar cuffs and covered placket in marcella, Turnbull & Asser made this shirt entirely in voile.
Though the shirt is not an exact copy of any particular Bond shirt, it is still a beautiful shirt that recalls some of Bond’s dress shirts with narrow pleats and button plackets, like those in From Russia with Love and The Living Daylights. So this shirt still has a very Bondian look and is something that he would certainly wear.
A Voile Pocket Square
Based on archival receipts, Turnbull & Asser have added a white voile pocket square with hand-rolled edges to the Bond collection. Whether this would have accompanied one of Bond’s voile dress shirts or one of his Sea Island cotton day shirts is not known, but voile has a wonderful soft and springy texture that works well folded, puffed or stuffed in a breast pocket.
I find this to be the least special of the pieces in the collection, but like everything else it is made to the highest standards.
Visit Turnbull & Asser’s website to find out more about their James Bond Collection.
Great news!
Finally ! Time has come. I hope they won’t stop here and release other shirts (or other shirt colors, like cream for the Dr. No shirt) and ties from the Brosnan’s era. It’s a great Christmas present from T&A here !
Oh no, I’ve been looking forward to this for so long but now it’s sprung without warning, so I don’t feel prepared!
Unlike most of the brands who are utilizing official licenses to prop up their otherwise insignificant connections to the franchise (Orlebar Brown, Sunspel, and N Peal immediately come to mind), T&A has real Bond pedigree, and it shows. The ties in particular are great, not just because they are screen accurate, but because they are timeless, versatile, and tasteful. Very excited by this, especially compared to other recent licensed offerings from other brands.
I just bought it all
The 20 year wait is over !!!!!!!!!!
Everything looks wonderful. They knocked it out of the park with the ties and Dr No shirt. In addition to Matt’s notes, I wish it had fewer buttons in front and darts in the back to be a little more accurate. I also agree with Le Chiffre on wanting more colours. Particularly white, like Connery also wore in Dr No. Minor stuff though. The ties are much more versatile than I thought they were from seeing them on film.
I’m split about the evening shirt. On the one hand, a classic pleated voile evening shirt is nice. On the other hand, it has none of the details that made the one in DAD special. If it weren’t marked as being part of this collection, I would have no idea there was any connection to James Bond at all. I really hope the reasoning wasn’t that people would get confused at there being another fly front evening shirt.
If they didn’t want to have two fly-front evening shirts, I wish they had done the Diamonds Are Forever striped, pleated shirt. I think that one had the same cutaway collar as the Dr. No shirt. That shirt would have stood out nicely in the collection.
Wouldn’t not including darts be more accurate to the Dr No shirts?
That’s right. I don’t believe the shirts in Dr. No have darts, but they do in From Russia with Love.
Fair enough. I had assumed all of Connery’s T&A shirts had them.
Like the Dr No shirt.
Not crazy about the ties, except possibly the 4th one across. Maybe they’d work for others, wouldn’t for me
I bought their original Casino Royale bow tie a couple of years ago but thought the weave was listed as Barathea not Satin. Please clarify as I’m thinking about purchasing one of their cummerbunds to match the tie and they are available in Barathea or Satin. Thanks!
You should match a barrathea cummerbund to a barrathea bow tie and ribbed labels, and a satin cummerbund to a satin bow tie and satin lapels.
Not hugely drawn to the ties (admirable as they are) but I adore both of new the shirts! Nice to see Turnbull & Asser add a voile shirt to their ready-to-wear collection.
Wasn’t the bow tie in casino royale cut with the slubs in the shantung fabric running horizontally?
I feel like that contributes to the way the tie creases quite tightly in the film, but I could be misremembering things I think I confirmed through Blu-Ray
From the pictures on the site the new bow tie is cut traditionally on the bias so the slubs go diagonally across the tie.
I hope I’m wrong, genuinely, because I’m happy to finally be able to buy this tie in the accurate shape and fabric so it would be a shame to get it this close to accurate but still miss the mark.
I’m not sure about the direction of the slubs. It looks like in some of T&A’s photos, the slubs are indeed lengthwise. It could be an optical illusion.
Did they get rid of their previous Dr.No shirt? I cant seem to find it on their website
They still have the old Dr. No shirt, but it’s no longer called “Dr. No”.
Is it called the regent with a turnback cuff?
I got the new shirt and neckties today. The shirt is absolutely flawless. The establishment really has made Mr.Terence Young proud.
The old shirt is now ‘REGENT COLLAR AND 2-BUTTON COCKTAIL CUFFS’.
Matt, does the TND “diamond” tie look too gold to you? In previous photos on your site and elsewhere it looked more copper or bronze in color and almost matched the overcoat in the Hamburg arrival scene. This tie looks gold and you even described it this way. This is one tie I was wanting to buy but it looks off to me.
It really depends on the lighting. It looks just about the same in natural light as it does on screen. They matched it to an original tie, so you can be confident it’s accurate.
Matt,
I have the Dr. No shirt previous version with the two-button Doube cuff. I was disappointed due to the cuff not being like the original version (the one they finally offer now). Two questions
1. Are the colors of the blue shirts the same shade? I one currently being offered looks a bit brighter.
2. Is there any way to have the cuffs altered or retrofitted. on the old version of the Dr. No shirt to resemble the true rounded flared cocktail cuff?
3. Is the collar spread the same on the two shirts?
Hi Christrian,
1. The shirts are the same colour. The photos of the whole collection are deceiving.
2. It is technically possible to replace the cuffs, but I don’t know if T&A will do that. Most likely it will be impossible to perfectly match the fabric, since your shirt is worn and dye lots differ slightly.
3. The spread collar is the same.
You mention the shirt spread being the same. I guess that still means both the old and the new Dr No RTW shirts have the same « Dr No » collar, being taller and with longer points than the Regent ? Or does only the new Dr No shirt got this collar and they went back to the Regent for the day old Dr No shirt ?
I’m not sure if the old shirt now has the regular Regent collar. I’m guessing it still has the Dr. No collar because they have the old stock to sell.
Matt,
Just a word of thanks for all of the amazing detail and effort you have put into the Bond’s wardrobe. Over the years (pre-internet) the only frame of reference was to watch the films and hit pause. You have provided an avalanche of info towards solving my sartorial conundrums.
Regards,
Christian
Does anyone here think they are going to add even more items to the line?
They may in the future.
What do they have left?
P.s. they have no plans on releasing a white updated dr.no shirt anytime soon due to covid delays.
P.s.s apparently there are two versions of the grenadine ; the loose weave and tight weave. According Ms.Jewel the loose weave is closer to the one worn by Connery.
They have a few ties left they could do, and they could do the shirt in other colours and fabrics that Connery wore.
Regarding the two different grenadine ties, this is something I wrote about a decade ago! https://www.bondsuits.com/the-grenadine-tie/
“Loose” and “tight” are not accurate ways to describe the two different grenadine weaves. Both have an “open” weave. The one Connery wears has a larger-scaled weave than the other. One is not looser or more open than the other.
Depends on the performance of the ones just released. The price increase will probably be the main barrier to that.
The price is my current barrier. I’ve been looking forward to this release since I heard it was in the works some two or three years ago, but now what with the pandemic, I can’t justify a purchase of AU$300 for just one necktie, especially since it came as a surprise.
I just hope stocks last as long as it takes me to save up.
I wish they could do RTW shirts with a TND or TWINE collar in the fabrics Brosnan wore… like royal oxfords… but it’s probably not different enough from a RTW shirt with double cuffs and a Regent collar to them to worth doing the effort…
maybe a capsule collection ? 70/700 shirts ? We can dream !
The price is a little offensive. They are quite clearly using the 007 branding this time in marketing and probably need to pay for it. I think the ties are the most distinctive aspect of this release. The other things can more or less be achieved in bespoke if you know what to ask for (and maybe even more accurately too!).
Let’s see a TWINE dinner shirt!
I think there’s enough choice already in T&A ‘s offer of dinner shirts… and offering another one would definitely target less people than offering another dress/business shirt. I am a diehard fan alright of Bond inspired items, but I don’t own a dinner jacket (yet… ahah), and thus buying a dinner shirt, no matter how beautiful, is irrelevant to me. I presume I am not the only one. A necktie or a dress shirt would probably be a smarter investment to them.
Or, if they really want to do another dinner shirt, I think the most special (while still being classic) Bond has ever worn was the Goldfinger with the satin stripes. It probably wasn’t from T&A at the start, so what ? They definitely could launch a shirt inspired by it.
They could do the Diamonds Are Forever dress shirt, which is very similar to the Goldfinger shirt.
The Casino Royale shirt can be worn interchangeably as an evening or business shirt thanks to the placket with hidden buttons and plain front.
How would the collar on the Dr No shirt compare with Brosnan’s collar in TND and TWINE? I like the height and spread of those. Thanks!
The collar is fairly similar to the TWINE collar. I think the TWINE collar is slightly less spread.
Matt, did they drop the ball a bit on the Bilbao tie? Looking at the closeup of the actual tie sold at auction (https://natedsanders.com/james_bond_suit_screen_worn_by_pierce_brosnan_in__-lot30917.aspx) it looks like the “gold stripes” are slightly narrower than the tie now being offered by T&A? And that this can explain why the Bilbao tie in the film looks darker?
Thanks,
S
Right, it’s not quite accurate.
Thanks Matt, maybe something you could point out more clearly in the article? For me this made me not get this tie, and rather going for the two others.
I didn’t realise this at the time. It’s still a very nice tie, and I find that it looks very dark in person when someone is wearing it.
Quite disappointing.
Matt,
Does Gustav Graves wear the zigzag tie from TWINE in red in the DAD London scenes?
S
The pattern is very similar, though Graves’ tie’s pattern is scaled differently.