My new blog about James Bond's suits

[Matt S]

I've decided to start a blog about the clothes of the James Bond movies. It's something that people show interest in and something that I know quite a lot about. A lot of people have written about James Bond's clothes but they get many things wrong and I'm hoping to set things straight. I'm using James Bond as a way to teach people about proper and tasteful dress. Here's a link to the blog:

http://bondclothes.blogspot.com/

 

[voxsartoria]

I like the idea of the blog, but it would be better if you attributed sources.


- B

 

[BLU8]

Very interesting reading! I look forward to further entries.

 

[Ianiceman]

Someone beat you to it.

See 'James Bond The Suited hero'

Not much text but lots of pics and derision for the abominable Roger Moore era.

 

[Matt S]

Originally Posted by Ianiceman

Someone beat you to it.

See 'James Bond The Suited hero'

Not much text but lots of pics and derision for the abominable Roger Moore era.

Do you mean the book? I'm planning on writing something about it for the blog. It's a great resource, but I'm attempting to talk about the suits in more detail than the book does. I'm looking at the clothes more as an observer, and there are a few things the book gets wrong. The book is more about Bond and other characters; my blog is more about the clothes. And I will indeed be covering much of Roger Moore's clothing because once you get past the width of the lapels and ties and the bell bottoms you'll see that his suits were very well tailored. And I might even take a look at The Saint.

 

[TheWraith]

Good luck with it. I've enjoyed it so far.

 

[Ianiceman]

Yeah I have the book. I agree that it could have done with more detail and your blog so far is good. I have to disagree about Mr. Moore. Moonraker was on telly this morning, arguably the low point in the whole canon and certainly a contender for low point in suit style. Long collars, wide lapels, long side vents causing flapping jacket backs, blousy bell bottoms. I think it's gonna be hard for you to convince me of anything to admire or emulate there and it was a long road back for both scriptwriters and costume designers till they got Lindy Hemming and Brosnan on board.

Connery's style was largely influenced by Terence Young. I generally liked his look in the first few films. There's a blooper when he jumps from blazer to suit in adjacent scenes in thunderball, and the less said about Diamonds Are Forever the better.

 

[Recoil]

Love reading about the details. This is the kind of stuff that interests me, plenty of places on the internet already have generic "James Bond looks awesome in this TF/Brioni/etc. suit" that spends little time talking about the finer points of the garment and too much on posting stolen pictures.

 

[Oleg]

Not had a look at the blog yet (though will) but are the books to be included as well? Flemming went into a fair amount of detail about clothes and accessories (Rolex watch, Floris No. 89 cologne, Ronson lighters, etc). From memory, he first appears in a black suit, blue shirt and black knit tie (not very SF approved)
Used to like Floris 89 before coming to Australia. Here it works as a magnet of flies in summer: end up looking Pigpen from Peanuts.

 

[Matt S]

Originally Posted by Ianiceman

Yeah I have the book. I agree that it could have done with more detail and your blog so far is good. I have to disagree about Mr. Moore. Moonraker was on telly this morning, arguably the low point in the whole canon and certainly a contender for low point in suit style. Long collars, wide lapels, long side vents causing flapping jacket backs, blousy bell bottoms. I think it's gonna be hard for you to convince me of anything to admire or emulate there and it was a long road back for both scriptwriters and costume designers till they got Lindy Hemming and Brosnan on board.

Connery's style was largely influenced by Terence Young. I generally liked his look in the first few films. There's a blooper when he jumps from blazer to suit in adjacent scenes in thunderball, and the less said about Diamonds Are Forever the better.

I've noticed a number of clothing bloopers. In the sky diving scene in Moonraker, Roger Moore is wearing bit loafers whilst the stuntman is wearing laced shoes. Loafers would surely fly off when sky diving. In the pre-title sequence of Thunderball, Connery is wearing a shirt with his usual cocktail cuffs but when he puts on the jetpack he is suddenly wearing french cuffs. When places the jetpack in the boot of his car he's again wearing the cocktail cuffs.
Moonraker was varied in the suits. At the beginning of the movie he's wearing a notch lapel double-breasted blazer. But I think his DB dinner suit was quite nice. His brown tweed suit had the interesting feature of a flapped breast pocket. And I really like the MOP buttons on his single-breasted blazers. And did you notice that the grey suit he wears in Venice is dupioni silk?
After Moonraker Roger Moore's suits were much nice. Those are only dated by the low button stance but everything else is proportionate. The true low point of the clothing in the Bond series was Licence to Kill.

 

[Matt S]

Originally Posted by Oleg

Not had a look at the blog yet (though will) but are the books to be included as well? Flemming went into a fair amount of detail about clothes and accessories (Rolex watch, Floris No. 89 cologne, Ronson lighters, etc). From memory, he first appears in a black suit, blue shirt and black knit tie (not very SF approved)
Used to like Floris 89 before coming to Australia. Here it works as a magnet of flies in summer: end up looking Pigpen from Peanuts.

I'm not going to cover the books. The Spy Who Came Out of the Closet series as well as The Suited Hero book cover all that and there isn't any more to be said.

 

[luk-cha]

Matt, congrats on the blog i am looking forward to the updates

 

[Matt S]

Thanks for the support. I just hope not to bore too many people with all the details.

 

[Ianiceman]

@ Oleg, literary Bond's uniform was a dark blue single breasted tropical worsted suit, white sea island short sleeved shirt (fleming's own style) but unlike IF instead of a bow tie, a black knitted silk tie. He mentions packing a dogtooth suit but never mentions him wearing it. In The bahamas his 'only concession to the tropics was a pair of open toed sandals with no socks'. Like IF, Bond 'abhorred' shoelaces so he must have looked a bit odd in straight laced 1950s London with slip ons under a business suit and no sign of shirt cuffs, or mixing it up with the locals on Bay Street in Nassau in a navy suit.

@ Matt I think Dalton was a decent Bond and set the series back on track as a bit more serious but in the era of unconstructed suits and blousons jackets there wasn't much to admire and he looks crap in his tux with bushy hair slicked back and Eddie Munster style widow's peak.

 

[scurvyfreedman]

Originally Posted by Ianiceman

Not much text but lots of pics and derision for the abominable Roger Moore era.

I rather like the style in The Spy Who Loved Me, which was also my favorite Bond movie.

I'm a Roger Moore as Bond fan, as I grew up in the mid-70s/early 80s, so he was my Bond. I'm also partial to Jaws as the top henchman ever.