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Tom Ford is dressing Bond!?

TheFoo

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So, by proxy, Bond is now a Zegna man? Quite the downgrade.
 

robin

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Originally Posted by mafoofan
So, by proxy, Bond is now a Zegna man? Quite the downgrade.
Yes, I'd say so.
 

TheFoo

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Lindy Hamilton, costume designer for the past few Bond films explains why Brioni was selected over other makers, including Savile Row tailors:

"There were also practical considerations. Large numbers of suits are required. Multiple suits for Bond, suits for stand-ins, suits for stuntmen. Suits need to be tailor-made, but quickly. Savile Row tailors tend to be smaller operations, and can take weeks over a single suit."

I suppose the consideration of production scale and size makes sense, but the following makes Hamilton appear a little clueless:

"I was taken to the [Brioni] factory to see how they were made . . . They were absolutely open to any sort of idea. They have a lifetime of making clothes for presidents and politicians, and they don't have that thing that they can't change what is going on. Whether it be 13 inside pockets, or one jacket with no vents and another that needs to open down the back. Some other companies are like elephants. They take a long time to change direction."

She makes it sound as if it takes an exceptional maker to incorporate different pocket configurations and do different vent formats. It's as if she has no idea how bespoke tailoring works.
 

DocHolliday

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Originally Posted by mafoofan
I suppose the consideration of production scale and size makes sense, but the following makes Hamilton appear a little clueless:

"I was taken to the [Brioni] factory to see how they were made . . . They were absolutely open to any sort of idea. They have a lifetime of making clothes for presidents and politicians, and they don't have that thing that they can't change what is going on. Whether it be 13 inside pockets, or one jacket with no vents and another that needs to open down the back. Some other companies are like elephants. They take a long time to change direction."

She makes it sound as if it takes an exceptional maker to incorporate different pocket configurations and do different vent formats. It's as if she has no idea how bespoke tailoring works.


I'd presume she's talking about larger companies that can handle the Bond demands, don't you think? In that subset, I imagine some are more difficult than others. Isn't that one reason Dunhill supposedly got the boot?
 

TheFoo

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Originally Posted by DocHolliday
I'd presume she's talking about larger companies that can handle the Bond demands, don't you think? In that subset, I imagine some are more difficult than others. Isn't that one reason Dunhill supposedly got the boot?

But there are a number of MTM makers that can do your vents however you like them and customize the internal pockets.
 

DocHolliday

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Originally Posted by mafoofan
But there are a number of MTM makers that can do your vents however you like them and customize the internal pockets.

Well, sure. By the same token, a bespoke tailor presumably can make anything you want, but you don't go to A&S if you want Thom Browne. Just because a company has an MTM program doesn't mean it's up to the demands of a Bond production, or is as accomodating as the Bond folks want. Some MTM programs are extremely limited, and I don't see anything surprising about expressing admiration for flexibility in a company the size of Brioni.

I think it's a reach to conclude, at least from what you've quoted, that she's unfamiliar with bespoke, especially considering her profession.
 

Mildly Consumptive

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Originally Posted by mafoofan

She makes it sound as if it takes an exceptional maker to incorporate different pocket configurations and do different vent formats. It's as if she has no idea how bespoke tailoring works.


I presume she means a suit that literally opens down the back, not a suit with a single vent. I imagine they need these kinds of suits for stunts. Like, when a stunt-man is supposed to fall from a great height, he is actually wearing a harness connected to a cable and he isn't falling at all, merely being descended on the cable very rapidly. I believe stunt people call this device a "descender".
 

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I do think Ford did a nice job of advising and dressing Brad Pitt in some recent photos. Also notice how Bond is wearing TV folds this time around versus no square in the last film. He's also upgraded his frames to Oliver Peoples over Persol, OP are distinctly higher quality with more advanced lenses. It would be ideal to have him in bespoke SR but I understand how that simply isn't practical for film work. Having him wear Lobbs was a nice touch in the last film.

Here's what Ford did with Pitt:

AngelinaJolieBradPittCannes02.jpg
0465c179-6b15-4071-89ca-4af97e4dcc2f.h2.jpg
[/
URL=http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005396143149264768]
2005396143149264768_th.jpg
[/url]
 

james_timothy

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Originally Posted by DocHolliday
I'd presume she's talking about larger companies that can handle the Bond demands, don't you think? In that subset, I imagine some are more difficult than others. Isn't that one reason Dunhill supposedly got the boot?

Bill Tanner has a good set of essays about Bond's clothing,
including my personal favorite, Man of the Cloth, at
http://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/in...icles&g=070103. He goes through the evolution of
the Bond tailors.

In one of them he uses that volume argument to explain why
Savilie Row didn't do the later Bond suits. I thought this argument
predated the idea Dunhill was involved.
 

Soph

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I do think he looks better in these suits then the fullback look of Brioni he had in the last film:
]
hx6osk.jpg

33e5uzd.jpg
[/quote]
 

maclovin

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Soph,

Will you be leaving Borrelli, Brioni and Attolini for Tom Ford in your life now?

Yrs,

McL
 

DocHolliday

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Originally Posted by james_timothy
In one of them he uses that volume argument to explain why
Savilie Row didn't do the later Bond suits. I thought this argument
predated the idea Dunhill was involved.


Yeah, I've heard that too. But I read on some Web site that the Bond folks gave Dunhill the boot because they found the company less cooperative than they wanted. What that means, or if it's true, I don't know. It could easily be "less cooperative" in the "demanded more money/product placement" sense.
 

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