Ian Fleming's Style

I've formed an image of Ian Fleming (the author of the James Bond novels) based on no more than a dozen photos of him, and the little he wrote about Bond's dress. It's an off-beat English upper class look and I think men's style is headed back in his direction.

Fleming was a pioneer of lightweight suitings. It was a joke among his friends that the fabric of his suits wore out so fast that he just had new cloth sewn onto the existing buttons. He wore navy single breasted suits with three button jacket closings and turnback cuffs (this will be the last you'll hear of those from me for a while but he did give me the idea). There's also a photo of him in a three button black and white herringbone suit with a navy v-neck sweater. All very James Bond and very pre-War English.

As a suit-wearing man it was Fleming's choice of accessories that made his personal style. Spread collar blue and gray dress shirts were worn with navy bow ties with white micro-dots. He also carried a cigarette holder (not an unusual prop then but now we know better).

Casual clothes included cream cashmere crew necks worn with charcoal trousers and moccasins in moderate weather, and cream square bottomed shirts, worn with a belt on the outside of the shirt in warm weather, and more charcoal trousers. I think of that latter look as Caribbean English - it can be too hot for odd jackets during the day.

And there were the suede shoes. His black casuals were modern and, though common now, it wasn't common then to see them with suits. The capper was the black suede oxfords, a combination also seen on Cary Grant. So now I want a pair, and that gives me a reason to take Edward Green's Top Drawer program for a test run.