"Goldfinger had made an attempt to look smart at golf and that is the only way of dressing that is incongruous on the links. Everything matched in a blaze of rust-coloured tweed from the buttoned golfer's cap centered on the huge flaming red hair, to the brilliantly polished almost orange shoes. The plus-four suit was too well cut and the plus-fours themselves had been pressed down the sides."
"Bond concluded his inspection with Drax's clothes which were expensive and in excellent taste, a dark blue pinstripe in light-weight flannel, double-breasted with turnback cuffs, a heavy white silk shirt with a stiff collar, an unobtrusive tie with a small gray and white check, modest cuff links, which looked like Cartier, and a plain gold Patek Philippe watch with a black leather strap."
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.
