Made to measure for the 007 lifestyle
You’ll struggle to find a man in the UK, or the world, for that matter who doesn’t appreciate a good Bond film. What’s not to like? It has everything that men are supposed to like and relate to; fancy cars, beautiful women, gadgets, action, explosions and most importantly (to us anyway) fine suits. Throughout the films since Bond was portrayed by Sean Connery in 1962 all the way up to Daniel Craig now in 2015, the most important factor, in our opinion, has always been consistent, and that is his suits. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to outline what it would be like to create a bespoke suit for the MI5 agent, and although it would be a fun project, we would have our work cut out for us. So first of all, let’s look at the most important factor in an active agents threads, the fabric. Due to the nature of Bond’s job, the fabrics we are accustomed to working with simply wouldn’t cut it here.
– LIGHTWEIGHT –
The material would definitely need to be a lightweight-type fabric, simply because of the nature of his work. As we can see in a lot of the films, there is a lot of mobility required, so we can have him feeling ‘held down’ as such by a heavier material.
– FLEXIBLE –
No matter where he ends up, 007 always seems to get into a fist fight, so as well as being lightweight we would need to design something that would allow full range of motion, so not to be constricted when it comes to the time when he has to roll his sleeves up and get his hands dirty.
– DURABLE –
As we mentioned before, scuffles are a regular occurrence through James’s adventures, so we want to use a material that is durable enough to withstand a few rough engagements. Not something that will be hard to source, as good material has proven to stand the test of time. Let’s not forget that he does happen to run into the odd explosion here and there.
Of course there’s the regular gun fight, so in the rare occasion that a bullet does indeed hit 007, we want to make sure he’s protected, so because we can do pretty much what we want with jacket linings, what we’ll do is line the jacket with kevlar, to ensure adequate protection.
– EASY MAINTENANCE –
Bond gets around at a surprising pace, one minute he’s in London, the next Hong Kong, or New York, or South America…or outer space, yet you never see an unwanted crease in any of his suits. There are certain materials that travel extremely well, especially when being thrown in and out of suitcases at short notice. We would therefore be sure to choose something that stands up to the thrills and spills encountered in the daily life of 007.
– POCKETS –
As you will have seen in our previous blogs, we can do almost anything with jackets, so a practical feature we would include some additional pockets, perhaps some of them ‘secret pockets’, for various gadgets and weapons he might need to conceal on his adventures. We recently created a dinner Jacket for a customer who requested a business card pocket on each side of the jacket – one for his own business cards, and one for the cards he received whilst wearing the jacket. Mr Bond may not collect many business cards, but we’re sure a good array of well concealed pockets will help him do his job!
– VERSATILE –
As well as being a hard worker, like many of our clients, it’s no secret that James likes to attend the odd dinner event, casino, party etc. , so we will need to create something that is suitable for more than one setting. This is something that we try to do with many of the garments we create, so that they can be enjoyed for both work and play. So, we need something that looks professional in HQ in the morning, smart at the country club in the afternoon, and completely fitting for the many ‘hot dates’ he manages to arrange in the evenings.
– EXTRAS –
To finish off the outfit, we’ll make some minor adjustments that will suit Bond’s taste in accessories. Firstly, we’ll make the left cuff of the suit slightly bigger, to allow space for his Omega timepiece. We’ll also allow some give on the left side of the jacket, to give space for arguably the most important accessory, the infamous 007 Walther PPK gun.
**All images courtesy of the James Bond 007 Facebook Page**
As we keep saying every project is different as no two individuals are built the same way, and everyone has a different vibe, but this project would be one that stands out among the rest. By the final stage of the process, we would to present Mr. Bond with a practical yet aesthetically pleasing bespoke, made to measure suit.
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