Sean Connery’s tailor Anthony Sinclair is back in business at No. 6 Sackville Street in London. Though Sinclair himself is no longer around, British designer David Mason has revived the name for a new operation that makes bespoke and Special Order suits in the spirit of classic Conduit Street tailoring. Mason was trained by Edward Sexton and serves as the creative director and marketer of the firm, bringing back the style of Sean Connery’s Bond suits and Sinclair’s famous “Conduit Cut.” The term “Conduit Cut” came from his British Guard’s Officer clients, according to his former apprentice Richard W. Paine, though Sinclair himself referred to his suit as “a Savile Row style.” Compared to the majority of Savile Row tailors in the 1950s and 1960s, Sinclair preferred lighter fabrics and a more natural silhouette, with natural shoulders. But his suits were still very much structured, as well as heavier and more robust compared to most suits today. After Sinclair retired, Richard Paine took over the business until he retired in 2005 and now helps out at the current Anthony Sinclair operation.

The firm’s Special Order suit (pictured above) is its most accessible product, starting at £625. This is a half-canvas suit made from a block pattern that can be customised to fit your body and your taste. The pre-defined style has been developed as a modern interpretation of Sinclair’s style, with a firmer, though still natural, shoulder and a sleeker silhouette than what he made for Connery. But Sinclair’s roped sleeve head, full chest, moderately suppressed waist and flared skirt of classic Savile Row style are still present. David Mason describes the Special Order suit: “The challenge with this exercise has been to create a contemporary product with reverence to the past, which can be worn effortlessly by the modern man, and appreciated by devotees of the original. Something that we think Anthony would be producing now, had he still been with us.”

But for something even closer to what Sean Connery wore or something completely different, Anthony Sinclair (the firm) makes hand-tailored bespoke suits the under the direction of principal cutter Paul Mundy. Mundy has worked for a number of Savile Row tailors and can cut in a variety of styles. In-between the bespoke and Special Order suits, Anthony Sinclair also offers a full-canvas, hand-tailored Made-to-Measure suit. In addition to tailoring, Anthony Sinclair makes shirts, in-house bespoke by a shirtmaker who apprenticed at Huntsman and made-to-measure sub-contracted to a manufacturer in Switzerland. Ties will also be sold, including seamless knits and grenadines just like Sean Connery wore himself.

For more information visit Anthony Sinclair’s website at anthonysinclair.com, check out their blog or follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

Traditionally, men dress in colours that complement their surroundings. We wear blue and grey in the city, brown and green in the country and black for formal wear. We also dress for the season: dark colours for winter, bright warm colours in spring, light, cool pastels for summer and earth tones for autumn. But most people look their best in one season’s colours, and some image consultants will recommend you only dress in colours for that season. In this article we will look at the winter Bonds: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan. These men look their best in traditional winter colours. 

Winter is the colouring most associated with Bond. People with a winter complexion are typically characterised by a cool or olive skin tone and dark hair. Dark brown eyes like on Sean Connery and George Lazenby are most common on winters, but winters can have other eye colours, like Timothy Dalton’s grey-green eyes or Pierce Brosnan’s grey-blue eyes. 

Winters look best in clear colours and high contrast. Winters can wear black and white better than any other complexion because of their own high contrast. They look best in a dark true navy and all shades of grey, thus traditional colours for business-wear and formalwear look best on winters. Sean Connery wore mostly grey suits in his Bond films, and he wore all shades of grey very well. His contrasting shirts also suited him well, in cool, icy tones. He wore mostly white and icy blue shirts, as well as icy cream shirts occasionally. Lazenby followed the same colour palate. There are of course exceptions to this, but when the winter Bonds wear brown tones they are always greyed. When they aren’t so greyed, such as the case is with Lazenby’s rusty Ulster coat, they aren’t as flattering. Though beige and tan aren’t in the winter palate, Dalton and Brosnan wear those colours successfully when they are paired with a darker, richer colour (usually navy) closer to the face to provide contrast.

To read more about what colours flatter your complexion best, Carole Jackson’s bestselling book Color for Men gives advice for men of all colouring. But you need to find a balance of dressing to suit your complexion and dressing in the right colour for the occasion. Later this week we will look at how Roger Moore and Daniel Craig differ from the traditional Bond mould in their colouring.

In honour of Daniel Craig’s 44th birthday on March 2nd, we take a look at the charcoal suit Bond wears in the London scenes of Quantum of Solace. This Tom Ford suit is a very dark charcoal, almost black, but compared to black the very dark grey is slightly more flattering to Craig’s light complexion and has more depth. The slight sheen of the mohair tonic adds to the depth. Like all the other suits in the film, this suit has a structured shoulder and a 3-button front with the lapel rolled to the middle button. The suit also has flapped pockets with a ticket pocket, 5-button cuffs (with the last button left open) and double vents. The flat front suit trousers have buckle-side adjusters and turn-ups, hemmed without a break. Bond’s shoes are black punched-cap-toe oxfords from Church’s.

The white poplin shirt has a moderate spread collar and double cuffs. The tie, tied in a four-in-hand knot, has white pin-dots on a black and aubergine ground, so the overall look is dark grey with a hint of purple. Bond wears a folded white linen handkerchief in his breast pocket.

In the 5th series of The Saint, Roger Moore wears a unique sports coat with a pleated back, tailored by Cyril Castle. This outfit in particular is seen in the episode “The Convenient Monster.” The fabric is a grey and cream tweed herringbone. The 3-button sports coat has natural shoulders and a crooked cut, which puts more fabric to the front of the coat in front of the neck point showing less shirt and raising the collar. Moore buttons the top 2 buttons, which serves to keep him warm outdoors in Scotland. A heavy tweed jacket is always best in a 3- or 4-button front that buttons to the top because they are meant to be worn outdoors in cold weather or indoors in old, drafty homes.

Notice the pleats above and below the belt

The back has a belt and two pleats above and below the waist on each side, with no vents. The jacket is detailed with swelled edges, 1-button barrel cuffs and four flapped pockets. The two hip pockets are slanted down and the two breast pockets are slanted up. The flaps are narrow to match the narrow lapels. The double, flapped breast pockets and belted and pleated back place this coat in the sporting tradition, though the lack of a vent means this coat is not meant for riding.

Tan Cavalry Twill

Frank Foster made the ecru shirt, with a spread collar and double cuffs. Moore wears an olive satin tie, tied in a four-in-hand knot. Moore’s trousers are tan cavalry twill, which is a heavy fabric characterized by double twill wales. Moore wears black socks and black slip-on shoes with elastic gussets, though black is at odds with the rest of the outfit where earth tones dominate. But black shoes are neutral and can be worn with anything, despite them not being the most stylish option.

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond wears a naval greatcoat over his naval uniform. The full-length greatcoat has a double-breasted front that buttons to the top with 10 shanked metal buttons, and Bond leaves the top buttons open. Shoulder straps hold Bond’s Commander rank insignia. The deep navy coat is most likely made of wool melton. It’s a heavy coat that keeps out the wind on the seas and keeps warm everywhere. Bond also wears a Royal Navy peaked cap with a white cover, a back band and a black peak with a row of oak leaves.

The naval uniform Bond wears underneath can be seen here.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service puts Bond on skis for the first time. George Lazenby was not allowed to be on skis for insurance reasons, and all the skiing was done by Luki Leitner or stunt double Vic Armstrong. This film also started the series’ relationship with skiier Willy Bogner and his line of clothing. Bond wears a sporty, tight-fitting blue ski suit with a white knit shirt with a short polo neck collar underneath. The ski jacket is mid-hip-length with a short stand-up collar and a zip front. The zip fastener has the famous Bogner “B” logo. The trousers are tight-fitting for wind-resistance. With the ski suit Bond wears black gloves, black ski boots and a navy blue knit hat. According to the book The Making of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Charles Helfenstein, Director Peter Hunt chose the blue ski suit because it was the same colour as the blue screen, and this would prevent the production from taking shortcuts by filming in the studio if problems arose. However, George Lazenby’s close-ups were most likely shot in the studio, perhaps using a different method.

In 1984, Roger Moore starred in a film called The Naked Face, boasting a supporting cast of  great actors such as Rod Steiger, Elliott Gould, Art Carney and David Hedison. Moore plays a psychiatrist named Dr. Judd Stevens, and he was dressed to look the part. The most obvious item that sets Dr. Stevens stevens apart from Bond is his glasses, though the jumper under the sports coat look is different too.

This entry will focus on the first sports coat Moore wears in the film, a light blue and beige barleycorn tweed two-button model. It’s probably not tailored by Moore’s tailor Douglas Hayward, but it still fits very well. The button stance isn’t as low as Hayward’s and the shoulders have a little padding, whilst Hayward’s have none. The shoulders are narrow and the overall cut is clean. It has flapped pockets, 4-button cuffs, light brown leather elbow patches and light brown horn buttons. The only concession to 80′s fashion is the vent-less rear, which is out of place on a sports coat.

Moore’s jumper and shirt draw colours from the sports coat. The light blue jumper has a v-neck collar and long sleeves. The ecru shirt is made by Moore’s usual shirtmaker, Frank Foster. It has a button-down collar and rounded 1-button cuffs that Moore was often wearing at the time. It has Foster’s placket front with his unique narrow stitching down the centre. As opposed to his usual flat front trousers, Moore wears dark grey trousers with forward pleats and plain bottoms. His socks are light grey and his shoes are brown slip-ons.

The charcoal flannel suit has made many appearances throughout the Bond series, sometimes as a 2-piece suit and other times with a waistcoat, as Roger Moore wears his in A View to a Kill. This suit is made by Douglas Hayward with natural shoulders, a low 3-button front and a single vent in the rear. The coat has flapped pockets and 3-button cuffs. The waistcoat has 6 buttons and the trousers have a flat front, straight leg and plain bottoms.

Bond’s shirt has a bengal stripe pattern in what is probably burgundy and white, with a contrasting white spread collar and contrasting white cuffs. The contrast collar was a symbol of power in the 1980s, though it’s origins are in the detachable collars and cuffs that are now relegated to daytime formal wear. The repp tie is bright scarlet, a colour that complements Roger Moore’s complexion very well. Bond’s shoes are black slip-ons. Though he doesn’t wear it, Bond places a light brown trilby on the hat rack when he enters the office.