Stirred, not shaken

Aston Martin's Volante leaves you grinning from ear to ear

By Jackson Lynch for The Daily, Sunday, September 23, 2012

 

Like millions of car enthusiasts I got my first glimpse of the Aston Martin DBS back in November 2006 while sitting in a darkened theatre watching Daniel Craig as the new 007 in "Casino Royale". Aston's 007 heritage is sterling - the DB5 was the original Bond "car" - and when Craig's 007 lit off in the DBS on a rain-soaked Montenegrin road to save colleague and lover Vesper Lynd my heart rate spiked at the distinctive V12 roar that came pumping out of Britain's premier luxury sports car.

It didn't take long for the word to spread and the orders to come piling in at Aston for the DBS. So imagine my giddy joy nearly six years later as I donned my Anthony Sinclair bespoke suit, crafted by the same Savile Row tailoring house that outfitted Sean Connery in the first Bond films, knowing that I'd be driving the convertible version, the DBS Volante for The Daily later that September morning.

Buckled up and settled into the luxurious black leather, aluminium and carbon fiber cockpit, a push of the electronic key into the center console and the DBS immediately kicked over with its signature guttural note that positively announced its presence. Warm rays of Southern California sune were just peeking through the marine layer so down went the top and off I sped toward the Pacific Coast Highway and a serpentine circuit through the twisting canyon roads of the Santa Monica Mountains that I'd mapped out for my pleasure.

Rolling along surface streets and the freeway the Aston was deceivingly plush in the standard press-the-D-button-on-the-console-and-drive mode. And when it came time to make a hard right up a canyon and take the twisties I pushed the "race" suspension button, grabbed a downshift on the F1-like steering wheel mounted paddle shifter and in seconds the Volante was gobbling up pavement at an increasingly thrilling rate of speed. Deftly diving in and out of rights and lefts, cambered and off-cambered turns and quick changes in elevation and road conditions challenged my taste for the edge more than this super car's abilities. The seemingly perfect combination of power, balance, suspension and steady fade-free stopping provided by the carbon ceramic brakes created a confidence-induced euphoria as I railed through turns like a slot car at speeds most passengers were surely to white nuckle.

If this car's 510 horsepower 6-liter V12 doesn't light you up, then the stereo most certainly will. Bang & Olufsen created a 1,000-watt audio system with nifty pop-up dash-mounted tweeters that's clear and punchy and utilizes fantastic adaptive controls that sense the road, speed and whether the top is up or down to tailor the volume and response to the conditions.

A couple hundred turns with that stereo blasting and at least that many grinning ear-to-ear thrills later I begrudgingly made a left back onto the now-traffic-choked Pacific Coast Highway, casually switched from racy to round-town mode again and basked in the sun while enjoying many a thumbs-up from oncoming cognoscenti. A couple hours later I handed over the Aston's key, drove my own racy little car (which by then seemed like a road weary '62 VW Bug) and adjourned to the bar for the requisite vodka martini with a couple mates who were jealous they hadn't been invited along that day, yet massively eager to hear my tale about how I had the chance to be Bond for a day in one of the world's most acclaimed luxury super cars.

A special thank you to Jackson Lynch for his kind permission to publish the above article on this blog.

Made in England

The hugely successful exhibition, "Designing 007 - 50 Years of Bond Style", has now finished it's term at the Barbican Arts Centre in London and is being prepared for the next leg of a three year world tour which opens at the TIFF Bell Lighthouse in Toronto, Canada on the 26th October 2012.

At the beginning of this year, the organisers of the exhibition had commissioned Anthony Sinclair Ltd to recreate some of the iconic suits originally made by Sinclair for Sean Connery in the early Bond films. The process of remaking the original outfits has been detailed in previous blogs. It was also followed by video director Andy Smith who has produced the excellent short film, "Made in England", which interviews those involved in the project.

Designing 007 - 50 Years of Bond Style
TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto, Canada
26th October 2012 - 20th January 2013
http://tiff.net/bond

Harper's Bazaar at Anthony SInclair

We were delighted to welcome Avril Graham, the Executive Fashion and Beauty Editor of Harper's  Bazaar, during her recent visit to London. She kindly recorded the event for part of her 2012 Olympic Style Report:

 

The ties that Bond us

To coincide with the launch of our necktie collection we have invited New York based writer Matt Spaiser to create a guest blog to consider the neckwear choices made during Sean Connery's tenure as 007. Matt is one of the world's foremost experts on Bond style and regularly shares his encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject on his own wildly popular blog "The Suits of James Bond".  

Sean Connery pairs a dark solid tie with his Anthony Sinclair suit

A staple of the Sean Connery Bond wardrobe is the dark solid tie. In Dr. No and From Russia With Love that tie is always a dark navy grenadine tie from Turnbull & Asser. But do not confuse that with the silk knit ties that he wears throughout Goldfinger. Whilst the grenadine might look similar in texture to the knit tie, they are completely unrelated. Most people are familiar with the knit tie, which somewhat resembles a sock. It’s a tube of knit silk with a straight hem at the bottom, though some can be found with triangular bottoms. Some have a seam in the back whilst others do not. Though most knit ties are made of silk, cotton and wool knit ties are not uncommon. It’s a casual tie, which might seem like an oxymoron these days, but Ian Fleming did like to wear other more casual items with his suits like slip-on shoes and short-sleeve shirts. The silk knit tie is was worn by the literary Bond and makes it to a few films as well.

The classic "blunt-end" knitted necktie

Moonraker is the first of Ian Fleming's novels to mention a "black knitted silk tie," and in From Russia With Love it completes the picture of Bond:

"It was a dark, clean-cut face, with a three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of the right cheek. The eyes were wide and level under straight, rather long black brows. The hair was black, parted on the left, and carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow. The longish straight nose ran down to a short upper lip below which was a wide and finely drawn but cruel mouth. The line of jaw was straight and firm. A section of dark suit, white shirt and black knitted tie completed the picture."

In The Spy Who Loved Me and The Man with the Golden Gun, Fleming elaborates on the tie calling it a "thin black knitted silk tie."

The "casual" silk knit tie combined with formal three-piece suit

And that is the tie that Sean Connery wears with a number of outfits in Goldfinger. He also wears a navy silk knit tie with the famous Prince of Wales check suit and a light brown knit tie with his tweed hacking jacket. We only see Connery wear a knit tie again in You Only Live Twice, in navy blue. George Lazenby continued with knit ties throughout On Her Majesty's Secret Service in navy and red. Later, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan all wore a knit tie once.

Though it has a passing resemblance to the knit tie, the grenadine tie has nothing in common. Grenadine silk is woven, not knit, and the tie is constructed like any normal tie: it has folds, an interlining and, of course, a triangular tip. It’s a luxurious silk, very delicate and much more formal than a knit tie. Grenadine ties are almost always appropriate when a tie is called for. Since they are typically found in solid colours they are very easy to match, but the interesting texture sets them apart from other solid ties. In black it makes an excellent funeral tie, and this is exactly what James Bond wears to the funeral at the beginning of Thunderball. Connery wears grenadine ties in all his Bond films except Goldfinger, in black, dark and light navy blues, brown and grey.

The Grenadine (garza grossa)

All grenadine silk is woven in Italy. There are two different types of grenadine silk: garza grossa  and garza fina, the former being the type that James Bond wore. Turnbull & Asser still makes garza grossa grenadine ties, and their silk is heavier than the typical garza grossa grenadine. Anthony Sinclair's new grenadine ties use the same exact silk as Turnbull & Asser, but in a narrower width closer to what Connery used to wear. Some prefer garza fina grenadine and insist that it's the only real type of grenadine. It's not as delicate as garza grossa grenadine, and the weave has a much smaller repeat that resembles a honeycomb. Grenadine ties are a staple of high end shops in London, though in the States garza grossa grenadine ties are becoming more difficult to find.

Knit and grenadine ties have a place in every man's wardrobe. They complement shirts with bold stripes and sports coats with loud checks just as well as they complement solid suits and shirts. They are always easy to match and travel well. Connery's Bond shows that having knit and grenadine ties in each of navy, black and brown can easily cover all tie-wearing needs.


Anthony Sinclair Limited would like to thank Matt Spaiser for his kind contribution of a most interesting and informative guest blog. To view the Anthony Sinclair necktie collection click here. 

Recreating a Masterpiece (Part 007) The Show

The journey that has followed twelve weeks of tailoring, several months of planning, fifty years of business development and two centuries of Savile Row history, draws to a close with the opening of the largest exhibition ever to have been staged by the Barbican Arts Centre in London.

The "Goldfinger Suit" at the Barbican

The response so far has been satisfying:

"Sean Connery, looking devilishly dapper in his period Anthony Sinclair suit leaning on the DB5 at the show's entrance" Daily Telegraph

"The Dr. No evening suit is the most important suit in cinematic history" GQ

"The Conduit Cut by Anthony Sinclair is the men's equivalent of a Chanel suit" Vogue 

"Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style" opened yesterday and runs until 5th September 2012.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/bond/

Recreating a Masterpiece (Part 006) The Make

Precis of previous blogs:

To help celebrate the Golden Anniversary of the Bond films, the Barbican in London is hosting an exhibition entitled, "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style". However, most of the clothes made for the first actor, Sean Connery, have long disappeared, and so EON, the film's producers, have approached Anthony Sinclair to request faithful reproductions of some of the pieces originally made by the company. These include the famous evening suit worn by Connery in his first appearance as James Bond in the 1962 film, "Dr. No", along with everyone's favourite - the grey Prince of Wales three-piece "Goldfinger Suit". The records of production of these suits have also vanished from Sinclair's archives, and so, with the help of the exhibition's curators, the specifications for the remakes have been put together piece by piece. The cloth has been chosen, the design determined, the measurements and dimensions established; a paper pattern has been created and the cloth has been cut. Now the skills of a highly experienced tailor are required to craft the component pieces into beautifully finished garments - just the way Sinclair would have expected them to have been made 50 years ago.

The final stages of the process begin

  
Savile Row and its Mayfair environs have been synonymous with style, quality and taste for over two centuries, with the bespoke tailors of the district setting the international standard for gentleman's dress throughout that time.

During the 18th century, Paris had been the dominant cultural force in Europe, with the decadently flamboyant court dress of silk stockings, delicately embroidered coats and powdered wigs influencing men's style across the Continent.

King Louis XVI succeeded to the French throne in 1774 when he was only 19 years of age. The government was deeply in debt at the time and he oversaw a period of economic decline that together with growing discontent of the country's population towards absolute monarchy were contributing factors to the French Revolution in 1789. The King and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, were removed from the Palace of Versailles and imprisoned in Paris pending their death by guillotine in 1793.

King Louis XVI in full court attire

     
The French Revolution marked the end of the ancien regime and the influence of Parisian courtiers on the world of male fashion. The responsibility of instructing gentlemen how to dress now fell into the hands of another royal confidant, the English dandy, George Bryan Brummell, commonly known as "Beau" Brummell.

Brummell was an iconic figure in Regency England. An arbiter of men's style and taste, he was a close friend and sartorial advisor to the Prince Regent the future King George IV. He established the modern way of dressing, rejecting the overly ornate look popularised by the French in favour of understated, but perfectly fitted, tailored clothing.

Brightly coloured silken robes, knee breeches and stockings were replaced with dark coats and full length trousers worn over immaculate shirt linen and elaborately knotted cravats. It is claimed that he took five hours to dress and often had a coterie of admirers present to witness the marvel. To complete his pristine appearance he would demand that his boots be polished with Champagne. 

"Beau" Brummell - the original dandy

In the late 18th century an Austrian tailor, Jonathan Meyer, established a tailoring business at 36 Conduit Street. By 1800, Meyer was making clothes for both Brummell and the Prince Regent. It is believed that around this time Meyer and Brummell collaborated to produce what was to become the contemporary trouser - a garment that Beau Brummell subsequently introduced to London society and something that has remained standard gentleman's attire ever since.

In the 1830s the Meyer family joined forces with Edinburgh tailor John Mortimer to establish a new company Meyer & Mortimer. The company was bombed out of it's Conduit Street premises during the Second World War and relocated to nearby Sackville Street to share headquarters with another tailoring firm, Jones, Chalk & Dawson. The practice of sharing premises is common amongst West End tailors, and that custom continues today as indeed the Anthony Sinclair business currently resides with these two historic firms at no.6, Sackville Street.

In the years after the Second World War, bespoke tailoring businesses began to return to Conduit Street, and by the 1950's Cyril Castle and Anthony Sinclair were in residence. Following the prolonged Post War period of rationing and austerity, demand for tailored suits had begun to increase, and in turn there was a need for skilled hands to produce the work. They arrived in good number from a former British colony, Cyprus - a small island country renowned for the tailoring skills of its inhabitants.

At the beginning of the Second World War there were around 8,000 Cypriots in London. Immigration began to increase as a result of inter-communal violence on the island during the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters campaign for independence from Britain which started in 1955. Migration peaked following independence in 1960, with around 25,000 Cypriots migrating in the year that followed. Amongst them was a young tailor called Peter Meliniotis whose talent was spotted by Anthony Sinclair who immediately recruited him as a coat maker.

Peter Meliniotis at his "board"

Peter worked for Sinclair both during, and subsequent to, the Bond years, going on to make work cut by Richard Paine when he took over the business from his former master in 1986. He continues to produce a limited number of superlative garments for the company today, and was naturally the only craftsman considered when the time came to reconstruct the classic pieces that had originally been made for Sean Connery during those early days.

Experience and expertise are the defining characteristics of a skilled artisan, and Peter has an abundance of both. He is one of a significant number of tailors who have arrived in London from other parts of the world eager to employ and develop their talents alongside fellow craftsman who have spent a lifetime honing their skills.

The historic tailoring houses of Mayfair are supported by coat, vest and trouser makers representing a host of nationalities, from Greek Cypriots, Italians and East Europeans to Chinese, Indian and African citizens, each benefitting from the knowledge that has been handed down from one generation to the next throughout the extraordinary 200 year history of the home of British tailoring - from Brummell to Bond and beyond.

Recreating a Masterpiece (Part 005) The Cut

Precis of previous blogs:

To help celebrate the Golden Anniversary of the Bond films, the Barbican in London is hosting an exhibition entitled, "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style". However, most of the clothes made for the first actor, Sean Connery, have long disappeared, and so EON, the film's producers, have approached Anthony Sinclair to request faithful reproductions of some of the pieces originally made by the company. These include the famous evening suit worn by Connery in his first appearance as James Bond in the 1962 film "Dr. No" along with everyone's favourite - the grey Prince of Wales three-piece "Goldfinger suit". The records of production of these suits have also vanished from Sinclair's archives, and so, with the help of the exhibition's curators, the specifications for the remakes are being put together piece by piece. The cloth has been chosen, the design determined, the measurements and dimensions established. The next step of the process is to cut paper patterns for the new suits and in turn cut the cloth.

The most critical part of the process begins

Former Sinclair apprentice Richard W Paine is the man charged with the job of cutting the patterns for the recreation of Connery's original suits. He is unquestionably the most qualified person alive to execute the task.

As a schoolboy, Richard worked as many hours as possible for a busy tailor's shop in the East End of London, learning how to prepare bastes (first fittings) which were often made from canvas or calico to produce a toile which the customer would try on before his actual cloth was cut.

His enthusiasm and aptitude for tailoring saw him secure a formal apprenticeship at the age of 16, not with Anthony Sinclair, but with a close friend and Conduit Street neighbour, Cyril Castle.

In 1962, whilst Sinclair was creating the suits for Sean Connery's first appearance as James Bond, Castle undertook a similar exercise for another unknown actor, Roger Moore, who had been cast as Simon Templar in The Saint (a television adaptation of the Leslie Charteris novels). Moore had jokingly suggested that the role was meant to have been played by Sean Connery ... but he was otherwise engaged.

Roger Moore as Simon Templar in "The Saint"

The Saint brought worldwide fame to Roger Moore. The series ran from 1962 for six years with 118 episodes, making it the longest running series of its kind on British television. Towards the end of the decade, Moore began to tire of the role, just as Connery was becoming weary of playing Bond.

Keen to branch out, Moore made two films soon after The Saint series ended: Crossplot (1969), a lightweight spy-caper, and the more challenging The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970). The films didn't receive particularly good reviews and were not a box office success, but they provided an opportunity for the actor to demonstrate a wider versatility than the television series had allowed.

As Sean Connery made his return to the role of James Bond in 1971, Roger Moore was lured back to television, starring as Brett Sinclair (no relation) alongside Tony Curtis in what was to become another cult series, The Persuaders, which tracked the adventures of two millionaire playboys around Europe. Moore reportedly received £1million for the first series, making him the highest paid television actor in the world at the time. For the wardrobe, he retained the services of his tailor Cyril Castle, ably assisted by his young apprentice Richard Paine.

Roger Moore as Brett Sinclair in "The Persuaders"

   
In late 1971, after serving five years of his apprenticeship with Cyril Castle, Richard joined Anthony Sinclair to complete his training, but Sinclair had already tailored the last of the suits he was to make for Sean Connery. The Bond film Diamonds Are Forever was released in December 1971, and it was to be Connery's last appearance in an EON production.

The following year, the search had begun for Connery's replacement. The film's producers, Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli, had dismissed the idea of casting Roger Moore as 007 both before and immediately after his role in The Saint, although Connery had predicted that Moore would make an ideal James Bond. They reconsidered the actor early in 1972 but he was contracted to Lew Grade's ITC for a further series of The Persuaders.

The ratings for the crime-busting  television series had not been quite as successful as hoped, and Roger Moore was released from his contract, enabling him to accept the offer of a three-picture deal from United Artists in August 1972. The job of tailoring suits for the new James Bond was assigned, not surprisingly, to Cyril Castle.

Roger Moore and Sean Connery ... Bonding

In an extraordinary incident of unfortunate timing, Richard Paine had arrived at Anthony Sinclair just after Anthony had completed the last of Connery's Bond suits, and departed from Cyril Castle not long before Cyril was to cut the first 007 outfit for Roger Moore, and so, Richard hadn't actually had a direct hand in creating a James Bond suit ... until now.

It was with great relish that Richard set about the the most critical part of the adventurous challenge of attempting to recreate some of the most iconic clothes ever made. The build was about to start and Richard was the architect who would be relied upon to deliver the blueprint.

Richard often talks proudly of how, as a young schoolboy, he was consistently top of his Technical Drawing class - clearly an early indication of his innate ability. He also fondly recalls his later teenage years when he learnt his practical tailoring skills in the workshops, together with the theoretical knowledge gained from four years of night-school at the long defunct Tailor and Cutter Academy (paid for by himself from his meagre apprenticeship earnings). Richard was dedicated and determined to achieve his dream of becoming a West End cutter.

By the time Richard joined Anthony Sinclair he had received his Academy Diploma and gained sufficient experience from his time with Cyril Castle to qualify for the privilege of being taught the discipline of cutting by one of the great masters of the sartorial art.

Richard W Paine cuts the new pattern

With a set of rudimentary tools - tape measure, rule, square, curve and pencil - together with a sheet of plain brown paper, Richard begins to draft the pattern. He marks the lines and curves - some are guided precisely by the tools, with others by eye and a swift flourish of the hand. He performs mental arithmetic aloud (in halves, quarters and eighths), scribbling notes as he goes along and muttering to himself, "Yes ... that's how Tony would have done it".

The outlines of the forepart, back, side-body and sleeve start to appear. Richard picks up his paper shears (a gift presented to him by garment technologist he had helped in Japan in the 1980's). Piece by piece the pattern parts are neatly cut and set aside. There are two separate forepart patterns - one for the notch lapel Goldfinger suit, and another for the elegant shawl-collared evening suit. The trouser and waistcoat patterns are cut, and the template is complete.

Richard elects to strike the pattern (mark out and cut the cloth) of the evening suit first. It is a plain, midnight-blue Barathea with a slight texture. It won't slide around on the cutting board, and the white chalk-marks will be clearly visible against the dark cloth. It is a straightforward job for him as a warm-up for his cutting shears (handed down to him by his former master, Anthony Sinclair).

The Goldfinger suit represents a greater challenge. It is a very subtle Prince of Wales check created from two similar shades of grey yarn. In some planes of light the check is barely visible, but Richard must ensure that it is cut in such a way that the checks match perfectly on the suit when it is made. The maestro performs his magic, and the cloth is soon cut and rolled into a bundle ready to be trimmed (matched with all of the other material components required to make the suit) before being sent to a very special tailor who anxiously awaits it's arrival.