To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bond films, the Barbican in London is hosting an exhibit entitled “Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style” from July 6th to September 5th. For the costume exhibition of the show, EON, the production company behind the Bond movies, has enlisted the sartorial services of Anthony Sinclair, Ltd., the namesake and company of the tailor who helped turn an unknown rough Scottish bodybuilder named Sean Connery into the polished secret agent we met in Dr. No in 1962. No original pieces or records could be found in Anthony Sinclair’s archives, necessitating complete, faithful and painstakingly detailed recreations of the suits worn by Sean Connery during his tenure as a double-O agent in the British Secret Service.
These days, Anthony Sinclair, Ltd. is under the creative control of David Mason (@conduitcut), a former custom shirtmaker who honed his craft with Sinclair’s former apprentice, Richard W. Paine. This past weekend, NPR caught up with Mr. Mason to talk about the Bond suits and the bespoke backflips that needed to be done to make Connery look like a suave gentleman agent who was as comfortable as he looked in a tailored suit. Listen here:
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See the original post from NPR’s Weekends on All Things Considered here.
These days, many of Anthony Sinclair’s clients are requesting suits like those originally made by Mr. Sinclair for Connery. According to Mr. Mason, you can have the hands-down favorite of all Bond suits – the three-piece Prince of Wales suit Connery wore in Goldfinger – custom made for you for about $5,000.
I can tell you from personal experience… there is nothing like slipping on a custom-built suit. It’s our modern armor: a versatile, handsome and elegant armor. A man in a suit is a man looking his best. Just look at the rough Sean Connery who became the refined 007.
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