007 Ways James Bond Breaks Style Rules (And Gets The Girl)
[0:00:00] So, the first style mistake that James Bond
has made consistently over the years, wearing the wrong size suit. Let's go back to the
1980s. Look at Timothy Dalton playing James Bond, look at the size of the suits he's wearing.
Now, a lot of this has to do with fashion trends that were popular. The Armani suits
that time period really brought in that loose oversized look. But, yeah, even James Bond
is not immune to fashion trends. Fast forward 30 years, we have Daniel Craig
playing the iconic spy. Look at the fit of his suit. A lot of people felt it was way
too close to the body. Now, Daniel Craig's got a nice body, but when they look at the
fit of the suit, yeah, they felt it was one size, maybe even two sizes too small.
So, what's my opinion? Do I think Timothy Dalton is a victim of fashion? Do I think
Daniel Craig would go the entire day without breathing? Yeah. They maybe were a little
bit of a victim of the time period of the costume designers, but I do think that, hey,
these guys put this stuff on and they looked at themselves in the mirror, they felt great.
And, that's why James Bond was able to get the girl. That's why James Bond was able to
walk into the room and own it. And that's why you whenever you put on a suit that fits
you well and you actually like the fit, you'll be able to walk in with confidence.
And that's what I want you to take from today's video, gents. If you look at yourself in the
mirror and you're confident with how you look, it doesn't matter what other people think.
Guys, if you've got the confidence if you practice wearing that clothing, you will be
able to get the girl just like James Bond. The next mistake that the James Bond occasionally
makes, not wearing the right watch for the occasion. Now, I've tried to make this really
simple for guys, I've created this whole infographic. You can actually grab it. I will link to it
down in the description. But, in this infographic, do you notice what
watch you should wear with black tie? It's actually a trick answer. You shouldn't wear
a watch with black tie. You shouldn't even be worried about time. But, I know a lot of
guys are still going to want to wear watch, so for that occasion you should wear a dress
watch. A dress watch is defined as a watch that has
a leather band and a very simple dial. But, what does James Bond wear? Well, in Casino
Royale, he's wearing his Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean. Is this a dress watch? No, it's a dive
watch. It's a really nice dive watch, but it's still a sports watch. Not one that you
probably should wear with black tie. Yet, he pulls it off. He looks great.
And that's what I want to stress here. Yes, you can break the rules. I think he knows
what the rules are, but he decides to break it. He's got a little bit of a navy heritage,
Commander Bond, and he realizes that, you know what? I'm going to bring this into my
black tie. More likely got product placement. But the point is it's a great-looking watch.
And, again, when you know the rules, you are able to break them. And, you remember that
part where Vesper noticed the watching gave him a compliment? Yeah. She's the best Bond
girl ever. And if she liked that watch and she approved of it, yeah, that's all you need
to be able to break the rules. Next up, let's look at Sean Connery playing
James Bond in the movies Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice. Great movies, I absolutely
love Sean Connery. And look at his choice of neckwear, and notice what he's wearing?
A knitted silk tie. Now, what's going on here? He in -- and we
go back and you read the books you'll notice that James Bond is only wearing silk ties,
not knitted ties. And knitted ties are more casual. So, is this a mistake? Well, technically
it is, but who's going to go up to James Bond and say, “Hey, that's a knitted tie, you
shouldn't be wearing that.” No. I think he's able to pull it off. It looks great.
And let's look at Daniel Craig in Spectre. Again, wearing another knitted tie. Now, this
time he's wearing a more casual suit and I think it works well. But, what I love here
is James Bond is working with the times. When they wrote the books, this was a time – this
was a different time period, it was a bit more formal.
What we're seeing is a transition to more casual clothing with James Bond. I really
like it even though Ian Fleming may feel it's kind of breaking the rules with what he wrote
for James Bond. The next rule that we see James Bond break,
and I think he does a great job breaking it is wearing a short sleeve shirt with a suit
jacket or a sports jacket. And, we see this -- actually, Ian Fleming actually had this
preference. I have this preference as well especially when you're in a hot area.
And, yes, you're supposed to wear a shirt that you show about a quarter to a half an
inch of cuff. That is the general rule when you're wearing a formal suiting. But, what
about more casual suiting what about in hot weather? Yes, I think you can wear a polo
and wear it with a suit. I think that you can even wear a short sleeve button-up shirt.
Yes, a lot of people don't like them, they feel that, oh – and, maybe if you're in
NASA in the 1950s, it's a good look. No, James Bond is able to pull it off. Again, look at
Casino Royale, a great look. He had a jacket, he took off the jacket. Again, it helps if
you've got a good body. I think that's the key with short sleeve shirts is you need to
make sure you got the guns for it, make sure you've got the build.
Long sleeve shirts when they're rolled up in general are going to look better. But,
I get it in hot weather, it's a great look especially when you put on that jacket, very
few people will ever notice, and if they do, well, you’re James Bond, you'll just, yeah,
you'll take care of them. Now, this next mistake we see in the movies
Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Diamonds Are Forever. The mistake, the bottom button
on the suit jacket, buttoned. I'm not sure what they were thinking here because really
there's not a reason to do it. Maybe I can see for an action scene not wanting to get
the jacket cut. That's the only reason I can imagine why.
So, here's a quick refresher. On a two-button jacket, the top button always when you're
standing the bottom button never. On a three-button jacket, the bottom button never, the middle
button, always, and the top button, well, it really depends on you and your own personal
preference. Button it if you want to give the jacket a more formal look.
[0:05:21] Oh, and on a side note, a two and a half which
is a three-button jacket that's actually designed to be worn as a two-button jacket, the rules
of the two-button jacket apply, never button that top button on a two and a half.
Now, the next mistake we saw in the movie, Spectre is that James Bond tried to pair a
jacket and trousers that were too close together. And, the issue here is it makes it look like
you're trying to put a suit together. Now, is anyone going to say anything to James
Bond especially with, you know, that Bond girl next to her? No. No. He – he is doing
great. But, for most of us, you don't want to go out there and try to pair and think
that you're going to pull off a suit when you got a black jacket with dark blue trousers.
You may say, “Oh, I look at myself in the mirror, it looks like a suit. It's good enough.”
No. Remember a suit is a jacket and trousers made from the same material.
All right. So, let's go to Live and Let Die, what do we see? Roger Moore pulling off the
Canadian tuxedo. I mean, maybe this worked in the 1970s, and I'm not going to knock this
look if you want to go for it. But, guys, I think for most of us when you're going for
the denim-denim, try to go with two different very different shades of denim or avoid it
entirely. Instead, bring in textured trousers. Look
to bring in your gray flannels. Look to bring in corduroys. Look to bring in some chinos,
but you don't necessarily want to go with that denim- denim look, you just -- there's
something off about it. Again, if you're going to do it, go for maybe a really dark jacket,
light-colored jeans, or dark-colored jeans with a light-colored denim jacket.
Next up, you want the necktie length to be correct. Diamonds Are Forever, let's look
at James Bond. I don't know what happened here, but this is, yeah, this is pretty bad,
guys. Avoid doing this. Now, how long should your necktie be? So,
whenever you wear a necktie, it should go to the center of your belt buckle. Yeah, it
can be about half an inch to three quarters of an inch higher, three quarters of an inch
longer. But, understand if it goes well past your belt buckle, if it's an inch above your
belt buckle, you probably want to retie that necktie.
So, for this next mistake, I'm getting a little bit nitpicky here, but let's look at GoldenEye,
Pierce Brosnan. And, he was suited by Brioni, but what we notice here, that necktie that
pocket square, a little bit too close. In fact, you could even say that they're matching.
Now, I don't think they were exactly matching here, but what I will say is you should really
try to go for a necktie and pocket square combination that complement each other, not
exactly match. And so many guys fall into this trap. They go in there and they buy a
pocket square they buy a necktie combination that is exactly the same.
You don't want to do that. You want to go for something that complements each other.
You want to make sure in that pocket square, I mean, you got a little bit of color that
works with your entire outfit and has one little bit of color that's the same in the
neckties. All right, gents. So what to watch next? How
about how to dress like the Kingsmen? I had a lot of fun with this video. If you haven't
watched it yet, it's a great one. Go check it out, guys. I will link to it down in the
description. [0:08:06] End of audio