Bond's clothes in the books

Napoleon Plural

Or should this be in Memorabilia, etc?

South sea island shirts, kimonos... anything else? His garb is much discussed regards the films, from the Conduit Suit onwards, but does he have any brand names in the Fleming novels?

Has anyone ever seen a south sea island shirt, if that's correct?

Coldheart96

I believe it was "Sea Island" cotton shirts. Very light and luxurious fabric.

barracuda

Coldheart96 is correct, it is Sea Island Cotton, which is a high quality cotton that feels extremely soft.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossypium_barbadense#Sea_Island_cotton)

In about 1786, planting of Sea Island cotton began in the former British North American colonies, on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, when cotton planters were brought over from Barbados.[5] Among the earliest planters of Sea Island cotton in America was an Englishman, Francis Levett, who later fled his Georgia plantation at the outbreak of the American Revolution and went to the Bahamas, where he attempted to introduce cotton production, but failed. Sea Island cotton commanded the highest price of all the cottons, due to its long staple (1.5 to 2.5 inches, 35 to 60 mm) and its silky texture; it was used for the finest cotton counts and often mixed with silk. It was also grown on the uplands of Georgia, where the quality was inferior[5], and was soon surpassed in commercial production by another native American species, upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), which today represents about 95% of U.S production.

I've owned a couple of sea island cotton shirts. The first was tailored for me, the second I bought from Turnbull and Asser, who have supplied shirts for many of the James Bond films. Expensive, but well cut and supersoft.

CmdrAtticus

Fleming dressed Bond in the same clothes he wore himself. He had preferences for clothes that required the least amount of time to put on or take off, and whatever was the lightest or softest on the body, which is why he had his suits make with a lightweight tropical surge wool, his shirts made of silk or Sea Island cotton as well as his underwear. Even his ties were a soft knitted wool and tied in the easiest of knots. He hated buttons on cuffs, cufflinks and shoelaces (which is why Bond is always in loafers) - anything that would slow down the effort of dressing and undressing.