The perils of “Living Like Bond”
Arbogast 777
Minneapolis Posts: 595MI6 Agent
This is a topic that has been gnawing at me for awhile and today turned into a perfect one to write this post.
As most of us do here, we like to do things the Bond Lifestyle way, which at the heart of it just means to present ourselves well to the world. We dress well, groom well, etc, in order to put our best selves forward.
If I’m wearing anything Bond related, it’s really for my own amusement. I never bring attention to it, by pointing out a brand or a cost, or anything like that. I’m well aware of what an arse that would make you if you’re not careful.
Over the years though something else has begun to happen among my friends - they have become obsessed with everything I have on. Every time they see me they begin by inventorying everything I’m wearing, and the comments start coming about how he “always has to have the best,” etc.
Then came today. I’m meeting one of my lifelong friends (30+ years and I’m only 40) for dinner. This is the text I just received...
Am I over reading it or was that a not-so-subtle dig being shot my way? Does anybody else go through this in their daily lives?
I will be going to dinner in a Sunspel polo and chino’s, which I don’t feel is even that dressy. Before it might have been fun, but it’s gonna feel like I’m wearing a target now...
As most of us do here, we like to do things the Bond Lifestyle way, which at the heart of it just means to present ourselves well to the world. We dress well, groom well, etc, in order to put our best selves forward.
If I’m wearing anything Bond related, it’s really for my own amusement. I never bring attention to it, by pointing out a brand or a cost, or anything like that. I’m well aware of what an arse that would make you if you’re not careful.
Over the years though something else has begun to happen among my friends - they have become obsessed with everything I have on. Every time they see me they begin by inventorying everything I’m wearing, and the comments start coming about how he “always has to have the best,” etc.
Then came today. I’m meeting one of my lifelong friends (30+ years and I’m only 40) for dinner. This is the text I just received...
Am I over reading it or was that a not-so-subtle dig being shot my way? Does anybody else go through this in their daily lives?
I will be going to dinner in a Sunspel polo and chino’s, which I don’t feel is even that dressy. Before it might have been fun, but it’s gonna feel like I’m wearing a target now...
Comments
We are probably all on similar salaries but very different lines of work, nobody in my group has a chip on their shoulder in that regard which can sometimes be the case.
I get the odd joke about my new car though - but nothing serious!
One of my mates commented on my Rolex once and assumed it was fake! I did not even bother to correct him if I remember rightly!
Im guessing your mate was just fooling around, too hard to say without knowing them.
My friends and family may pass comment but generally it’s how nice something looks and if asked I will tell them the brand. They all know I collect Omegas so no real comment there. If I am asked the price I will tell them but I don’t go offering as I consider myself fortunate and it’s very humbling for me personally to own what I wear.
On my foreign travels recently I got some compliments on how smart I looked and Bond realated comments which was nice and certainly not courted (sometimes I was just wearing the brands and nothing directly Bond). One actually asked if I was gay because only gay men dress smartly and look after their appearance (apparently).
What I would say is that when I commissioned I once spoke to one of my instructors and asked why he commissioned from the ranks. His answer was it gave him the excuse to wear the sort of clothes he had always loved but never felt able to wear and he certainly cut a dash. Personally I changed my style of dress slightly (no jeans and trainers switched to shoes, chinos and oxford shirts with the odd jacket occasionally). Suddenly some associates commented on how I made them feel under dressed! But actually I just dressed a little smarter but the issues were theirs not mine. I had a reason to dress smarter so I did, but in no way did I do it to make others feel bad it just seemed to be a bi product of my decision for some. To combat that I compliment some of them and if asked gave advice and talked it 5hrough with others and slowly it became a non issue for all.
Now I am at a point in my life where I know what I like and I am comfortable with what I wear and I will wear what makes me happy. I like to look nice and if anyone acknowledges that it make the effort worthwhile but I certainly don’t go looking for them.
I would not take these comments as anything other than banter, if your friend truly has an issue it’s theirs not yours, if it has erked you then you can always discuss after all they are a friend right
Wear what you like and makes you happy, life’s too short to live any other way!
Cheers :007)
P.S You could always agree with the text and cancel until he is up to the required standard
Enjoy wearing your Bond gear and looking like Bond, and stuff what anyone else thinks - that's my take. -{
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Yeah, it went ok. His wife commented on my Omega, but I lived
Since you know MN - dinner was at the St. Paul Grille, and surprisingly a polo and chinos was overdressed 8-)
"...if the rest of you could shoot like them...I wouldn't care if the whole damn department was queer."
Still though, caring about how you dress in the 21st century is becoming something of a lost art with young people these days.
If I wore a suit here people would lose their minds, as they did with my last job tbh. Perhaps one day I will wear a suit daily, who knows. Until then I am "the best dressed scientist (I) ever saw" 8-)
This is a great post!
I my self come from a family of traders and soldiers (ma's and pa's side respectively) and I have always lived in an environment where people dress "nice and clean", but appropriate for the occasion. Never flashy, mind you.
This is probably why I like DC's tenure as Bond, he dresses mostly appropriate for the occasion, unlike RM->...
Anyways; when I met my future wife, she would get worked up (we were young back then) over why I always had to put on a shirt and jacket, more often than not a tie, as well as slacks, why not just a nice shirt and jeans when we would attend a party or visit friends/relatives. "You are not that rich your self, why do you dress like you are?" was the argument. And I would always, trying to be patient with her errors, explain to her, that this is the correct way to dress for a man of my background and profession, if I were to put on clothes that I have no connection to, it would look wrong!
Now that we are older and have been married since the ice age, it feels, she has confessed that it was my "enduring style" that attracted her to me (I suspect that she's taking a piss 8-) ).
Now that I'm old..... no, that didn't come out quite correctly, let's say more developed and secure in my style and life, I do experiment more with my way of dressing. I sometimes do venture outside the rigid box of my socioeconomic boundaries, but still do most of the time follow "the rules" laid down to me as a child; For example: from the beginning, even as a kid, I was required to wear a jacket and shirt with slacks for any "significant" travel, train or aeroplane and I still do. It makes me feel good, and it connects me with Bond while I whittle away the time with a martini in hand waiting for my boarding call.
So for me the style came first, then came Bond. I relish the chances of taking cues from Bond on style and dress, but I try not to copy.
-Mr Arlington Beech
Fast forward some years (25+) and recently I decided to ease of a little at home and actually purchased a Nike Tracksuit/ Joggers for slouching in (something I do very badly just not natural to me). The first time I wore it in and then out she turned her nose up and sent me back in to dress properly! - Oh how things have changed, so i was back into Sunspel, Chinos and Chukkas before I was allowed to go anywhere with her!
Its a funny old world, maybe her mum was right after all (though she would never admit it)
Cheers :007)