Dressing like Mr. James Bond

Halcon · October 2011

Hello friends,

(just killing time)this morning, i was evaluating my closet , deciding what to throw out and what to keep...

8 or 10 years ago my wardrobe consisted of a few, er, a lot of flashiness or color whatever you want to call it. I wasnt afraid of wearing a lot of purple, pinks, various shades of yellow , teal, (by this i mean mostly shirt and tie , pocket squares colors,). Back then i very much appreciated Bond's minimalist style but i felt that i was a tad more confident in wearing color.

but something happened (maybe gotten older?) and my taste has completely changed. i'm not afraid to wear color every once and a looong while, but my standard uniform is now VERY formal (black suits mostly, some dark greys) and ties in various styles in black, some grey and silver, white pocket square.

i say uniform because it is the ensemble i really prefer now and its one that people now correlate with me (you know, repition and all that....)i want to say Bond's style had something to do with this.

anybody else been influenced in this same way?

77007 · October 2011

In a way I've been influenced as well in a casual wear sense. Between the latest Bond films and just getting older I felt the need to change. I've always been about dark colors and even the same casual clothing worn by Bond recently. It's more about the fit and completing the look through the whole outfit.

I don't really look or feel thirty, but I have to face that I am. It was time to update to a more age appropriate look. My clothes were just too loose for the most part. Not super baggy or anything, but ill fitted is how i'd describe most of my older clothing. I'm trying to get away from the skate and basketball shoes as well, and help dress up my casual wear. It's a slow process, but I'm the middle of replacing my old wardrobe with sharper and more serious edged pieces.

pyrat · October 2011

77007 you made me smile. If you think 30 is getting old, you ain't seen nothn' yet..

) In fact Fleming had Bond in his early 30's so you are perfectly positioned.

Halcon, when I was a kid clothes were a bit more outlandish, then I went through the more Bond-like phase which worked quite well in a work environment. As I get older I seem to be transitioning more towards a Sam Axe kind of look, but then Florida will do that to you.

Halcon · October 2011

77007 wrote:

In a way I've been influenced as well in a casual wear sense. Between the latest Bond films and just getting older I felt the need to change. I've always been about dark colors and even the same casual clothing worn by Bond recently. It's more about the fit and completing the look through the whole outfit.

I don't really look or feel thirty, but I have to face that I am. It was time to update to a more age appropriate look. My clothes were just too loose for the most part. Not super baggy or anything, but ill fitted is how i'd describe most of my older clothing. I'm trying to get away from the skate and basketball shoes as well, and help dress up my casual wear. It's a slow process, but I'm the middle of replacing my old wardrobe with sharper and more serious edged pieces.

well its a good thing that you are a aware that you must transition into more age appropiate attire. i'll tell you this at 32 im more confortable in my skin than ever before, and my 'age appropiate' ensembles seem to flatter me more, at least thats what some very hot girlfriends of mine tell me.
in other words your comfort in more 'grown up' clothes should make for a very positve experience.
...else be tagged as jershey shore manufactured...

Halcon · October 2011

pyrat wrote:

77007 you made me smile. If you think 30 is getting old, you ain't seen nothn' yet.. ) In fact Fleming had Bond in his early 30's so you are perfectly positioned.

Halcon, when I was a kid clothes were a bit more outlandish, then I went through the more Bond-like phase which worked quite well in a work environment. As I get older I seem to be transitioning more towards a Sam Axe kind of look, but then Florida will do that to you.

Sam Axe, ha!
semi-tommy bahamma no? i actually like tommy bahama...

pyrat · October 2011

Halcon, Bruce Campbell is a Tommy Bahama collector. The early episodes of Burn Notice, first two seasons I believe, he was wearing his own shirts, then Tommy Bahama started providing them for him and I understand now some of the shirts are one offs. I'm lucky to have a Tommy Bahama outlet store near by so when they do the 50% off sales I raid them mercilessly.

Halcon · October 2011

Pyrat

Love those outlet stores in Florida...

thesecretagent · October 2011

77007 wrote:

In a way I've been influenced as well in a casual wear sense. Between the latest Bond films and just getting older I felt the need to change. I've always been about dark colors and even the same casual clothing worn by Bond recently. It's more about the fit and completing the look through the whole outfit.

I don't really look or feel thirty, but I have to face that I am. It was time to update to a more age appropriate look. My clothes were just too loose for the most part. Not super baggy or anything, but ill fitted is how i'd describe most of my older clothing. I'm trying to get away from the skate and basketball shoes as well, and help dress up my casual wear. It's a slow process, but I'm the middle of replacing my old wardrobe with sharper and more serious edged pieces.

If you feel 30 is something to face then you haven't made the most of it so far. You only worry about the benchmark years when either a goal, lifestyle or status you feel you should have achieved has not been reached. Amateur psychoanalysis over.

)

77007 · October 2011

thesecretagent wrote:

If you feel 30 is something to face then you haven't made the most of it so far. You only worry about the benchmark years when either a goal, lifestyle or status you feel you should have achieved has not been reached. Amateur psychoanalysis over. )

Thanks doc, I'm fine but if you want to give me a card to a visit the Mary Jane dispensary I'll take it. :007)

To be clear I was not implying 30 as that old of an age. Just a fashion benchmark that should be adjusted to accordingly. Some styles you just can't get away with forever.

zaphod · October 2011

Just bought a Black knitted Tie

thesecretagent · October 2011

77007 wrote:

thesecretagent wrote:

If you feel 30 is something to face then you haven't made the most of it so far. You only worry about the benchmark years when either a goal, lifestyle or status you feel you should have achieved has not been reached. Amateur psychoanalysis over. )

Thanks doc, I'm fine but if you want to give me a card to a visit the Mary Jane dispensary I'll take it. :007)

To be clear I was not implying 30 as that old of an age. Just a fashion benchmark that should be adjusted to accordingly. Some styles you just can't get away with forever.

You mean my baggy jeans with eight inches of boxer short showing, chains threaded between my legs and skater T's are too much for forty? I'll have to turn my cap round the right way now...

)

Actually 77007 - don't know where that post came from - must have been a few beers into the evening - surprised I can type that well to be honest. -{

Halcon · October 2011

thesecretagent wrote:

77007 wrote:

thesecretagent wrote:

If you feel 30 is something to face then you haven't made the most of it so far. You only worry about the benchmark years when either a goal, lifestyle or status you feel you should have achieved has not been reached. Amateur psychoanalysis over. )

Thanks doc, I'm fine but if you want to give me a card to a visit the Mary Jane dispensary I'll take it. :007)

To be clear I was not implying 30 as that old of an age. Just a fashion benchmark that should be adjusted to accordingly. Some styles you just can't get away with forever.

You mean my baggy jeans with eight inches of boxer short showing, chains threaded between my legs and skater T's are too much for forty? I'll have to turn my cap round the right way now... )

Actually 77007 - don't know where that post came from - must have been a few beers into the evening - surprised I can type that well to be honest. -{

Fred Durst still dresses that way...

CmdrAtticus · October 2011

Interesting post. It's funny, but I always dressed conservatively, even in the 70's when fashion sense just left the planet altogether. I think I was rebelling against the people who were rebelling??? After being in the Navy and living in Europe, I was able to discern the difference between fashion and style. Asking the advice of women always helped as well, unless they were trying to use you as a Ken doll to dress up (which is why Ken never looked uber masculine). Rather than follow the dress of entertainers or people in the fashion industry, I looked at what men in powerful positions wore, in business or at leisure (and this is along the lines of how Bond dresses and has dressed - minus a few eccentricities such as the short sleeves and loafers with formal suits). As far as the colors you mentioned - what the experts say is to find your skin and or "seasonal" color (winter/spring/summer/fall). Dark haired men usually fall into the winter/summer color range and light haired men in the other two. Then given that choose the palest of these for the shirts in business and leisure wear, but one can go for darker or more intense in the casual dress.
Getting back to Bond being an influence - I'm sure the films do that for all of us at certain times (and of course when we reach Bond's actual age range it looks more appropriate). However, I still maintain a weather related approach to my wardrobe. Living in Florida, I dress in lighter shades of everything except when I'm wearing navy, so white and khaki and light to med grays and blues are my mainstays. On bad weather days (especially when it's overcast and or raining all day) I will switch to darker colors and shades. If I lived in a northern climate, I would maintain this attitude, though I would still wear white or very light pastel shirts to punch through the darker parts of the wardrobe (and dark grey days!). Then, there is the jeans question. In Florida, I really don't get it. From late spring to almost Halloween it's incedibly hot and humid here, yet a huge percentage of people in all age ranges and both sexes and income levels wear jeans! There is nothing as hot and restrictive and uncomfortable to wear in this climate, and yet, there they are! Mine only come on in the winter months and thats it. The rest of the time it's tropical worsteds, cottons or linen/cotton combos.
I think your trend in wearing more predominently dark clothes may indeed have something to do with your aging, but then...has anyone noticed the invasion and complete takeover of black in mens suits in the past decade? When I go into a department store (even a high end one) the men's suit department looks like it's stocked for funerals! What's going on with that??? You actually have to go to a tailoring establishment to see any other color in the suits. Now, maybe this is just happenening in this country, I don't know (any overseas members see this as well?).

Dressing like Mr. James Bond

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