THE JOY OF BONDING
Causing a stir is almost the stipulation of Dashing, enjoying the frisson as you enter a room whilst remaining unshaken is the joy of dressing the part. Life should have a mission, to arrive with purpose and leave with intent is as good a decree as any. It takes a certain confident panache to dress up and keep your cool, something we admire from British characters who perhaps spy for the country.
I’ve long been a fan of Ian Fleming’s writing, he knew his way around Savile Row and could flag up the villain through a terse mention of his dress “Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad.” Said he cutting through the English disguise of the psychopathic killer in From Russia with Love. The louche villain Count Lippe was also not to be trusted for the ‘casually well-cut beige herringbone tweed that suggests Anderson and Sheppard’ Having an educated eye for clothing is of life saving importance for Bond and so it should be for all of us.
The great joy of fashion is that it is always changing with the times, often turning full circle, and so most of us took great pleasure as the latest embodiment of Bond turned up on the red carpet in a fabulous Anderson and Sheppard pink velvet double breasted jacket, causing such a stir that the cloth merchant Scabal totally ran out of the velvet in hours. There were many takes on the cerise statement but I like to think it points us all in the right direction to embrace colour and confidence, heralding a new era where men can reclaim a certain dandyism and just enjoy dressing up in well tailored clothes regardless of perceived old school stereotypes.
Tweed of course has always been the go to cloth for Bond at leisure in the country, almost all of Bond’s incarnations have sported classic tweed suits and the odd Raglan sleeved Balmacaan coat. We have several classic British wool tweeds that would fit Bond’s bill and of course others that would delight the more flamboyant Mr Craig. Whichever takes your fancy be sure to add Dashing Tweeds to your next shopping mission. Dressing badly may well mark you out as a villainous cad but dress well and you never know whom you may bond with.