Russian Sledges

My two history crushes ♥

The similarity between King George V(to the right) and Tzar Nicholas II(to the left) was so remarkable that they were often mistaken for each other.
The most embarrassing case of mistaken identity took place at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Mary of Teck, in 1893. During the wedding reception the Prince George was mistaken for Tzar Nicholas from one of the guests, who asked him if he came to London for state affairs or only for the marriage. The Prince George replied that as it was his wedding, he felt obliged to be present.

Nuremberg-based graphic designer and photographer Jan Erik Waider has traveled on numerous expeditions north to Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, and the Faroe Islands off Denmark where he shot these beautifully surreal landscapes of icebergs, glaciers and cliffs. I first stumbled onto his Icebergs in Fog series shot earlier this year in Ilulissat and Disko Bay in Greeland and then found his website where you can see all of these photographs in much higher resolution, really, go look, just incredible work. Despite the foreboding, harsh climate depicted in these photographs Waider seems to transform the landscapes into something strangely peaceful and idyllic. If you’re interested he has prints available on request and you can also follow him on Facebook. (via behance)

Ewww

Follow @drewtoothpaste on Twitter or join the TFD Facebook Page.

(NEW!) Drew's blog is The Worst Things For Sale.

A Ugandan bill that would threaten homosexuals with imprisonment, or in some cases death, has its roots in the shadowy American evangelical group known as the The Family.

Jeff Sharlet | Harper's | Aug 2010 [Full Story]

Japanese paper engineer Kota Hiratsuka has been creating beautifully complex origami mosaics that rely on cut and folded geometric patterns. He plans to sell the various templates as downloadable PDFs through his website …though not just yet, so stay tuned. See many more of his works here and on Flickr. If you liked this also check out the work of Matthew Shlian.

To mark the 200th year since the Brothers Grimm first published their Kinder-und Hausmärchen, Jack Zipes explores the importance of this neglected first edition and what it tells us about the motives and passions of the two folklorist brothers. The greatest irony of the numerous world-wide celebrations held this year to honor the 200th anniversary of the first edition of the Grimms’ Kinder-und Hausmärchen, published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815, involves the discovery that most people really don’t know the original Grimms’ tales or much about their lives. That is, most people have no clue that the Grimms’ first edition of 1812/15 is totally unlike the final or so-called definitive edition of 1857, that they published seven different editions from 1812 to 1857, and that they made vast changes in the contents and style of their collections and also altered their concept of folk and fairy tales in the process. Even so-called scholars of German literature and experts of the Grimms’ tales are not aware of how little most people, including themselves, know about the first edition, and ironically it is their and our “ignorance” that makes the rediscovery of the tales in the first edition so exciting [...]

IT IS not only wild-eyed prognosticators, in lonely towers with an owl for company, who predict the exact date of the end of the world. It has been marked in the diaries of popes, preachers and reformers. It has shivered the blood of a navigator nearing the edge of the globe, a delicate painter of the rites of spring, a serial killer, and the great brooding scientist who uncovered the secrets of gravity and light. It has been calculated from the alignment of planets, the track of comets, the birth of Antichrist (variously identified), the rate of global warming, nuclear build-up, intriguing palindromes or symmetries in dates, or the ever-gathering entropy of wickedness in the world. Some forecasters place it safely in the far future; others expect it imminently. Some, forgetful of the old tale about crying wolf, put out a prediction regularly. The most terrifying give no date exactly, like the hen in Leeds, in northern England, whose owner wrote “Christ is coming” on her eggs and pushed them back up again. The date to squawk about? 1806.

Updated October 7th 2015 (originally published December 20th 2012 to coincide with the end of the Mayan...Continue reading

Electrical networks emit such a constant, locally recognizable hum that their sound can be used to help solve crimes.

[Image: Random sound file using Sound Studio].

A forensic database of electrical sounds is thus being developed by UK police, according to the BBC. "For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London," we read, "audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity. It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air."

Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.

This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.

Even with—or, in fact, because of—slight fluctuations in the level of local electric power, such recordings can reveal sonic traces of where and when they were recorded; these barely audible details act as "a digital watermark," the BBC explains, secret audio artifacts that put "a date and time stamp on the recording."

You can thus acoustically prove that someone was in a certain part of, say, London at a certain time of day, and that a given audio recording is thus genuine (or faked), due to the exact signature of what electrical networks in that part of the city had been doing at the time.

It's like cosmic microwave background radiation, an immersive soundtrack—a sea of acoustic metadata—hidden in the built environment, detectable electronically, droning all around us at a volume usually below human hearing.

(Via New Aesthetic).

This morning most of the world woke up to discover that Time has selected President Obama as its 85th annual Person of the Year. In North Korea, however, the state news agency is reporting that Time's pick is actually its young supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un. "The U.S. magazine The Time selected the dear respected Kim Jong Un as 'man of 2012.'" reads the official report (pictured at right).  

Well, they aren't that wrong — not as wrong as when The Onion tricked China's People's Daily into believing Kim Jong-un was the Sexiest Man Alive last month. And it's a little tricky: Obama took the top honor for the second time (third if you count that whole "You" thing) from the magazine's editors, and Kim didn't even make the shortlist. But the North Korean leader did win an online reader poll last week ... because the hacker collective 4chan rigged it. So the magazine didn't exactly "select" him as "man of the year" — Time lost the gender bias in 1999 — so much as a bunch of pranksters did. Oh yeah, and 4chan also ran a script to spell out "KJU GAS CHAMBER" on the Time poll's results:

So looks like 4chan picked pretty much every person of the year candidate this year, and in order, at least as far as North Korea's newspeople can tell. Hopefully one of the hackers will let them down easy.

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[MaiDreamin at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza/Yattar News]

Japanese "maid café" MaiDreamin is expanding to the United States with the opening of a Los Angeles branch in summer 2013, and the company is apparently eyeing Boston as another potential target, according to AnimeNewsNetwork.com. Last week, a Massachusetts resident posted on the company's US Facebook page asking for a Boston location, to which MaiDreamin responded, "We're thinking about that ;D." The very enthusiastic resident, surely speaking for maybe one or two other people, continued, "What can we do to convince you??? Let me know! We'll rally! We'll march in the street! :)"

Described as a "theatrical entertainment restaurant," MaiDreamin is one chain amongst an increasing number where waitresses act (and dress) like French maids, pretending that diners are their "masters and mistresses" in a private home. The food is generally typical café fare, but the waitresses often decorate it at the table, drawing cute designs with condiments like syrup and ketchup.

Some maid café chains offer additional services and features: waitresses may spoon-feed customers, provide grooming and massage services, or play card games, for example, at least according to Wikipedia.

The English version of the MaiDreamin website offers some interesting insight into the restaurant via the FAQs page. For example:

Q: How old is Maid?
A: She is Everlasting 17 years old.
Q: Where does maid go from?
A: She is from various planet.
Q: Can we present for maid?
A: I'm glad only with your feeling.

The MaiDreamin chain currently operates 11 restaurants in Japan with a Thai location in the works. Los Angeles will be the first in the United States. Other companies have apparently previously opened maid cafés in the US without much success.

· Akihabara Maid Café Opening Branch in Los Angeles [AnimeNewsNetwork]
· Maid café [Wikipedia]
· MaiDreamin.USA [FB]
· MaiDreamin.com [Official Site]

Inside one of the biggest antiquities-smuggling rings in history.

Patrick Radden Keefe | New Yorker | May 2007 [Full Story]

YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO THE ARTISAN CHARCUTERIE PLACE?

DAMN IT, I HAVE TO WORK. DOUBLE SHIFTS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. WE’RE HAVING A CHRISTMAS SALE. OLD TIMEY SHAVING BRUSHES AND RUSTIC POCKET KNIVES ARE HALF OFF. 40% OFF ALL SUSPENDERS AND MONOCLES. IT’S CHAOS. WE CAN’T KEEP THEM IN STOCK. I’D CALL IN BUT TIMES ARE TOUGH, YOU KNOW?

I HAD TO SELL MY PENNYFARTHING LAST YEAR, AND EVEN WITH MY WORK DISCOUNT I CAN BARELY AFFORD MOUSTACHE WAX AND LONG JOHNS EVERY MONTH.

ANYWAY, I’LL SEE YOU AT THE URBAN FARMERS GUILD MEETING THIS WEEKEND. TELL EVELYN I SAID HELLO.

Boston Public Library posted a photo:

File name: 10_03_000954a
Binder label: Laundry
Title: Buy the Empire Wringer. First dispute between Christopher Columbus and the American Indian -- over the "Empire." [front]
Date issued: 1870-1900 [approximate]
Physical description: 1 print : chromolithograph ; 12 x 8 cm.
Genre: Advertising cards
Subject: Men; Laundry; Appliances; Indigenous peoples
Notes: Title from item. Retailer: L. W. Brock, No. Conway, N. H.
Statement of responsibility: Keystone Installment Co.
Collection: 19th Century American Trade Cards
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: No known restrictions.

Costume design comes in three main forms: visible (the 1950s, Dior inspired gowns in Anna Karenina for example), invisible (the impeccable yet subtle military uniforms in War Horse) and subtextual – those apparently commonplace costumes that actually possess a hidden meaning, a concept employed most effectively this year in horror satire The Cabin in the Woods.

The film’s costume designer Shawna Trpcic created a subtle reversal for the main characters – five archetypes from horror movie folklore. Think of the teenage victims in Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th; they are all variations of the underwear flashing tramp, the bespectacled academic, the jock in his Varsity jacket, the plain shirt wearing innocent girl and the scruffy stoner. The Cabin in the Woods establishes these personalities, stereotypes really, in the first ten minutes, only to change them around completely during the first act. Costume is one of the most ingenious signifiers of this.

The Cabin in the Woods screenwriters Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard put considerable thought into how the costume could and would evolve in the film’s original script. Costume designer Shawna Trpcic then created mood boards to establish she had understood the transitions, followed by sketches and finally shopping for the garments themselves.

The first of the archetypes we meet is Dana, dancing in her knickers in front of an open window and revealed to have recently had an affair with her tutor; obviously she is the tramp or Whore (Kristen Connolly). Then we see her friend Jules in a floral dress and new blonde hair. Jules (Anna Hutchison) is in a stable relationship with boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth); Jules is the innocent girl or Virgin. Curt wears a plain grey t-shirt and is evidently book-smart; he is the geek or Scholar. Curt’s friend Holden (Jesse Williams) arrives catching a football in a blue hooded sweatshirt; clearly the jock or Athlete. And finally pot smoker Marty in a shabby cardigan and shirt; Marty (Fran Kranz) is the stoner or Fool.

All but one of these characters undergoes a costume transition. According to Shawna Trpcic this was absolutely intentional. Even early camera tests were undertaken in full costume to ensure these changes could be noticed and read by an audience. The transition begins at the gas station scene when a few clothing layers are added and The Harbinger oddly refers to Jules not Dana as being the Whore. However the main costume evolution is undertaken later at the cabin; this is where all the teenage characters become the different archetypes they have been moulded into in order to be sacrificed for the sake of humanity.

Outside of the teenage characters, further costume clues can be seen on those who manipulate the ritual sacrifice. During initial celebrations at their success in the Operations Room, one man can be seen wearing a leather vembrace implying he is the dog trainer of the monster world – basically a ‘monster vet’.

Curt is now seen in a green Varsity jacket acting uncharacteristically boorish; he has become the Athlete. Dana is buttoned up in a neat cardigan, sitting quietly; she is the Virgin. Jules is suddenly dancing around in tiny denim shorts and an open top; she is the Whore. Upon entering the cellar Holden puts on a pair of spectacles thus becoming the Scholar. And finally Marty, the Fool, whose appearance does not change because, thanks to all the pot he smokes he is immune to the mind altering drug that affects his friends.

Each character is in place as the stereotypical American slasher movie victim. Their seemingly ordinary clothes are not coincidence but clues. Costume notes abound in this film for all the teenage protagonists, even Marty whose lack of a change is a clue in itself. Also note The Director’s, who wears long black gloves to imply a physical and emotional detachment from the ritual sacrifice that she must perform. For aficionados of the horror genre this is contemporary costume design at its most readable. A jacket is never just a jacket; it is always there for a reason.

With thanks to Shawna Trpcic.

This article is an updated transcript taken from Clothes on Film editor Chris Laverty’s segment on BBC Radio 4’s The Film Programme discussing the subtextual costume design of The Cabin in the Woods. The BBC audio version can be streamed or the podcast downloaded HERE (the segment is about 25 minutes in). Worth a listen if you like English accents..

© 2012, Chris Laverty.

1. Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman Costume: Full Paparazzi Reveal
2. Alien Anthology: A Revolution in Sci-Fi Costume Design – PT2

The world's religious make-up

RELIABLE data on the age and whereabouts of the religious and irreligious are hard to come by, which makes a new report on the topic from the Pew Research Centre welcome. Among its many findings is that Jews and Buddhists make the biggest religious minorities, in the sense of living in a country where another religion is dominant. Asia has by far the largest number of people who claim not to believe in any religion, something that is explained by China's official godlessness. Despite this, though, China has the world's seventh-largest Christian population, estimated at 68m. The report also contains data on people who call themselves religious but do not adhere to any of the Abrahamic religions, Hinduism or Buddhism. Here again Asia is dominant, largely thanks to the popularity of Shintoism in Japan.

 

Photographer Alfred Stieglitz self-portrait, c. 1894, age 30. Holy shitsnakes, I was born in the wrong era. I’d travel time for Stieglitz in a heartbeat.

-Bee

Less than 24 hours after announcing a controversial policy change, Instagram has now withdrawn the policy change. Which is to say, they will not put users' photos in ads. Instagram hastily released the following announcement on Tuesday afternoon. In part, it says: [ more › ]

Which way to the Swedish meatballs?

You may recall that last week, I gave you Liza Minnelli, my diva of Christmas past. This week, continuing on our Ebony Scrooge journey, I present to you my diva of Christmas present: Darwin, the Rhesus Macaque in the shearling coat. This little bugger got lost among the Bestå and the Pysslingar in a Toronto IKEA (his owners should have dropped him off in Småland).  Already armed with his own twitter account, Darwin now lives at an animal rescue and has been permanently separated from his signature outerwear. In honor of Darwin’s brave and epic adventure, I present to you #OnTheTown: The one with Darwin the Rhesus Macaque and his shearling coat!

Per usual, tweet me at @khemingway with your favorite #BostonArts-going (and favorite IKEA product)!

 

Two Gentlemen of Verona @ Actor’s Shakespeare Project

Anyone who’s been to IKEA knows that it is the ultimate tax on any relationship—just ask Liz Lemon. Ever the forward thinker, Billy Shakes wrote a play about that very topic! Well, not including IKEA, but certainly featuring his usual comic elements of silly young people in love, something getting in the way, girls dressing like boys, and happy surprise endings! Also, did I mention that fiercy fierce John Kuntz is in it?

Two Gentlemen of Verona: By William Shakespeare; Directed by Robert Walsh. At the Davis Square Theatre; 255 Elm Street, Downstairs, Somerville; actorsshakespeareproject.org. Through January 6. @aspboston

 

Hallelujah! @ Boston Gay Men’s Chorus

Fashion is something that’s very important to Darwin, his now-iconic shearling jacket making almost as many headlines as he did! Fashion is also something that gay men know a thing or two about. Incidentally, a big, giant group of gay men are singing holiday songs this weekend! The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus annual holiday concert is always a sight to behold, and its outrageous costumes and choreography are sure to put a smile on your face.

Hallelujah: Conducted by Reuben Reynolds. At Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston; bgmc.org. Through December 17. @bgmcevents

 

 Arabian Nights @ Central Square Theater

Darwin the Rhesus Macaque isn’t the only amazing thing to come out of South Asia—some awesome folktales did, as well! The fabulous Nora and Underground Railway Theater Companies have combined forces to bring back last winter’s smash hit Arabian Nights, an adaptation of the traditional Persian folk tales combines puppetry, suspense, romance, and comedy. A great family-friendly show, this would be a fabulous option for entertaining some out-of-town relatives this holiday season!

Arabian Nights: Based on One Thousand and One Nights; Adapted by Dominic Cooke; Directed by Daniel Gidron. At the Central Square Theater; 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; centralsquaretheater.org. Through December 30. @centsqtheater

WHY IS THIS A THING

Dear Peter Jackson,

How are you? I hope you and Fran are doing well, and that you're planning on doing something fun for the holidays. So then. I've got something I need to get off of my chest.

Where to begin? First of all, I'm a big fan. Love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I even like King Kong, though I do think it would have benefited from a little editing. When I heard there was a Hobbit movie in production a few years ago, I was extremely excited. When I heard that Guillermo del Toro was dropping out and you were taking over... honestly, I was a little worried.

Sure, The Lord of the Rings films are some of my all-time favorites. And, sure, I love your work. But, the thing is, I've seen this before: a big genre director decides they know how to call the shots. Suddenly, they're their own producer, and no one's nixing their bad ideas.

The truth is, I got a little worried. Sure, I was still excited to be returning to Middle Earth, but deep down, I was concerned. Jump ahead to a week or two ago when the early reviews started to appear. While the Lord of the Rings had glowing reviews, these were far more mixed. Sure, it's still on the "Fresh" side of things over on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's close: 66% Fresh, as of this moment.

That was when I got really worried. I started to think that maybe you'd gotten full of yourself, that you'd lost perspective. I started to think you'd gone the way of Lucas, Cameron, Raimi, and others.

Well, I just saw The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey, and I think you know where this is going.

Mr. Jackson, I am so, so sorry I doubted you: that movie was fucking awesome.

Where to start? How about the opening 45 minutes that critics are whining about. As a lifelong Tolkien fan and geek, every second was an absolute joy. After a fantastic nod to your first trilogy, you transitioned right into The Hobbit. And that sequence was a pitch-perfect adaptation of the book, at least to my memory. My favorite part of the movie, in fact. The singing, the jokes, and the fun of the book were all there.

As the movie progressed, you walked a tightrope between Tolkien's book and your other trilogy, and you did so masterfully. Navigating the tonal differences must have been frightening, but I thought you pretty much nailed it. Can I find moments to nitpick? Sure. But nothing all that major.

I hesitate to judge the critics too harshly yet. You see, I sidestepped the largest issue: the 48 fps, which just about everyone despised. I saw this in 2D on a "normal" screen, so it's certainly possible my enjoyment was tied to that choice.

I'll know better after I see The Hobbit in a different format. Even if everyone's right about it detracting from the film, I'll always have the option of shutting my eyes and enjoying the music.

Oh, one more thing. The movie felt a little short to me. Can't wait for the extended cut.

Sincerely,
Erin Snyder

The annual harvesting of cranberries has to be one of the most ingenius methods of fruit farming there is. Every fall after the berries ripen on the vine, instead of being picked by people or machine the fields are flooded with water from a nearby reservoir. Because the berries are filled with air, all it takes is a gentle nudge from a special tractor to knock them loose and float them to the surface where they are quickly and easily collected by the tasty, tart kabillions.

Lucky for us a film crew over at Redbull asked the important question: “What would happen if you pulled a wakeboarder through the ocean of cranberries and filmed with high speed HD film?” This glorious video is the result. The team assures us that no cranberries were injured during production. (via devour)

Boston Public Library posted a photo:

File name: 08_06_029161
Title: Holy family in action at the Garden
Creator/Contributor: Jones, Leslie, 1886-1967 (photographer)
Date created: 1950 - 1959 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 negative : film, black & white ; 4 x 5 in.
Genre: Film negatives
Subject: Basketball players; Basketball
Notes: Title and date from information provided by Leslie Jones or the Boston Public Library on the negative or negative sleeve.
Collection: Leslie Jones Collection
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Copyright Leslie Jones.
Preferred credit: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Boston Public Library posted a photo:

File name: 08_06_029169
Title: Action at Holy Cross - St. Louis game
Creator/Contributor: Jones, Leslie, 1886-1967 (photographer)
Date created: 1952
Physical description: 1 negative : film, black & white ; 4 x 5 in.
Genre: Film negatives
Subject: Basketball players; Basketball; College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Mass.)
Notes: Title and date from information provided by Leslie Jones or the Boston Public Library on the negative or negative sleeve.
Collection: Leslie Jones Collection
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Copyright Leslie Jones.
Preferred credit: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Boston Public Library posted a photo:

File name: 08_06_029739
Title: High school cheerleaders at Boston Garden
Creator/Contributor: Jones, Leslie, 1886-1967 (photographer)
Date created: 1934 - 1956 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 negative : film, black & white ; 4 x 5 in.
Genre: Film negatives
Subject: Basketball; Cheerleading; Boston Garden (Boston, Mass.); Boston (Mass.)
Notes: Title from information provided by Leslie Jones or the Boston Public Library on the negative or negative sleeve.; Date supplied by cataloger.
Collection: Leslie Jones Collection
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Copyright Leslie Jones.
Preferred credit: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Alexander Safonov is a software architect from Voronezh, Russia who currently lives and works in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. Not content to sit in front of a computer full-time he obtained a diving license in 2002 and started to experiment with underwater photography about two years later. He has since made numerous excursions to photograph underwater wildlife off Cocos Island, Fiji, the Galapagos and Raja Ampat. However his favorite destination is the annual sardine run off the coast of South Africa where most of the photos you see were captured over the last few years. You can see much more of his work on Flickr and 500px.

Building the world's tallest skyscrapers

SKYSCRAPERS typically take a long time to build. The top 20 tallest (currently completed) towers in the world took, on average, 5.3 years to construct. But a company in China called Broad Sustainable Building, with a track record of putting up buildings in a jiffy, is now planning to construct the world’s tallest building—838 metres—in just 90 days. It will be called Sky City One and is to be built in Changsha, capital of Hunan province. This speed is made possible by a novel technique: most of the components are prefabricated on the ground, so the construction process is more like stacking Lego blocks together than building everything on site. The result, if the schedule is adhered to, will be that the building grows by an average of nine metres per day. That is ten times the rate of the next-fastest skyscraper in our chart, the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931. Quite a tall order, in short.

Sean Connery getting fitted for one of his classic suit jackets by Anthony Sinclair.

Along with the requisite high-tech gadgets and gizmos, it wouldn’t be a James Bond movie without 007 sporting an impeccably fitted dinner jacket (usually accompanied by some high-stakes hijinks).  The dinner jacket—or tuxedo, as it’s less elegantly referred to in the United States, or smoking (as in le smoking), as it’s wonderfully called in some parts of Europe—has been around since the late 19th century when the Prince of Wales lopped of the tails of his tailcoat for less formal, but still fancy, dinner parties. It’s thought to have made its way across the pond after the prince invited the wealthy James Potter of Tuxedo Park, New York, to his estate in 1886. For the occasion, Potter had a dinner suit made at the prince’s British tailor, Henry Poole & Co. When he returned to the States, he wore the get-up to his country club, the Tuxedo Club, and thus tuxedos were born in the U.S.

More tailoring of Connery’s jacket by Sinclair at his shop on Conduit Street in London’s Mayfair district.

Sean Connery, along with some expert tailoring, established the classic Bond dinner jacket look. Made by bespoke tailor Anthony Sinclair, the first dinner jacket premiered on the silver screen in the 1962 Bond film, Dr. No. Sinclair was known for crafting a slimmer-fitting, pared-down style of suiting, or the “conduit cut” as it became known.

Sean Connery in Dr. No, 1962.

The comprehensive site The Suits of James Bond details the inaugural dinner jacket:

The shawl collar and all other silk trimmings are in midnight blue satin silk. A nice feature is the silk gauntlet cuffs, the turn-back at the end of the cuffs. It’s an Edwardian decoration, and perhaps the only purpose of them is when they wear out they can be replaced. Otherwise, the cuff fastens normally with four silk-covered buttons. Like any proper single-breasted dinner jacket, this one fastens at the front with only one button.

Roger Moore in The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974.

The 1974 Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun, introduces us to the white dinner jacket (cream dupioni silk, to be exact). While most of 007′s dinner jackets over the space of 23 films are timeless, this one, worn by Roger Moore, is more pre-disco, with its wide lapels, oversized bow tie and Moore’s Bain de Soleil bronzed complexion. Again, The Suits of James Bond explains:

The cut is Cyril Castle’s classic double-breasted 6 button with 2 to button and has a narrower wrap. The shoulders narrow and gently padded. The jacket has double vents and the pockets are slanted and jetted. The cuffs button 1 with a turnback detail and don’t have the link button feature that Roger Moore wears on his other suits in the film.

Daniel Craig in Skyfall, 2012.

Fast forward to Daniel Craig as James Bond in the recently opened Skyfall. Classic and updated for 2012 (and paired with a less treacherously oversized bow tie), the Tom Ford navy suit jacket has that super-fitted, semi-shrunken look of a Thom Browne suit. Deferring to The Suits of James Bond for jacket details:

The shoulders are straight and narrow with roped sleeveheads. It’s a traditional button one with a shawl collar, faced in black satin silk. Also in satin silk are the buttons and pocket jettings. The dinner jacket has three buttons on the cuffs and a single vent, a first for Bond on a dinner jacket. I’m not sure the reason why a single vent was chosen; it’s too sporty for semi-formal wear and it’s really only something Americans do. It’s the only non-traditional detail in the outfit.

Forty of the exact same suit, with slight variations, were used to make Skyfall (reinforced knees, blood splattered or longer sleeves, depending on the action-packed sequence). Thankfully, no ruffled polyester shirts, belled pant legs or turquoise cummerbunds were harmed in the making of this latest Bond thriller.

Paul Slade | Planet Slade |

Reverse engineering the details of a murder that took place in St. Louis on Christmas Night in 1895 from over a century of popular song.

[full story]