Licence to twill – Bond Tweed’s secret formula

The jacket, which Bond wears during the famous scene in the film in which he drives an Aston Martin DB5 up a mountain, will be made from a revolutionary new type of cloth that is water resistant, anti-bacterial, feels lighter than the traditional fabric and doesn’t need to be dry cleaned.

It will be embedded with tiny particles, similar to those used in Teflon, to allow water to roll off the material rather than soaking it. Microparticles of silver will also act as an anti-bacterial agent, keeping the jacket as smooth and fresh as its original fictional wearer.

The jacket, which is currently in development, is expected to grace international catwalks this winter and will be designed by Anthony Sinclair, the Savile Row tailoring firm which designed all Connery’s outfits in the Bond movies. It will retail for between £2,000 and £2,500.

“It’s about capturing the spirit of Bond, but doing it in a way that is fresh and modern,” said David Mason, director of Anthony Sinclair. “It’s using a modern interpretation of an incredibly traditional cloth and remaking a garment for the 21st century. Harris Tweed has always been renowned for its practicality and longevity, but these anti-bacterial and water-resistant qualities make it really exciting.”

Harris Tweed Textiles will make its Carloway Lifestyle Cloth at the Carloway Mill on the Isle of Lewis before sending it to textile finishers WT Johnson in Huddersfield. It has been in development since July 2010 and was released on the textiles market last month.

Malcolm Campbell, the sales and marketing director for Carloway Mill, said: “We wanted to rejuvenate the Harris Tweed industry and come up with something that’s different and innovative that would appeal to the younger customer. We weave the cloth on the Isle of Lewis and then send it to be finished at WT Johnson.”

Campbell said the material was receiving interest from a number of big-name designers. “We have already had a great amount of interest in the fabric both at home and abroad,” he said. “We are sampling to Hermes and Dior, to Harrods and Burberry, and we’ve had a lot of interest from the US and Japan.”

The cloth will be used by the pop band Florence and the Machine, who have bought 50 metres of the tweed to use in outfits for upcoming stage shows. “It has a cool, modern image that appeals to younger customers,” said Campbell.

The new version of the Bond hacking jacket will be handmade in a process that takes about 50 hours. Prospective purchasers can expect to have three fittings, and wait around three months before being able to wear the finished article. However, Mason said a less bespoke version will also be made available for between £500 and £1,000.

“We’ve got manufcaturing partners who we’re working with who will do a made-to-measure version as opposed to full on bespoke,” he said. “It will not be the same laborious process but it reduces the price dramatically.”

Anthony Sinclair became Connery’s tailor after they were introduced to the film star by Bond director Terence Young, who wore Sinclair’s suits himself. Legend has it that Young made Connery wear the suits 24 hours a day – even when he was sleeping – in preparation for his role as Bond.

Connery liked them so much that Sinclair, who died in 1982, continued to provide the suits for all Connery’s Bond movies. So intertwined were Sinclair’s suits with the image of Bond that when George Lazenby arrived for his James Bond audition, he wore a Sinclair suit.

The Savile Row firm now recreates a number of bespoke suits worn by Bond, including the dinner suit that provided viewers with their first glimpse of 007 in Dr No, and a grey suit in Prince of Wales cloth, which was seen in Goldfinger.

“After those two, the most common request we have from people is for the Harris Tweed hacking jacket,” said Mason.

He is working on a number of Bond outfits for an exhibition at London’s Barbican celebrating 50 years of the secret service agent on screen.