The Suits of Kingsman: The Secret Service

Last week, we did a deep dive on the marvelous suits of Harry Hart, the secret Kingsman agent better known as Galahad. This week, we’ll look at some of the other mouth-wateringly perfect suits on display in this homage to both classic spy flicks and classic English tailoring.

Lancelot’s is the first Kingsman suit we see, and it’s a doozy. It’s a three-piece suit, which we adore. No, really, we love a good vest. A sophisticated light moss-green milled wool with a slate blue windowpane check, it features double vents, which are better for strenuously subduing a room full of assailants, three buttons on the jacket, four on the vest, with notched, slightly narrow lapels. It's not a sophisticated city look, but an admirably sophisticated and appropriate country look. He is, after all, conducting an abstraction high in the Andes, not on Pall Mall.

The pattern of the suit is reflected in the Viyella tattersall shirt, and the texture is set off by a hunter green textured tie. Lancelot also sports a pocket pouf in red with a foulard pattern of some kind. Of course, the ensemble is worn with brown shoes. Pity he had to die so soon; we’d have loved to have seen the pattern-on-pattern he could do with a City suit.

Arthur, the leader of the Kingsman Secret Service, plays the part of the snobbish aristocrat to perfection and then some. His suits, his shirts, while perfect on paper, always have a little too much, too “extra” to be authentically gentlemanly. He wears a pink striped shirt with white collar and cuffs, a look that went out in the Eighties and even the Eighties considered it flashy. That the villain Valentine wears a similar shirt might be foreboding through tailoring.

Arthur’s default Kingsman suit features peaked lapels, like all the other Kingsman city suits. The cut is identical for each Kingsman, but the lapels vary in width to suit each man’s frame. Arthur accents his look with a poufed pocket square featuring the Kingsman logo. His suit is in a sophisticated windowpane pattern, a brown on a mid-grey. He sets it off with a pink and black striped tie, in an ostentatiously wide knot, a little TOO wide for the collar, which is not quite a Spread collar. He wears French cuffs on his shirt, with rather ostentatious cufflinks. The jacket cut doesn't allow much space for shirt front since it's double breasted with the buttons up quite high and the result is to reduce the contrast of shirt and suit, lowering authority, although it's clear he's in charge, we see why later. Arthur is a man of secrets.

Merlin is not a suit man. Instead, as the Quartermaster, he wears the British Army Jumper known around the world for its suede shoulder patches. These are ace at keeping backpack straps in place and not wearing through. They are sewn on a delicious Shetland ribbed wool sweater in a heathered grey and mid-brown sued shoulder patches, teamed with moleskin trousers. The sweater features a V neck, showing off shirt and tie, high contrast white and navy. Like a gentleman, he knows navy goes with everything. His glasses are slightly nerdier looking than the others' as if they came from Los Alamos. And his watch has a leather strap and looks more rugged than the others’ as well. He has a distinct "down from the country" vibe.

While the cadets are in training, they wear Siren Suits modeled on a garment designed by Winston Churchill, for working in the country. These jumpsuits are a more tailored, structured version of overalls worn by mechanics the world over. Huntsman, the tailor who inspired Kingsman: The Secret Service, now offers them to their clients, and actually created the earlier garment for Churchill.

Their blog says:

This was inspired by Winston Churchill’s very own bespoke siren suit, commissioned by the Prime Minister to be worn during the night’s spent in the Cabinet War Rooms, ensuring that were he caught unawares at any hour, he would still cut a composed and sartorial dash. The Siren suit puts a onesie to shame and comes with an unbeatable back story! The Siren Suit is brought to life in the Kingsman movie by the team of Kingsman students, each one clad in a suit of a different classic cloth design. It has been made by limited edition as a ready-to-wear garment by the team at Mr. Porter, but is of course, available bespoke, right here at Huntsman where not only Mr. Churchill but a raft of fantastic Kingsman-like characters also graced our shop floor.

Eggsy spends most of the movie looking like a yob off the streets, which he is, although hardly a randomly-chosen one. Ballcaps, bomber jackets, and jeans falling off his butt have Arthur shaking his head and muttering about “those types.” When he’s finally gifted with a real (bulletproof) Kingsman suit, it shows the power of a beautifully cut, perfectly fitted suit. Even the Kingsman glasses suit him. His suit is in the classic Kingsman double-breasted cut, with a sharp white pinstripe and a bulletproof lining that comes in very handy for running through corridors infested with rifle-toting hostiles.

Eggsy’s transformation into a bespoke suit-clad gentleman spy is the best proof that while clothes don’t make the man, but they can certainly make him capable of winning a princess or taking a bullet or 60.