Sir Hilary Bray Day - we have all the tweed in the world
On 1st April, we choose to wear tweed and raise money for charity in homage to brass rubbing enthusiast Sir Hilary Bray and the man who brought him to life - George Baker.
For every person who posted for #SirHilaryBrayDay and tags us, we again donated to Papyrus - Prevention of Young Suicide. Find out more about this year’s chosen charity and the money raised so far here: https://www.licencetoqueer.com/blog/time-to-donate
What is Sir Hilary Bray Day?
As with that already-established date in the Bond fan calendar, Jim Fanning Friday, the idea for Sir Hilary Bray Day originated with a fairly-innocuous community interaction.
Never one to let a good idea get away, I decided to make Sir Hilary Bray Day ‘a thing’.
This is no April Fool! I went with the date of 1st April because that was George Baker’s birthday. His daughter, Ellie Baker, says he would have really appreciated the choice of date.
The character of Sir Hilary Bray has always fascinated me. This is something I spoke about in this video with Calvin Dyson. Whatever else we may have in common, we share a taste in wearing tweed!
When Bond goes under cover Bray, he emulates his attire, donning a tweed suit.
Bond actually wears a lot of tweed in the films. Matt Spaiser has written about this and here are some of Bond’s best tweed outfits (screengrabs from Matt’s article).
There are references to tweed throughout Fleming’s novels. In Casino Royale, the men quaffing champagne in an outdoor cafe are described as wearing “unseasonable tweeds” (it’s June, so a bit warm for tweed). In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond looks down his nose at “unwearable tweeds” in an airport gift shop. In Goldfinger and Thunderball, villains wear tweed and, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Living Daylights, so do members of the Secret Service.
Bond himself does wear tweed in the short story For Your Eyes Only.
You can read more about this in my article From a View to a Twill.
To discuss the use of tweed in the Bond books and films, I sought the expertise of artist Rosie Sherwood. Together, we discover that there's much more to it than just snazzy looking garments.
Rosie is the granddaughter of Bond actor George Baker and costume designer Julia Squire, who worked with John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean and many others. And if the name Sherwood sounds familiar, that's because Rosie is the sister of Bond author Kim Sherwood.
Rosie shares some lovely family stories before we embark on our exploration of tweed in Bond, in the books and the films (there's more tweed in Bond than you may realise!). We also talk about the fabric's comparable role in other British cultural exports such as Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders.
We recorded this podcast ahead of the very first Sir Hilary Bray Day on 1st April.
So join us in celebrating the tweed-wearing heraldry expert played by Rosie's grandfather in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (and impersonated by George Lazenby for the middle chunk of the film, but voiced by Baker). All you need to do is wear some tweed - we're pretty sure you'll own some already and, if not, we have tips on where to get hold of some.
Here’s an article we found of particular use in our research:
Gentleman's Gazette
https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/tweed-guide-harris-history-styles-patterns/
Thanks to Chris Eeles for help with the promotion.
Sir Hilary Bray Day 2024
Thanks to Christopher Morales for starting off Sir Hilary Bray Day in style with one of his brilliant #ThriftingforBond videos:
This fantastic animation was created by Charlie Marsh:
Original art by Pat Carbajal:
Matt Spaiser wrote a new article for his Bond Suits website:
A message from Kim Sherwood:
Biographical note:
The real life Hilary Bray was a lifelong friend of Fleming’s, someone he first met at school. Bray was there at the end of Fleming’s life too; he made all of the funeral arrangements after Fleming suddenly passed away.
