The boots on the other foot

When Matt Smith returned as The Doctor in A Christmas Carol, he did so in a totally revamped costume.

Like Peter Davison had back in season 21, it looked unchanged to the casual observer, but every single piece of his costume was different, with only the braces the same!

Gone were the distinctive Paul Smith PS shirts; the off-the-peg vintage Harris Tweed; was no more; and the unique All Saints Layer Boots were well and truly left at the door.

Their replacements, however, have been something of a double edged sword. Instead of highly distinctive - and thus identifiable - items from high street brands, we have either bespoke made such as the Shetland Tweed jacket; or such plain, bland items that almost any similar alternative would do, such as the plain blue shirt.

The new boots are no exception as they are suitably generic to be completely unattributable. Many fans have tried to find the boots, and have had reasonable success in finding alternatives that tick enough boxes to make them more than acceptable.

I have personally found a cracking good image of the new boots, and would put it forward as definitive reference material to work from.

It was taken on the Utah location shoot, and clearly shows the line of fret-worked holes across the bridge of the boot, the full height of the ankle and the number of pairs of eyelet holes: 12.

New arrivals at Olympia

When I returned to the Doctor Who Experience recently, I not only took some cool Panoramic views of the displays, I also saw some of the new additions, added since the start of Season Six.

The first thing struck me was the removal of the Pandorica, which has been replaced by

Michael Gambon – Kazran’s organ and Abigail’s chryo-freeze chamber.

In the Doctor’s costume display room the only thing I was aware had changed was a revised scarf on the Tom Baker display.

It still isn’t a screen-used one, but it has been lovely made to the exact pattern and colours of the original, so looks stunning.

The Jammiest Dodger of them all!

Had to share this one with you.

I was in M&S (Marks and Spencer) today getting some lunch, and I came across the most AWESOME Jammie Dodger I have ever seen!

It puts the one Matt Smith used in the shade - literally!

An encounter with Amy

The highlight for a lot of people at the recent London Film & Comic Convention was the attendance of Karen Gillan, and the chance to get an autograph and photo with her.

I signed up to the event too late to get a decent place in the queue for these, so I opted for the stalker approach, and hung around outside the exit point from the Q&A she did! (see right)

Look very closely and you can just see her red hair!

Well, I was lucky to get within a few feet of her as she passed by . . . .

Doctor Who Experience - in 3D!!!

I have got an absolute TREAT for you today!

This week I had the opportunity to revisit the Doctor Who Experience in Olympia, and thought rather than just get some more endless photographs of the displays, I would do something EXTRA special.

I know a lot of my readers are in the US, so are unlikely to get the chance to see the exhibition at first-hand.

So what I’ve got for you is the near next-best thing - a walk through the displays - in 3D!!!! Well, one of those panoramic views you can interact with.

First up is the line-up of The Doctor’s costumes, giving you a real sense of how they are presented.

The Ten Doctors

Prototype Shetland Tweed jacket FOR SALE

This jacket is now SOLD!

I have my Prototype Season Six Shetland Tweed jacket available for SALE.

Made from THE Shetland Tweed cut to make Matt Smith’s current jacket.
Screen-accurate buttons and elbow patches, lining screen-accurate as well.

I did cut the pattern based on my Suit Jacket Block, but the thickness of the fabric made it come up a bit smaller than I had planned!

The sizing is as follow:

Chest 37 to 38 inches

Sleeve length 26 inches

Overall length 31 inches

Across shoulders 18 inches

If you missed out on this jacket
and would like to commission
a made-to-measure one,
email me at tennantcoat@me.com.

London Film & Comic Convention 2011 -cosplay selection

After going on a Guided Tour Of London Doctor Who locations, how better to spend the afternoon looking around the London Film & Comic Convention in Earls Court.

I made it my mission to see if I could catch and photograph as many Doctor Who cosplayers as I could spot.
Here, grouped by Doctor, are the ones I could find.

Nobody seemed to dress as Doctors One to Three, but there were a couple of Fours, one of whom I had met before at the Time Quest event early last year.

I didn’t spot any Fives, but I did find a Femme Six!

Looking around I did then spy a total of three Sevens (though I only snapped two) and an equal number of Aces to go with them, one of whom had been my tour guide earlier in the day on the Doctor Who London Tour!

London Film & Comic Convention 2011 -report preview

I went along to the London Film & Comic Convention at Earls Court over the weekend.

I’m preparing a write up about it, but in the meantime here is a preview of the group photo of Doctor Who cosplayers on the Saturday.

Did I catch you in my group shot?
If so, post a comment below letting me know who you are.

Season Six Tweed jacket –A trio of Tweeds!

I’ve been working very hard the past few weeks, and here is the results of my labours!

Back in May I made a Prototype Tweed Jacket using the screen-used Shetland Tweed Fabric.

Since then I have radically revised my pattern; solved some issues I had with construction; and now made a couple of new jackets which I am pretty happy with.

I’ll post some detail pictures of them soon, along with some background as to how I cut and made my jacket.

Series Six Part One costume index

Last year I wrote a well-recieved Costume Index for Series Five, as well as an Appendix for the minor appearances since at the Proms and such like.

A Christmas Carol

The Christmas Special marks the first episode of Matt Smith’s second season, for which a new costume designer took over from Ray Holman, who had created the initial look for the Eleventh Doctor.

With a new set of eyes in control, the costume has gone some radical but subtle revisions.

Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening
NB For this episode only, this jacket did not sport the leather elbow patches seen during series five (see right)

Shirt Window pane dress shirt with mitred cuffs

Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)

Bow Tie Self-tied burgundy plain woven silk

Boots Black, unknown brand

Accessories The Doctor is also briefly seen sporting a furry Christmas Santa hat (see left, top), and then the trusty fez (see left, middle), before wearing a Tom Baker style striped scarf (see left, bottom)

Also seen wearing For one scene set in 1950s Hollywood, The Doctor wears a classic white tuxedo, with a black self-tie bow tie (but untied) white dress shirt and black trousers (see below)

G-Star RAW Covent Garden store

I had a days work at an advertising agency in Covent Garden in London this week. Not particularly exciting stuff, but they like my work so regularly ask me back.

While in the area I took advantage of the opportunity to drop by the G-Star RAW store on Shorts Garden, only a couple of streets from the Paul Smith store that stocked the Reissued Shirts last year.

The G-Star RAW store is the largest retail outlet for their clothing, so the perfect place to look and make some face-to-face enquiries.

Looking around there are a dazzling array of jeans on offer, but I couldn’t see what I wanted.

I spoke with the manager, who was very helpful and up for the challenge of working out what I was trying to find.
He did explain though, the day I walked in was official the start of their summer season, and of 25 variations of jeans in stock, 23 were discontinued!

A REAL alternative to the All Saints boots

I have often reported on alternatives my readers have found to the elusive All Saints Layer Boots, from the popular River Island Double Eyelet Boots; passing the TopMan and Aldo look-a-likes; to the more recent Peacock Boots; before coming full circle back to All Saints.

Well, Magnoli Clothiers in New Zealand have gone the extra mile by producing a replica boot especially for Eleven cosplayers!

Blue Paul Smith shirt for sale

It’s been a while since there has been the eBay Madness that we saw this time last year, so I thought it worth mentioning a friend of mine has a blue Paul Smith shirt for sale.

The shirt is an XL, so too large for my friend, but before throwing it open to the world to bid on through eBay, he’s trying to find a interested fellow Who-fan.

The shirt is one of those from tobi.com. You can see more details about it under Postscript to PS Shirt.

Matt’s been framed!

I’ve been spending quite a bit of my time recently making Tweed Jacket!

As a result I have been back and forth to W Bill in London a few times now, and have gotten to know Ray Hammett, who I deal with a lot, quite well.

A few times now we have chewed the grass over the state of the fabric industry and he has told me of the problems getting good quality wools to weave these prestige fabrics from.

During our chats Ray did ask me to email him a couple of photos of Matt Smith wearing the jackets made from the fabrics he sells. So I picked out a couple of good images, and especially one of Matt wearing the Shetland Tweed Series Six jacket (see right).

After sending the images over, I thought I could go one better, especially since Ray had been so helpful to me over the past few weeks.
So I got him a nice framed version of the picture and presented it to him on me last trip to buy some fabric (see below). Ray was thrilled. He doesn’t often get such attention for a length of tweed!

If you look closely in the photo, you can spy THE roll of fabric from which Matt’s jacket was cut . . .

A Good Man Goes To War - costume portrait

The BBC have issued the publicity stills for A Good Man Goes To War, and it includes a good portrait shot of Matt in costume.

Not to sure about the quality of the Photoshop cutting out though.