Cardiff Convention - Saturday morning

So the day has finally dawned. Booking opened on the ticket back on 14th November last year, so it’s been over four months coming, so I can’t believe today is the start of the first official Doctor Who convention.

The convention opens at 9am, with the first timetabled event at 9.30am.

I don’t want to be stuck at the back, so I got up bright and early and was down at Cardiff Bay by 7.30am.

The queues had barely begun to form, so it looks like getting up early has been worth the effort.

To maximise the number of people through the door, but keep a cap on crowds, they are running two identical programmes in parallel, with the same event taking place at different times.

These tracks are labelled OOD and SILURIAN. Today I’m Ood (tomorrow I’m Silurian) so I found the right queue I was only 14th in line for entry! That’s a relief, but a long wait ahead.

While waiting for opening time, we were kept entertained by the obligatory costumed Ood and Silurian who peered at the waiting fans and posed for photographs.

At the side a queue for the TARDIS tour formed, and off they went in their coach - that will be me tomorrow!

Slowly the queue built up behind me, snaking off around the corner of the Millennium Centre and out of sight.

About 20 minutes before opening, the event crew started moving down the line and checking tickets, compressing the line as they went.



Then it was time - the doors opened and we were ushered in. We were quickly guided up to the Donald Gordon Theatre, the largest auditorium in the venue. Being so closet the front of the queue, I was able to get a front row seat.

A new job - and a familiar face

Well today I stated a new job!

Don't worry, I'm still a tailor and don't plan to change that any time soon, but what I have done is add a new feather to my cap.

If you are a regular reader of my blogs you may have seen a couple of years ago I went on a guided tour of the Cardiff Doctor Who locations. I went with Brit Tours, who as well as their Doctor Who tours, organise tours based on other popular film and tv franchises such as Harry Potter, James Bond and Notting Hill.

I enjoyed the tour, but felt it could have been a bit better and the tour guide a bit ore knowledgable (we walked straight past a Torchwood location in Cardiff Bay which I had to point out).

Not wanting to detract from what they were doing, I drop them an email - not complaining, just suggesting it could be better, and I could be the one to help out!
I didn't get a reply, but over a year later I did receive an email following up on my offer.
To cut a long story short, I met the organiser of Brit Tours and explained my situation. He realised I would be perfect to handle the London based tours they run, as well as being available for private tours that are arranged for small groups.

This week I got a call that a family of five were in town for a few days and wanted to see the sights of London through a Doctor Who lens.
Usually the tours are on a mini bus, but this would need to be awaking tour, something I had done often for friends and fans in the past. Bob Mitsch, Ian Cummings and Mark Ferris all enjoyed the chance to walk in The Doctor's footsteps.

Being on foot the locations we could visit were a bit limited, but we got in a decent number in the afternoon.

The family who were in London from Ohio, was made up of Jennifer and Bob, and their children, Sam, Jessica and Michael. Sam was the big Doctor Who fan, so the tour was. Any for his benefit. I chatted to him the most and I think he appreciated a willing ear for his outpouring of Doctor Who fandom.
I was more than happy to recount my favourite episodes, Doctors, assistants and locations.

Series Five items spotted on eBay

I was having a browse on eBay this week and came across a couple of listing showing there is still a supply of ‘original’ series five item, if you look hard enough - and have deep pockets.

ALL SAINTS LAYER BOOTS
11th DOCTOR Matt Smith Series 5

Firstly I found a pair of All Saints Layer Boots, size 10/10.5.

The US based seller started them at US$49, with an undisclosed reserve. From what I can guess, a buyer did a deal with the seller, and the listing was pulled, before being reposted with a fixed price of US$475.
Remember these boots were around the £120 price tag when new.

Up for auction is the VERY RARE damn near impossible to obtain pair of original ALLSAINTS SPITALFIELDS "LAYER BOOT", the very same pair as seen on Matt Smith in DOCTOR WHO series, this boot style was also his personal pair off set at the time. These have been long out of production by AllSaints and have been pretty much scarce on the secondary market since. This pair is a UK/EU 44, the rarest and more desirable size to find. If you were a 10-10.5 or even 11 US they should fit great. This pair has the Vibram rubber bottoms professionally placed to match Smith's as the 11th Doctor and also, well, to keep you from slipping. Note: the "worn in" look is part of the style on the boot. Please make sure you know your size and read my description carefully.
Stand out with Cosplay with the REAL DEAL! these are virtually impossible to come by now, don't miss out!
Please be aware of your size as there are no returns accepted. Sold as-is. Thanks! :)

Dedicated follower of fashion

So, I was up in Oxford Street yesterday, doing a bit of fabric shopping; visiting some suppliers; and just generally browsing around.

Luckily I wasn’t around when the Kate Moss hoarding collapsed on passing shoppers!

But while I was on London’s leading retail street I did drop into John Lewis. Looking around the menswear department I was struck by how many tweed jackets with elbow patches were on the rails.

It wasn’t just one isolated option – there was a whole choice of colours and fabrics, as well as makers.

Here’s what I spotted.

John Lewis - Dogstooth

This is quite a nice jacket, with flapped outer pockets, dark brown elbow patches and a notched collar.

On the downside it does have five buttons on the cuff vent and looking at the label it isn’t a genuine Scottish or Irish tweed, having been woven and made in Italy.

It is described on the sales label as ITALY BLUE CHK BROWN JKT £295

Louise Page - The tie four story: Matt & David’s photocall

There’s been a lot of interest over on my Tennant Suit blog recently, with the interview I conducted with costume designer Louise Page.

I wanted to make sure you Eleven cosplayers didn’t miss out, so I’m repeating part of her interview here, as it relates to Matt Smith’s very first day of filming on Doctor Who.

The End Of Time allowed for the only opportunity for David Tennant and Matt Smith to appear together in a unique publicity photograph.

As you can see they are both wearing the Christian Lacroix tie - but how is that possible if there was only one?

Louise Page explains how sometimes the camera can lie . . .

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Just to confirm Louise’s comments, here is an unaltered outtake from the photocall.

If you look closely you can see Matt is actually wearing Tie Two, the Daniel Hechter tie.

Louise Page - when is tie four not tie four?

Over the past couple of weeks Louise Page, costume designer for the entire Tennant era, has been sharing her recollections of the ties worn as part of the Tenth Doctor’s costume.

We are currently up to Tie Four, the ever popular swirly or Christian Lacroix tie.

Today over on the Suit Blog we have heard how this tie was her first choice for Tennant’s swan song, since it meant so much to Louise and David alike.

But the opening episode of Matt Smith’s first season proved to be a problem, as there was only one of the Christian Lacroix ties.

Louise now explains how she handed over to Ray Holman and the way a replica had to be made to allow for the subsequent rough treatment the tie received.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

No change for series seven costume

Filming started today on the next series of Doctor Who, and to show off, the BBC released an official publicity still showing Matt Smith and co-stars Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill.

What the image does show us is The Doctor’s costume remains unchanged from Series Six, with the Shetland Tweed jacket; black G-Star RAW jeans; blue tabbed collar dress shirt, accessorised with burgundy bow tie and braces.

There had been hints that Matt wanted a change, possibly to a leather jacket, but for now things stay as they were. For now . . . .

Costume Index updates

Just thought I’d remind readers about my Matt Smith Costume Indexes, which I have been writing over the past couple of years.

Series Five costume index

This covers all 13 episodes of series five, and I have subsequently added the Meanwhile In The TARDIS scenes which join The Eleventh Hour to The Beast Below, and Flesh And Stone to The Vampires Of Venice.

Post Series Five costume index

This was written to cover the additional official appearances of Matt Smith as The Doctor at the BBC Proms, the Doctor Who Live show and his venture in the the world of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Series Six Part One costume index

Principally covering the first seven episodes of Series Six, this also includes the 2010 Christmas Special and has recently been updated to include the Comic Relief special.

Series Six Part Two costume index

This completes series six, and encompasses the prequel to Let’s Kill Hitler.

12-days – day seven

Over Christmas I ran The Twelve Regenerations Of Christmas, and included a special index for Night And The Doctor, a series of four DVD-exclusive mini episodes.
They warranted a posting of their own as they do not have a specific continuity to the episodes and The Doctor wears so many different costumes through the course of it.

EXCLUSIVE COMPETITION: Ask Louise

Today I’m launching a very special competition.

Do you have a question about the costumes of the David Tennant era you’ve always wanted answered?
Well now’s your chance.

You may have read that just before Christmas I had the enormous privilege of meeting costume designer Louise Page.

We had two meetings and I had the chance to chat costumes with her for over five hours!

Earlier today she returned to do a formal interview, which I will be serialising over the coming weeks on my Tennant Coat and Tennant Suit blogs.

I had lots of questions, but it struck me that I’m sure there are other fans who have more interesting questions to ask.

So I put the idea to Louise, who has agreed to answer twenty questions submitted by my readers, to be put to her during a planned interview this summer.
This gives you plenty of time to think over what you want to ask and submit your question.

I will be shortlisting the best questions, and although can’t guarantee to use them all, I will do my best to put as many as possible.

I will be attending Gallifrey One later this month, as well as both days of the Official Convention in March, so as well as email me you can submit your question in person, if you can catch me!

To submit your question, please email me at tennantcoat@me.com

Please limit your questions to the David Tennant era; be as concise as you can; and above all try and think of something that’s never been asked before.

Console room - here I come!

As you may haver read in my blog, I booked my tickets for the Official Doctor Who Convention taking place in Cardiff in late March.

Now, I was none too impressed with their charging structure, so had to book for both days so I could get my photo taken with Matt Smith, as well as get his autograph.

The organisers did see the error of their ways (partly) and refunded those who book for Steven Moffat’s photo and autograph, changing the policy on the add-ons.

We this morning I had an email in my inbox announcing a further add-on - this time for free - and something WORTH having!

A FREE TOUR OF THE TARDIS CONSOLE ROOM SET AT THE UPPER BOAT STUDIOS!

And Who wouldn’t want to see that!!??
They even give you a complimentary bus between the convention venue and the studios, departing hourly, with ten tours on each day, plus some on the Monday after the event too.

Making Mini 11th Doctor

Over the three or so years I have been writing my blogs and sharing my experiences making my costumes, I have from time to time received messages from readers who have been inspired to pick up a needle and thread and sew for themselves.
Some have followed the instructions I have written; others have simply been incentivised to start a pipe-dream project they had been putting off.

Well this week I had an email from a reader showing me their Matt Smith and David Tennant creations made for their 4 year old son, telling me it was all down to my blog!

I was amazed. These little costumes are very well observed, executed and fit real well (with a little growing room).

I had to find out more. After a couple of emails I now have the background story to the costumes, so for the first time I’m gonna hand over my blog to one of my reader to tell you more.

This was my first attempt at making clothing of any kind. For many years I had been making soft furnishings for my own home and various other crafty projects, but a small boy with a Doctor Who obsession dictated that I should give costume making a go.

Research proved that ready-to-buy outfits were not going to cut the mustard and buying the correct fabric by the metre was not a viable option for play costumes that would be grown out of in a year. Finding this website, I followed advice on searching eBay, found a few child sized jackets, but they were either not the right styling or the incorrect colour, nothing was quite right.

So, I decided to trawl charity shops looking only for ANY jacket that was the right or similar tweed. A 42" jacket was found in the closest I’d seen to the Harris tweed... now the challenge of making it fit a smaller than average 3 year old!

A Touch Of Shetland Tweed

So, I’m mindlessly watching ITV3 this week, just to unwind after a long day’s tailoring, and guess what I spotted?

In one of the seemingly endless re-runs of David Jason in A Touch Of Frost, I sat up to attention when I noticed the trilby hat he was wearing was made from none other than the Matt Smith Shetland Tweed!

Now it is fractionally different, in that it has a single orange vertical stripe in the pattern – but otherwise its spot on!

The episode was Private Lives, and dated from 1999. It also had Maureen O’Brien (Vicky from the William Hartnell era) in a small role.

I wonder if this is a slightly early version of the weave? I’ll have to ask next time I’m at W Bill.

Custom-made shirts online

Series Five of Doctor Who saw Matt Smith wear a number of off-the-peg items, which proved to be a double-edged sword. Although most were found, by the time they were identified they were sold out or last seasons lines.
The most sought after was the shirt by Paul Smith, which exchanged hands on eBay for up to £350 on occasions!

Series Six saw a whole new wardrobe, and a whole new set of challenges for the average cosplayer wanting to dress as The Doctor.
Most of the new costume was custom made, with the exception of the G-Star RAW trousers. The one other thing you would have thought would have been found was the shirts - but no luck there.

However, there are a number of sites which offer custom-made shirts to order where you can get a 90% accurate shirt at a bargain price, if you select the right options. Some can even pass for the real thing if you order it right!

Here are three sites I would recommend.

12-days – day twelve

Day Twelve

For the final day of The Twelve Regenerations Of Christmas I have something rather special.

It’s just a photo – but it’s a very special one.
And yes, it really IS Louise Page, costume designer for the Tennant era and the creator of his iconic look.

Watch out over on the Tennant Suit blog for the back story to how this photograph came about.

12-days – day eleven

Day Eleven

Today on the Twelve Regenerations Of Christmas I have another eCard for you.

This one cracks me up! Hope you enjoy it too.