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Beige/grey in colour with stand up collar. Has brass metal buttons down the front, at the cuffs, and on the epaulette of each shoulder, engraved with anchor symbols and writing. There are bright yellow rank stripes on the sleeves (4 on each sleeve) made of embroidered silk braid. The epaulettes and collar are edged with dark blue piping.  The jacket is lined with salmon-pink coloured silk. \n\n<b>Part 2: Trousers:</b>\nSmart dress trousers in a matching beige/grey colour. Wide legged with sharp central creases. They have gathered pleats at the front, and a flapped section with two lines of brass buttons (which match the suit jacket). They fasten with metal hook-and-eye fastenings and plastic buttons. The trousers have belt loops. They are unlined. There is a small piece of white cotton tape with handwriting on it sewn into the inner waistband of the trousers. \n\n<b>Part 3: Shirt:</b>\nBright royal blue long sleeved shirt with stand up collar. Buttons down the front and at the cuffs with white plastic buttons. There is contract grey stitching. The shirt has a curved bottom hem, to which a loop of elastic has been sewn, linking front and back of the shirt. \n\n<b>Part 4: Braces:</b>\nBurgundy coloured braces with gold embroidered anchor shapes. With gold metal connectors, dark brown leather brace tabs.\n\n<b>Part 5: Belt:</b>\nDark blue canvas woven belt, with gold metal box frame buckle. The buckle is engraved with writing on the back, and there is a small black sticker on the back printed with white writing. 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With handwritten label.\r\n\r\n<b> Part 3: Shirt:</b>\r\nMachine sewn cotton, with plastic buttons and added length of elastic. \r\n\r\n<b>Part 4: Braces:</b>\r\nMachine sewn and embroidered cotton and elastic, with metal fasteners and leather loops. \r\n\r\n<b>Part 5:Belt:</b>\nMachine sewn canvas, with engraved metal metal buckle. 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BOWIE","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Handwritten on the cotton tape sewn into the waistline of the trousers."},{"content":"MADE IN U.S.A.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on the back of the belt buckle"},{"content":"SWANK","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Printed on the sticker on the back of the belt buckle."}],"objectHistory":"Peter John Hall was a British-born American costume designer who worked principally in theatre, opera and ballet. \n\nBowie, having admired Hall's work in New York, commissioned him to create bespoke costumes his<i> Serious Moonlight Tour</i> in 1983. Bowie cited his inspirations for his image in this era as 1950s Singaporean tailoring, Paul Newman, and Little Richard. Bowie commented that Hall was deeply involved in every part of the process, noting that Hall 'chose all the materials and came to see how everything would look under our lighting'. In return, Hall described Bowie as 'serious, intellectual, wonderful to work with'. \n\nNicholas Pegg writes in<i> The Complete David Bowie </i>that 'Bowie devised his two-piece pastel suits with wardrobe designer Peter Hall, whose work he had admired in recent New York productions of<i> La Bohème</i> and <i>Zoot Suit</i>. For most concerts David would begin in a powder-blue suit and striped schoolboy tie, changing during the 15-minute interval (usually between 'White Light/White Heat' and 'Station To Station') into a peach two-piece with a polka-dot bowtie slung around the collar. Other outfits included a lime-green suit and a white naval jacket with gold piping. His handsome thirtysomething features were highlighted by a candyfloss mop of peroxide hair'. \n\nJustin Quirk describes Bowie's aesthetic of this period as '...a world of Englishmen going slowly mad in the sun, dressed for a time and a lifestyle that no longer existed' and  writes that 'on the surface, Bowie’s 1983 reinvention was his move into the mainstream. But under the tan and the teeth, the themes conjured up by his suit were still the same: alienation, a lost dream of the past and a sense of standing somewhere outside things.'","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume designed by Peter Hall for David Bowie, for the <i>Serious Moonlight Tour,</i> 1983","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[{"text":"Concert tour: The Serious Moonlight Tour (18 May - 8 Dec 1983)","id":"AUTH401681"}],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.307:1-2024","S.307:2-2024","S.307:3-2024","S.307:4-2024","S.307:5-2024"],"accessionNumberNum":"307","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2024,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"David Bowie Archive Number","id":"THES394108"},"number":"1983.2007.0001"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-21","recordCreationDate":"2024-03-19","availableToBook":false}}