60th Anniversary of two screen legends: the Aston Martin DB5 and 'Goldfinger'

The third James Bond film, 'Goldfinger', starring Sean Connery was a pivotal moment for the business fortunes of James Bond and Ian Fleming. At the time, 'Goldfinger' became the fastest grossing film ever, was the start of Bond fever in the crucial US market and had a huge spin off effect on the sales of Fleming's books as well as on product tie ins such as the Corgi Aston Martin DB5 model car. 

The UK premiere of 'Goldfinger' was held at the Odeon Leicester Square and 17th September this year marks the 60th anniversary of the film's release. The premieres in other countries were even bigger affairs thanks to extensive pre-publicity. The DeMille Theater in New York was the venue for the star-studded US premiere on 21st December 1964 and such was the public demand afterwards that the cinema operated 24 hours a day with round the clock screenings until after New Year's Day.

One of the undoubted stars of 'Goldfinger' was the Aston Martin DB5, an icon that has appeared in 1960s as well as contemporary Bond films. "You'll be using this Aston Martin DB5 with modifications.", Q's understated introduction to the DB5, which doesn't do full justice to Bond's new gadget-laden 'company car'.  Such is the place of the DB5 in film and motoring history that Aston Martin recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of 'Goldfinger' with a pop up experience in London's Burlington Arcade.

Perfect for joining in the fervour around the 60th anniversary is Otway & Orford's beautiful and stylish silk pocket square 'On a Mission', created in collaboration with artist John Lawson. Using a painting inspired by the 'company car' of Britain's most famous secret agent, 'On a Mission' is equally at home in the top pocket of a dinner jacket or suit as it is in something more casual. This high-quality pocket square is printed on 16oz Mulberry silk twill, has hand-rolled & hand-sewn hems and is available in full-size (42 x 42cm) as well as medium-size (33 x 33cm), see both below. "Ingenious" and decorative too apparently.

'Goldfinger' scene image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence and is courtesy of ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_C13-035-005 / CC BY-SA 4.0