Risky business Saving the world is no excuse for easing off on the dress codes

IDO love a good spy film. Happily there’s been a blizzard of them on TV recently, from the Ipcress File (Michael Caine as Harry Palmer) to Skyfall (James Bond) to Alfred Hitchcock’s pleasingly kinky The 39 Steps (I’m sure you remember the fetish-tastic scene in which Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll are handcuffed to each other in the bedroom of a prim Scottish hotel).

You may also remember Donat’s tasty Tweed suit and splendid overcoat, just as you’ll be able to picture Harry Palmer’s trademark suit/glasses/ mac combo. James Bond, of course, we know to be a natty dresser, even if nobody told Roger Moore.

You see, another reason to love spy films is the clobber. For some reason best known to those who ply their trade in the spy genre, you tend not to get badly-dressed spooks. The notable exception here is John le Carré’s George Smiley as portrayed on television by Alec Guinness and on film by Gary Oldman. Small, podgy and unremarkable, it’s hard to imagine Smiley having an account at Savile Row.

No, le Carré doesn’t care for characters that dress flashy. But Bond creator Ian Fleming did. It’s not clear whether his famous spy had an account at Savile Row or not – Fleming never says where Bond’s suits come from, and had his own made on Cork Street – but Fleming made him fastidious enough to prefer slip-on shoes to lace-ups, knitted silk ties to plain ones and to wear only shirts made from silk or Sea Island cotton.

It turns out I’m not the only person obsessed with spy style. There are many websites devoted to what James Bond wears in both books and films and there’s little their custodians can’t (and don’t) tell you about Church’s semi-brogue Diplomats, Hoffritz razors and Seiko G757 watches.

I’m delighted, then, that there are two new stylish spy adventures in the offing. In February we get The Game, a 1970s-set drama from the BBC. Before then, it’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, an adaptation of Mark Millar’s graphic novel which sees Colin Firth channelling Steed from The Avengers complete with an armoured umbrella that does a lot more than keep the rain off his snazzy three piece suit. Ranged against him is baddie Samuel L Jackson who unveils his inner Andre 3000 with a series of silk cravats and a sideways leather baseball cap. Lots to drool over, in other words. OK, maybe not the leather baseball cap.

The costumes are by Arianne Phillips, Madonna’s stylist and the woman who dressed Firth in A Single Man, and the film-makers have collaborated with a handful of British “heritage” brands to produce a capsule collection called Kingsman. It launched on Tuesday. No sign of that leather baseball cap but for £295 you can buy a Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella with a chestnut wood handle. It doesn’t fire stuff, but never mind.

A cynical marketing ploy? Probably. But if blatant product placement is what it takes for the world of espionage to remain peopled by natty spooks, so be it.