Vitals

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, fastidious Belgian refugee and former detective

Essex, England, Summer 1917

Series: Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Episode: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (Episode 3.01)
Air Date: September 16, 1990
Director: Ross Devenish
Costume Designer: Linda Mattock

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

“Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie was born 135 years ago today on September 15, 1890. Among her most prolific creations was the character of Hercule Poirot, a fussy Belgian detective whom she included in more than three dozen novels and short stories despite her own eventual exhaustion with the character she decried as “insufferable.” Poirot first appeared in Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, first published 105 years ago next month in October 1920.

Recommended by Christie’s own family for the role, David Suchet crafted the definitive portrayal of the detective throughout 13 seasons of the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, originated by writer Clive Exton in 1989. To commemorate the centenary of Christie’s birth, ITV aired the feature-length episode “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” between the second and third seasons which, to date, remains the only major English-language adaptation of Christie’s novel.

Unlike the rest of the series that’s generally set through the mid-to-late 1930s, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” is set during World War I, remaining faithful to the novel. British Army officer Arthur Hastings (Hugh Fraser) is recuperating from his wartime wounds at the Cavendish family’s country estate Styles Court near the fictional Essex village of Styles St. Mary, where Poirot and a group of fellow Belgian refugees—all displaced by the war—have been given a home by the remarried Cavendish matriarch, Emily Inglethorp (Gillian Barge).

Having met once before when Hastings was briefly considered a murder suspect in Poirot’s native Belgium, the two renew their acquaintance in the village post office, where—to the clerk’s great relief—Hastings’ entrance distracted Poirot from his mission to rearrange her store in accordance with his obsessive tendencies. After Mrs. Inglethorp’s agonizing death from apparent strychnine poisoning, Hastings recruits Poirot to revive his famous little gray cells and solve the murder.

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What’d He Wear?

He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His mustache was very stiff and military. Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of mustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.

— Arthur Hastings’ description of Hercule Poirot in The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s first novel doesn’t delve into the details of Poirot’s clothing, aside from occasional references to his hat and coat, though her subsequent stories would draw a much more specific portrait of his wardrobe that informed Sue Thomson and Linda Mattock’s splendidly fussy costume design for David Suchet across the first few seasons of Agatha Christie’s Poirot—which was also the foundation for how the series’ later costume designers would dress Poirot. For “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Mattock adapted the character’s 1930s costume template for the World War I-era setting.

“A funny little man… a great dandy, but wonderfully clever,” Hastings describes Poirot on screen over dinner with the Cavendish family and their guests. The next scene introduces Poirot: spats first, then up his pristine suit to his distinctive neckwear framed within a stiff collar, topped by a bowler hat over his visage marked by that glorious little mustache.

Black Bowler Hat

Before graduating to the dressier homburgs he favors in the 1930s-set episodes, Poirot tops his appearance with this bowler hat made of dense black wool felt, its surface brushed to a slightly fuzzy finish. Known as a bowler in the UK and a derby hat in the United States, this classic style—popular from the mid-19th century into the early 20th—is defined by its tall, stiff, rounded crown. Poirot’s version is finished with a matching black grosgrain ribbon and edge trim.

Poirot’s Herringbone Suit

While Hastings and the rest of the Cavendish household are seasonally dressed for the warm June weather, Poirot and his fellow Belgian refugees are dressed with more conservative sobriety in dark three-piece suits and hats. One remarkable detail added by costume designer Linda Mattock for this episode is the silver-plated bronze Belgian relief badge that Poirot always wears in his lapel—grounding him in the historical reality of the WWI refugee experience before he would adopt more dandyish flourishes in his lapel during peacetime. Often issued by charitable groups or associations to raise awareness, these badges often resembled blazer buttons like Poirot’s depicting the Belgian lion, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, or other relief society emblems.

Poirot makes his introduction wearing a solid charcoal suit that he cycles through over the course of his investigation, but he does most of his detecting—from his initial crime scene review to revealing the murderer’s identity—in a similarly cut and styled suit made from a dark-gray herringbone wool with muted red stripes.

Aside from some period-informed details like the ventless back and two-button cuffs, the single-breasted jacket otherwise reflects many timeless details that remain common on men’s tailoring more than a century later, including the welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and notch lapels that roll to a two-button front positioned over Suchet’s natural waistline.

Contrasting the straightforward details of his jacket, the suit’s matching waistcoat (vest) provides some period-informed character like the narrow notch lapels neatly framing Poirot’s collar and cravat, tapering to a high-fastening six-button front. The waistcoat features four welted pockets—two on each side—with his pocket watch in a lower pocket, attached to a silver-toned chain strung “double Albert”-style with a circular swivel-mounted fob set with a large, dark-green stone like moss agate or bloodstone.

We first see this suit as Poirot dresses, revealing details usually concealed like the trousers’ cinch-back, which mirrors the adjustable strap across the back of his waistcoat. The flat-front trousers are appropriately cut with a long rise so the waistband stays neatly covered, as expected beneath a waistcoat. A meticulous dresser like Poirot may support them with suspenders (braces), though a well-tailored fit and the cinch-back alone could suffice. The trousers also feature side pockets and are finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

Shirts and Neckwear

Though you’d need look no further than Hastings or the Cavendish men to see that turndown collars were increasingly acceptable for men’s daytime dress by this time, Poirot exclusively wears stiff wing collars that expose the bands of his neckwear. Aside from how they were fashionably adapted beginning in the 1980s, these collars can only correctly be worn buttoned up and with correctly fastened neckwear—appealing to the punctilious Poirot.

As with most dress shirts at the time, these detachable collars were separate from the shirts and would typically be attached via studs through the front and back of the neckband. Poirot’s plain white cotton shirts have full-length front plackets with white two-hole buttons and squared single cuffs. Single cuffs are a more formal alternative to double (French) cuffs, so named for being a single layer of fabric connected around the wrist with cuff links. Poirot’s links are brass-toned semi-spheres.

Poirot would later adapt bow ties for his daily wear during the 1930s, but his neckwear in “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” is a distinctive yet simpler cravat, crafted from a wide continuous strip of silk that pulls around the back of Poirot’s neck, meeting at the throat where he pulls both sides together through a silver-toned metal keeper ring and pulls each into an inverted “V”—offering the continental elegance of the contemporary “crossover tie” and just the type of neckwear that would be favored by a fussy dresser like Poirot, who takes the time to correct Hastings’ appearance after he rushed to hire him after Mrs. Inglethorp’s death:

Uh, Hastings, you dressed in haste—your tie is to one side. One must not let oneself go, Hastings.

For this first day of investigations, Poirot’s cravat is a muted gray-on-green low-contrast paisley print.

Later in London, when Poirot eventually reveals the identity of the murderer, he wears the same outfit but with a light-gray silk jacquard cravat printed with a tight arrangement of micro gray chevrons.

As Poirot and Hastings debrief during the denouement, our detective wears yet another paisley cravat, this time featuring a more deeply contrasting mint-green and black pattern against the gray silk ground.

Finishing Touches

As a fastidious dresser with an aversion to germs, it’s no surprise that Poirot keeps a varied collection of gloves, even within his relatively limited wardrobe in this episode. He begins with black leather gloves paired to his charcoal suit, then switches to dark-gray cloth gloves with this suit while investigating the crime scene, and later dons gray leather three-point gloves for other excursions, including his visit to the laboratory.

Another crucial accessory for Poirot’s investigations is his gold-framed pince-nez, worn on a black cord around his neck that he twists around a waistcoat button to tuck into a pocket when they’re not perched on his nose. Most popular during the late Victorian era, this eyewear is essentially a set of armless eyeglass frames that can be pinched (pince) onto the nose (nez).

A constant of Poirot’s style—even into the 1930s—is his preference for old-fashioned spat boots. Evolved from the detachable spats (or “spatterdashes”) once worn to protect shoes from mud, spat boots integrate the cloth gaiters directly onto the leather uppers. Poirot’s pair is built on the profile of low black dress shoes, with calfskin vamps contrasted by glossier straight toe-caps which are likely either highly polished calfskin or patent leather. The light-gray wool spats are tailored to fit snugly over the instep and fasten up the ankle with a row of small polished nickel buttons.

I believe this is the only look we get at Suchet’s Poirot during this period, as the rest of the series is generally set during the late 1930s, when Poirot has a far wider wardrobe and more contemporary preferences for bow ties, homburgs, and three-piece suits with peak lapels—often with a Victorian vase pin projecting elegant whimsy from the left lapel. Though the details differ, the silhouette remains unmistakably Poirot from his egg-shaped head to his immaculately polished toes.

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How to Get the Look

“The Mysterious Affair at Styles” frames the origins of Hercule Poirot’s style during the Great War, with his bowler hat, wing collar, cravat, and spat boots already marking him as the fussy, fashion-conscious detective we would continue to recognize in the decades ahead.

• Dark-gray herringbone and muted red-striped wool three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat/vest with narrow notch lapels, four welted pockets, and adjustable back strap
  • Flat-front high-rise trousers with beltless waistband, cinch-back, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton shirt with detachable standing collar, front placket, and single cuffs
  • Brass-toned semi-spherical cuff links
• Gray printed silk ring cravat
• Black leather calfskin spat boots with glossy straight toe-caps and light-gray wool button-up gaiters
• Black felt derby hat with black grosgrain band
• Gray leather three-point gloves
• Pocket-watch on silver-toned “double Albert”-style chain with dark-green stone on swivel-mounted fob

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and Agatha Christie’s novel.

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The Quote

Oh, yes—the little gray cells have done well today.