He's been a dandy, an Edwardian cricketer and most famously wore a
long scarf. Doctor Who's togs change as he regenerates. So what are the fashion tips from everyone's favourite Time Lord?
Flamboyant. Garish. Bizarre. Seldom does Time Lord fashion make it to the High Street. Until now. When David Tennant takes
over the role later this year, it will be in what he describes as "geek chic". Gone is his predecessor's tailored leather
jacket. Instead Tennant will look like the type of man Kate Moss might date, with a just-got-out-of-bed, dragged-through-a-hedge-backwards,
only-thing-I-could-find look. So what are the key points of the look, which was devised for the programme's makers by a freelance
costume designer?
Brown pin-striped suit: Gone are the days of Angus Deayton-inspired stigma for men wearing brown suits.
And this is surely a sign that pin-stripes have been well and truly reclaimed from City bankers.
White shirt, unbuttoned at the collar with loose tie: Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor wouldn't have
gone near a tie, preferring Michael Douglas-style V-necked jumpers. A signal perhaps that the Tennant Doctor will be a slightly
more erudite character than Eccleston's action-and-sarcasm hero?
Skinny trousers and trainers: Converse trainers are white hot items this summer, selling out within
hours of hitting the shelves in some shops. The trousers are skinny and crumpled - think Pete Doherty - and if they were much
tighter, Norman Wisdom would be demanding royalties.
Long brown trench coat: A cross between an old hack's Mac and flasher attire, with a twist of debonair
gent. A lo-fi contrast to the high gloss trenchcoats Keanu Reeves swirled through The Matrix in?
The look is Franz Ferdinand cum Kaiser Chiefs. But is it Time Lord? Does it have the gravitas, the power and the magic
that goes with such an eminent position? Will it make the Slitheen, the Autons and the Gelth quake in their boots, or will
it simply reduce the Daleks to helpless laughter? The Doctor's fashion icons
Only time will tell, but the
new look should further cement the popularity of the series, says Mark Hooper, associate editor at men's magazine Esquire.
The programme makers seem to be trying to move with the times, to catch a hipper demographic's eye, he says. "[The outfit]
looks really good. Someone said to me it looks a bit Jarvis Cocker, kind of geeky but cool. It is a much younger look, like
he's in an indie band. The pinstripe suit is quite tight-fitting, quite timely. It's a bit of an absent-minded professor look,
but trendy with it. It's slightly eccentric."
So how do Tennant's Soho-louche kecks compare with those of his predecessors? The original Doctor, the rather grandfatherly
figure of William Hartnell, was fond of a black frock coat. His twinkly successor Patrick Troughton wore baggy trousers, while
Jon Pertwee was a bit of a dandy with his capes and frills. But for Hooper, there is still only one Doctor Who outfit. "I
still think the Tom Baker scarf is a classic - that's what I grew up with. Peter Davison's cricket outfit didn't do it for
me. And I just remember Jon Pertwee having big cuffs." But there are risks from flirting with high fashion, as the new Doctor
might find out when he comes on to TV screens after Christmas. Fashion - just like time itself - moves quickly, as any time
lord should know.
