Whilst some Doctors like to wear the same clothes throughout their regeneration cycle, the Eleventh Doctor’s costume went through a number of variations during the Matt Smith era – and some of them were quite radical.
Famously, the behind-the-scenes process for choosing the Eleventh Doctor’s costume was a lengthy one. Matt Smith tried on a number of different outfits from the BBC’s wardrobe, and he wasn’t happy with any of them, as you can probably deduce from the photos that surfaced in the years that followed! He had a very clear idea of what the Eleventh Doctor’s costume should be, and in fact it was he who ultimately suggested the bow tie. The Tweed jacket, meanwhile, was inspired by the one he wore for his audition.
The outfit that Matt Smith ended up wearing, therefore, was pretty close to the one picked out during the fitting session: a Tweed jacket, pink shirt with rimmed cuffs, upturned trousers and red braces. His companion Amy Pond wasn’t overly impressed with the clothes chosen by the Eleventh Doctor (salvaged from the leftovers at a local hospital) but the Time Lord insisted that “bow ties are cool,” and a catchphrase was born. This version of the Eleventh Doctor’s costume lasted throughout Doctor Who Series Five, although there were two slightly different versions of the jacket.
Heading into Series Six, the Eleventh Doctor’s costume remained largely the same – at least for the first half of the season. However, it was during this series that the Doctor started wearing a Stetson, which made sense given that the season opener was set in America. And although the catchphrase “Stetsons are cool” didn’t quite have the same resonance, the hat persisted, and it was incorporated into the next variant of the Eleventh Doctor’s costume.
This version was donned by the Time Lord during the latter half of Series Six, and accompanied a somewhat different, much longer jacket. The Doctor retained the shirt, bow tie and braces, but he lost the Tweed. This new coat was suede and dark green and gave the Eleventh Doctor a more ‘dashing’ appearance.
But in terms of the lapels and the buttons, it also had echoes of the Ninth Doctor‘s leather jacket, famously worn by Christopher Eccleston.
The Stetson, meanwhile, was something of a running joke. The Doctor had developed a love for hats during Series Five when he had randomly picked up a Fez in ‘The Big Bang.’ It looked so obviously out of place, and the only one who thought it looked ‘cool’ was the Doctor. The same was true of the Stetson.
But the fact that the Eleventh Doctor’s costume looked so random and mis-matched at times makes perfect sense within the logic of the programme. The Doctor is an alien, and his idea of what looks good will (more often than not) be counter-cultural. The Sixth Doctor’s garish and inappropriate costume is a testament to this, as is the Third Doctor’s love of velvet and frills, often described by those he encountered as “fancy dress.” So it makes perfect sense that the Eleventh Doctor would pick up random hats (or, one occasion, a mop) and try to incorporate it into his look.
Interestingly, though, the Eleventh Doctor’s costume reverted to its traditional appearance for the start of Series Seven. The only minor alteration was his shirt, with the production team dispensing with the pink original for something that didn’t make the cameras flare! After Series Five, Matt Smith’s shirts tended to be a simpler white or plain blue.
There was, however, a radical change on the horizon for the Eleventh Doctor’s costume. For the 2012 Christmas special ‘The Snowmen,’ the Time Lord opted for a brand new look. He kept the bow tie, but donned a waist coat. He also kept the longer jacket, but selected one that was longer, purple, and had a fur collar.
The Doctor also wore a stovepipe hat in ‘The Snowmen’ – a throwback, perhaps, to the one donned by the Second Doctor in his first season. And given the enemy the Doctor was fighting in this story (and the fact that it was building up to the show’s 50th anniversary) it’s possible that this was a deliberate reference to Patrick Troughton’s Doctor.
This version of the Eleventh Doctor’s costume lasted until the end of Series Seven, and indeed to the end of the Matt Smith era. It did vary, though; the basic shape remained the same, but the jacket was replaced with something a little lighter, and without the fur. But it was still a Tweed jacket, or at least one with a Tweed pattern, and there was also a slightly different waistcoat.
But, in essence, the components of the outfit were the same, and this was the costume that Matt Smith wore for his regeneration into Peter Capaldi at the end of ‘The Time of the Doctor.’
Overall, apart from Ncuti Gatwa (who wore a different outfit in almost every episode of Series 14) the Eleventh Doctor’s costume probably underwent more changes than any other Doctor – the only constant being the bow tie, which was the Eleventh Doctor’s motif.
With so many variations to choose from, do you have a favourite version of the Eleventh Doctor’s costume? And which ones have you cosplayed? Let us know in the comments below.
For further reading, check out our other blog post: The Evolution of the Seventh Doctor’s costume.
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