A Guide to... The Many Looks of the Eleventh Doctor!

[thefourtheleven]

So you want to cosplay Eleven. Excellent choice! Costume-wise, he is one of the most varied Doctors. However this leaves you with a new dilemma - which look do you want to cosplay? Because there are truly loads of them.

So here, to give you a hand, I will detail all of Eleven's looks from The Eleventh Hour, right up to The Day of the Doctor (50th Anniversary Special).

So in this first instalment of three, let's begin at the very beginning. 

Series 5

The Raggedy Doctor
As seen in "The Eleventh Hour"




This will be the easiest look for you to replicate if you're a Ten cosplayer as well. All you need to do is rip up a light blue shirt in several places, roll up your sleeves, put on your brown suit trousers and white/cream converse and add in a tie. Preferably the swirly tie, as worn by the Tenth Doctor in "Girl in the Fireplace", "Love and Monsters", "Blink" and "The End of Time Part 2".

The only real difficulty here would be obtaining the swirly tie. However here's a link to an online store that sells them, and that I got mine from. The price is £38.20 ($60) for one.

www.magnoliclothiers.com/product_info.php?products_id=328&currency=GBP

If you're a student on a budget (like me) then I would recommend getting the black variant if you don't mind being a little off screen accuracy - after all, it's only £23 ($35) (And I use the word only in context. :L )

Donegal Tweed - Burgundy
As seen in "The Eleventh Hour", "The Beast Below", "Flesh and Stone"* "Amy's Choice", "The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood", "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang



*Future Doctor scene


Here we go. Now we're onto the original Eleven look. Ironically, it's also his most difficult to cosplay. What most people don't realise is that the Doctor had two jackets in Series 5. Here I'll cover the most used jacket in Series 5, featuring in 11 episodes. Firstly, the burgundy variant.

Shirt - Now this is exceptionally difficult to replicate. The Paul Smith shirt - it's no longer available to conventionally buy. And especially not cheaply. My advice is to go with red or burgundy striped shirt, as the effect will be very much the same. However, if you're a perfectionist with way too much disposable income, for a pricey £111 ($175) then here!

www.magnoliclothiers.com/smith-shirt-shirts-p-510.html

Bow-tie - Red or burgundy bow-tie! Should be available from any decent clothing store with a tie section and/or eBay.

Braces - Burgundy braces of course. Again, eBay or any decent clothing store should be good. 

Trousers - For his first series, Eleven wore skinny black Topman jeans. But I suspect you can get the same effect with just black chinos. 

Shoes - Any black boots will do. Eleven wore All Saints Layer boots throughout Series 5, but I suspect that they would be pricey to obtain. 

So yeah, that's the main look. Now onto the others! 

Donegal tweed - Blue
As seen in "Vampires in Venice", "Amy's Choice", "Vincent and the Doctor" "The Lodger"



Shirt - Same as before, ridiculously difficult to maintain unless you order from the link above. I'd recommend just finding a blue striped shirt, and going with that. 

Bow-Tie - Navy blue!  

Braces - You guessed it - navy blue again.

Trousers - As I stated, Eleven wore skinny black Topman jeans. But I suspect you can get the same effect with just black chinos. 

Shoes - Any black boots will do. Eleven wore All Saints Layer boots throughout Series 5, but I suspect that they would be pricey to obtain. 

Harris Tweed
As seen in "Victory of the Daleks", "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone"

This jacket should also be known as the "publicity jacket", as pictures of Matt Smith in it were pretty much everywhere when it came to advertising his debut back in 2010. Strangely enough, this jacket only appeared in three episodes before being nicked by the Weeping Angels. And it only initially appeared as the Doctor's original jacket had been covered in alien muck in "The Beast Below".
 


The rest of it is pretty much the same as the what comes under the entries for the Donegal Tweed! I also believe this is the shortest lasting jacket/coat of Eleven's, lasting only 3 episodes. However, I think you'll find more similar to it charity shops.

So there we have it! There's the Series 5 looks all done and dusted. As for why I've not said anything about where to get the tweeds? Well it's pretty much impossible to obtain ones that look exactly like these, but there are similar ones everywhere. A particular favourite shop here in the UK of mine is NEXT. They do some great tweeds there.

But yes, I hope you enjoyed this! Keep your eyes peeled for the next part, which will cover Series 6 and 7A.

[thefourtheleven]

Part 2 – The Shetland Era
(Goodness me, it’s been a while!)
Christmas 2010 – A Christmas Carol airs. Millions are enthralled. And of course, this episode provides a subtle landmark change in the style of the 11th Doctor. The costume designer, and man responsible for the two tweeds and the ludicrously-hard-to-find-shirts in Series 5, Ray Holman, had left and his position was filled by Barbara Kidd, who had formerly worked on the late-Pertwee and early-Tom Baker eras of Who. And with her, came a more stylized look for Eleven.
So, let’s dive in!

[b}Shetland Tweed[/b]
[i}As seen in “A Christmas Carol”, “The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon”, “Curse of the Black Spot”, “The Doctor’s Wife”, “The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People”, “A Good Man Goes To War”, “Let’s Kill Hitler (ending)”, “Night Terrors”, “The God Complex”, “The Wedding of River Song”, “The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe”, All of Series 7A, “The Bells of Saint John (for literally 3 seconds)”


Before you ask, yes, this is Eleven’s longest lasting outfit seen worn in a total of 18 episodes, versus the Donegal Tweed’s status of 11 episodes, the purple cashmere frock coat’s total of 10 episodes (+1 for Capaldi) and the green coat which lasted all but 4 episodes.

Shirts – Eleven this time around had many different shirts with this combination, but a favoured version is a typical everyday light blue shirt. Pretty nifty to keep in mind!



Bow-Tie – Red and blue rules still apply here, although there are some interesting patterns in this season, such as the Aztec Key.



Braces – Same as before, burgundy or blue. Make your choice! As of Series 7A, however, feel free to mix and match colours of bow-ties with the braces…

Trousers – In this season, Eleven went for the more high-end G-Star Blade jeans. These are pretty expensive to find, but as I said for Series 5, black chinos will be just fine.

Shoes - Any black boots will do. Eleven wore custom made black boots throughout Series 6 so they would be near impossible to replicate cheaply. So I recommend… NORMAL BLACK BOOTS!



Now, let us move on to the elephant of the room in Eleven’s era of costumes. The Green Greatcoat.

Green Greatcoat
[i}As seen in “Let’s Kill Hitler”, “The Girl Who Waited”, “Closing Time”, “Wedding of River Song”[/i]



The first real departure from Eleven’s regular dress sense is the divisive green greatcoat. While only appearing in 4 episodes of Series 6 it certainly made its mark costume wise, and is still being cosplayed to this day. Matt Smith reportedly wanted a coat to combat cold filming days anyway, so it seems to be a win-win situation. While being the more forgotten costume between the tweeds and the purple frock coat, this particular outfit still has its variations…

Shirts – Light blue, white with a subtle window pane pattern on it or a mauve striped pattern. The latter is one of the hardest shirts to get a hold of for definite without forking over some serious cash for serious detail!


Bow-Tie – Aztec Key or just plain burgundy. Or blue. Blue’s cool.

Braces – Burgundy or blue, whichever matches the bow-tie!

Trousers – Same as before! G-Star Jeans.

Shoes - Any black boots will do. Eleven wore custom made black boots throughout Series 6 so they would be near impossible to replicate cheaply. So I STILL recommend… NORMAL BLACK BOOTS!

BONUS OUTFIT!




Green Frock Coat


As seen in “A Town Called Mercy”


For all of about 7 glorious minutes, Eleven borrowed an aged green frock coat to help confuse the gunslinger in “A Town Called Mercy.”

Despite being possibly the most obscure Eleven variation ever, but it does look fantastic, and helps foreshadow the style he’ll be adopting over Series 7B. (And perhaps even influenced it!) Matt’s body just suits frockcoats!
Anybody who's cosplayed this... Has my never-ending respect.


Coming next: Part 3 - The Frock Coat Era.