Doctor Who: The Main Inspiration Behind Each Doctor's Costume

3. The Eleventh Doctor

Doctor Who David Tennant Tenth Doctor
BBC

The Doctor who made bow ties cool, Eleven's quirky costume was extremely tricky to get right, and in fact, it was almost completely, 100-percent different.

Originally, star Matt Smith was outfitted in a costume that he once described as "pirate-y", with a long dark coat, dark trousers, and a scruffy white shirt. However, he wasn't all that keen on this look, and it soon evolved.

The tweed jacket that serves as the centerpiece of Eleven's costume was inspired by a tweed blazer that Smith wore to an early meeting about the role, and according to costume designer Ray Holman, the bow tie was also Smith's idea.

Holman was completely against it until Smith actually put it on, at which point, everybody in the room knew that it was right. Bow ties, after all, are very cool.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.