The Costume Elements
In this section, you’ll find some basic details about the most regular items of clothing worn by the Tenth Doctor — his suits, shirts, ties, and shoes — and about some of his more obscure outfits, too.
The combinations of these elements used throughout David Tennant’s run in Doctor Who can be found on the next page, in The Costume Catalogue.
Suits
The main costumes worn by Tennant during his time as the Doctor were a pair of pin-striped suits — one brown, one blue — cut to a near-identical shape and style.
The brown suit, introduced in The Christmas Invasion (2005), was created using a pair of woven cotton trousers available from GAP in the summer of 2005. The Doctor wears the original trousers, and the jackets were created by carefully unstitching further pairs of trousers, re-cutting the fabric, and being put back together to a design by Louise Page. The suit features cornflower blue pinstripes.
The blue suit, introduced in Smith and Jones (2007), ‘was made from a slightly lighter weight cotton normally used for shirting and was a light blue with bright red stripe which was then dyed through an Ink Blue which changed the fabric to an ink blue with a dull burgundy stripe’.
‘We sort of made up a rule after Series Two that the period episodes would feature the brown suit, and the contemporary or futuristic ones would have the blue, but we just tried to mix it up amongst the series,’ Page told me of the way they chose which uot to wear and when. ‘Generally, every episode we shot would have a tone meeting, and Russell would sometimes mention if there was any specific note he wanted to give costume. Usually, I would decide what I would like David to wear for the episodes and then run it past him with a couple of choices.’
‘Sometimes it was script driven — if there were lots of stunts involved, for example, and a lot was going to happen to the costume, I would pick the shirts or ties I had more repeats of.’
Another way the suits were made to look different from episode to episode was in varying which of the buttons Tennant wore fastened each time. ‘I do believe,’ said Page in 2010, ‘that David got the crew to do a vote. At the beginning of each episode, he’d say “How many buttons this time?”. I preferred it when more of the buttons were done up.’
More information about the creation of the two suits can be found in Designing the Doctor.
Shirts
During his time in the role, David Tennant wore seven different colours of shirt, and several variations within these colours.
While writing this blog, I spoke to Louise Page about the varying shirts of the same colour used throughout Tennant’s run; ‘I liked to buy shirts when I saw them as we always needed at least 5 repeats and we wanted to mix things up a bit so he wasn’t always in the same shirt. I would buy a new one when I spotted something on my travels I liked that may have been a blue variation or different fabric. They were all quite soft casual shirts, linens, soft cottons… not business suit shirts.’
Light Blue — First seen in The Christmas Invasion (2005), and also worn in Attack of the Graske (2005), New Earth (2006), School Reunion (2006), Love & Monsters (2006), Army of Ghosts (2006), Doomsday (2006), The Runaway Bride (2006), Smith and Jones (2007), The Shakespeare Code (2007), Gridlock (2007), Daleks in Manhattan (2007), Evolution of the Daleks (2007), The Lazarus Experiment (2007), Blink (2007), Partners in Crime (2008), The Sontaran Stratagem (2008), The Poison Sky (2008), The Doctor’s Daughter (2008), The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008), Turn Left (2008), The Stolen Earth (2008), Journey’s End (2008), Music of the Spheres (2008), The Waters of Mars (2008), both episodes of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (2009), both episodes of The End of Time (2009/10), and The Day of the Doctor (2013).
Far and away the most frequently sported colour of shirt, Tennant wore a number of light blue shirts, including at least one from UniQlo, who provided several shirts for the 2006 series.
For Tennant’s return to the series in 2013’s Day of the Doctor, he wore a light blue shirt featuring a pattern on the underside of the collar — a departure from the plainer shirts worn during his own run between 2005–2010.
Dark Blue — First seen in Tooth and Claw (2006), and also worn in The Girl in the Fireplace (2006), Love & Monsters (2006), Blink (2007), Utopia (2007), The Sound of Drums (2007), Last of the Time Lords (2007), Partners in Crime (2008), The Fires of Pompeii (2008), Midnight (2008), The Next Doctor (2008), Planet of the Dead (2009), and The End of Time Part One (2009).
As with the light blue shirts, Tennant wore a number of different makes of dark blue shirt during his time in the role, including designs from FCUK, H&M, and John Lewis.
Grey — Only seen in School Reunion (2006).
Beige — First seen in Rise of the Cybermen (2006), and also worn in The Age of Steel (2006) and Army of Ghosts (2006).
Dark Burgundy — First seen in Last of the Time Lords (2007), and also worn in Time Crash (2007), Voyage of the Damned (2007), The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008), Silence in the Library (2008), and Forest of the Dead (2008).
So dark that these shirts appear almost black on screen, Tennant wore at least two different shirts in a dark burgundy colour. The ones worn between Last of the Time Lords and The Unicorn and the Wasp was by British fashion brand Reiss and had a smooth texture, while the shirt worn for the two-part Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead feature a square pattern.
Olive Green — First seen in The Impossible Planet (2006), and also worn in The Satan Pit (2006), Human Nature (2007), and The Family of Blood (2007).
White — First seen in Rise of the Cybermen (2006), and also worn in The Age of Steel (2006), The Lazarus Experiment (2007), Human Nature (2007), The Family of Blood (2007), and Voyage of the Damned (2007).
While Tennant never wore a plain white shirt with either of his regular suits, he did sport a variety of white shirts when wearing his tuxedo (see below), and when in disguise as John Smith for Human Nature and The Family of Blood (see below).
Ties
Between The Christmas Invasion (2005) and The Poison Sky (2008), twelve different ties were introduced to the Tenth Doctor’s regular look, and a thirteenth was added for Tennant’s return to the role in The Day of the Doctor. Throughout this blog, the ties are numbered by the order in which they made their first appearance on screen.
Steve Rick’s YouTube channel includes a series of interviews with Costume Designer Louise Page, in which she discusses the ties worn by David Tennant as the Doctor — you can find these videos HERE.
Tie One — First seen in The Christmas Invasion. Unlike all the other ties on this list, Tie One wasn’t purchased specifically for the Tenth Doctor’s costume. Louise Page later recalled that ‘the original tie that we used was actually a vintage tie that we just happened to have around’. Because of the vintage nature of Tie One, the Wardrobe Department didn’t have multiple copies of the design, making it difficult to use for ongoing production.
Tie Two — First seen in Attack of the Graske, and also worn in New Earth, Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, Doomsday, The Runaway Bride, Partners in Crime, The Unicorn and the Wasp, and The End of Time Parts One and Two.
Produced by French fashion designer Daniel Hechter, Tie Two is one of the more recognisable ties worn by the Tenth Doctor, appearing in more episodes that almost any other design. Within the Wardrobe Department, Louise Page referred to this as ‘the doll tie’, on account of it being the one used when the original Tenth Doctor action figures were designed.
It was Tie Two which was worn for the initial photographs taken to unveil Tennant’s costume to the world, and it went on to appear in a number of character photoshoots which have been used on the covers of the recent Tenth Doctor audios from Big Finish — only adding to the sense of this being the iconic look for Tennant’s Doctor.
Tie Three — Only seen in School Reunion, Tie Three was specifically chosen to be a plainer design in an episode featuring lots of characters wearing suits and ties. The pattern of squares and circles is hard to make out on screen, but is more obvious in on-set photographs. The tie was produced by Yves Saint Laurent.
Tie Four — First seen in The Girl in the Fireplace, and also worn in Love & Monsters, Blink, The End of Time Part Two, and by the Eleventh Doctor in The Eleventh Hour.
A particular favourite of Page and Tennant, Tie Four was by French fashion designer Christian Lacroix, and as with Tie One, the Wardrobe Department only had a single tie in this design. As such, it was decided that it could only be used sparingly — as if the tie were to be damaged during production, they would be unable to replace it. It’s for this reason that The Girl in the Fireplace is the only full episode to feature the tie; in all other appearances it’s only used for short sequences.
The lack of back-ups for this tie caused something of a headache when it came to the production of Matt Smith’s first episode, The Eleventh Hour, in 2009. The script called for the Doctor to be in a worn-through version of the Tenth Doctor’s final costume, but there wasn’t a desire to damage their only copy of the tie.
Originally, Page suggesting getting the Doctor out of his tie as quickly as possible, but it was soon realised that the script called for him to continue wearing it for much of the episode. As such, a replica of Tie Four was created, and worn by Smith throughout.
This replica hadn’t been created when Smith recorded his first scenes on the programme — the final minutes of The End of Time Part Two — and so for a photoshoot featuring both Tennant and Smith together, the out-going Doctor wore Tie Four, while Smith wore Tie Two instead, and the image was later edited in photoshop to match the costumes up.
Tie Five — Only seen in The Idiot’s Lantern, Tie Five was a Thomas Nash design, chosen for the episode because Page felt it suited the Doctor’s outfit for visiting New York in the 1950s. Tie Five was one of the designs gifted to Tennant upon his departure from the programme in 2009, and he later wore it again for his appearance as part of The Muppets Take the O2.
Tie Six — First seen in The Impossible Planet, and also worn in The Satan Pit, Human Nature, and The Family of Blood.
Tie Seven — First seen in Love & Monsters, and also worn in Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, Smith and Jones, The Shakespeare Code, Gridlock, The Family of Blood, The Fires of Pompeii, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth, Journey’s End, and Planet of the Dead.
Worn in more episodes than any other, Tie Seven was by Giorgio Armani. On the subject of why this design turned up so often, Page later recalled ‘I loved that tie. I think it always looks great, it always looks smart… and David liked that tie a lot.’
Tie Eight — First seen in Smith and Jones, and also worn in Blink, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith Parts One and Two in The Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off series.
The first of three ties worn with the blue suit, Tie Eight was by Nina Ricci.
Although it’s not the tie worn most commonly with the blue suit on screen, this tie was worn by Tennant for three large photoshoot sessions during the production of Series Three, covering images used on merchandise, in promotion of the series, and exclusives for the Radio Times. As such, this tie is perhaps the one most commonly associated with the blue suit in general.
Tie Nine — First seen in Daleks in Manhattan, and also worn in Evolution of the Daleks, The Lazarus Experiment, Blink, The Last of the Time Lords, Time Crash, Voyage of the Damned, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead, and The Waters of Mars.
By French fashion house Kenzo, Tie Nine is the design worn most commonly with the blue suit, and is the second most-worn tie in the Doctor’s rotation.
Tie Ten — First seen in Utopia, and also worn in The Sound of Drums and The last of the Time Lords.
One of two Duffer of St George ties in the Tenth Doctor’s wardrobe, Tie Ten was introduced for the three-part finale to Series Three, and worn only in those episodes.
Page later explained that the tie didn’t return because ‘when you get a tie that’s so obvious, because it’s floral, you can’t really use it too often. You can’t really use it again because for me it would become too obvious.’
Tie Eleven — First seen in Partners in Crime, and also worn in The Next Doctor.
The final two ties introduced during the Tenth Doctor’s era — Tie Eleven and Tie Twelve — were by Spanish fashion house Massimo Dutti, and were picked up by Page at the same time while out shopping for costumes for another actor. Page was especially keen to introduce this design ‘because it was a stripe, and we hadn’t used a stripe one the Tenth Doctor at all up until that point, so it was something different.’
Tie Twelve — First seen in The Poison Sky, and also worn in The Doctor’s Daughter.
Tie Thirteen — Only seen in The Day of the Doctor.
Another Duffer of St George, introduced for Tennant’s return to Doctor Who for the 50th Anniversary special.
Shoes
The Tenth Doctor’s shoes of choice — Converse Hi-Tops — were inspired by David Tennant’s own fashion choices. Indeed, the pair he wore in his first few stories were Tennant’s own, already battered and worn from a summer’s worth of wear.
Because of the BBC’s guidelines regarding product placement on screen, the iconic ‘Converse All Stars’ logo on the side of the shoes was always covered up or removed, leaving a blank circle instead.
Across his time in the role, Tennant wore three different colours of Converse;
Natural White (Colour code M9162) — First seen in The Christmas Invasion (2005), these are the colour of Converse most commonly associated with the Tenth Doctor, and worn in the majority of his episodes. Although the actual colour of the shoes is sold as ‘Natural White’, variations between batches can lead to these shoes sometimes appearing more like a shade of cream, or even yellowed.
The Natural White Converse were only ever worn with the brown suit.
Black (Colour code M9160) — First seen in Rise of the Cybermen (2006), the black Converse were initially introduced to match with the tuxedo that Tennant would be wearing in that episode. They’re the only shoes that are ever paired with the tuxedo, but also show up alongside the brown suit in a number of episodes throughout Series Two and Three.
Maroon (Colour code M9163) — First seen in Smith and Jones (2007), the Maroon Converse were the only colour ever worn alongside the blue suit, and appeared right the way through to it’s final appearance in The Waters of Mars (2009).
Tuxedos
First seen in Rise of the Cybermen (2006), and also worn in The Age of Steel (2006), The Lazarus Experiment (2007) and Voyage of the Damned (2007).
‘The dinner suits for Series Two and Three were purchased from Paul Smith, which was one of David’s favourite contemporary designers as the cut suits him very well,’ Page explained to me. ‘His dress shirt [worn in the 2007 episodes] and black silk bow-tie were both Paul Smith as well.’
Spacesuits
First seen in The Impossible Planet (2006), another key costume which the Tenth Doctor returned to several times — more from necessity than for fashion reasons — were spacesuits designed specially by Louise Page, and created by a company — Space Toys — in America.
‘Russell was very specific about the Spacesuit,’ Page told Doctor Who Magazine in 2017. ‘He didn’t want it to be a white NASA spacesuit, all big and quilted with a chunky block on the back. [He] said we should have something a bit more streamlined. And something in a bright colour. Russell always loved bright colours.’
‘I think everything I did in Doctor Who had an element of reality. I wanted it all to look fairly authentic. So I looked at the history of spacesuits and found the orange ‘pumpkin suit’, designed to be worn by NASA astronauts on the space shuttle.’
‘I did a search and found a company in America which makes reproduction spacesuits. They were a big chunk of my budget, but they’re made from this hard-wearing nylon Cordura 600 fabric, which looks really good. I think the suits only arrived about a day before we started production, and the sizing wasn’t right — they were all too long. So we remade them, streamlining them a bit for the actors.’
‘Russell was also conscious that the footwear should look heavy, so that as they’re standing outside, they don’t look like they’re going to float away.We bought snowboarding boots because they look likethey have weight. That adds to the impact.For the space helmets, the art department got a freelancer to adapt motorbike helmets and build all the stuff on top.’
The following year, the script for 42 called for another spacesuit. ‘Russell said, “I love the orange spacesuit, can we just have the same one?” But in the script it’s a suit that belongs to the spaceship they’re on, so I had something similar made up in nylon Cordura, but in a different colour.’
This time, the space suit was red, rather than orange, and the helmet was given an overhaul, too, to help sell the idea that these were different designs from the same universe.
‘We decided this one would be red, but when they shot the episode they used a lot of red-filtered light to make it look hot, which makes the suit seem more orange. It didn’t have the Sanctuary Base 6 badges on it, and the helmet was different. I think it was an improvement on the yellow ones from before. But people don’t always notice [that it’s a different space suit].’
John Smith
During the two part Human Nature and The Family of Blood (both 2007), the Doctor used a Chameleon Arch in the TARDIS to disguise himself as a human named John Smith. During his time undercover, he goes through a number of outfits largely different to his usual attire.
These include waistcoats, bow ties, white round-collared shirts, and even two new pairs of pyjamas. Unlike the Doctor’s usual costume, these weren’t specially designed by Page specifically for the programme.
‘The outfits for John Smith were all fitted and hired from a costume house,’ Page told me. ‘I fitted David as I would do any other character, and sent the pictures to Russell, Julie and Phil for approval.’
Details about these unique combinations can be found in the Costume Catalogue.
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