FASHION
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- Gerri Hershey, Rolling Stone, July 16th, 1987
In the books, he prefers dark blue serge suits with a white silk shirt for work. For pleasure, he likes sleeveless dark blue Sea Island cotton shirts and navy blue worsted trousers. He likes soft leather or mocassin shoes; hates shoelaces. For some reason, he likes pajamas, too. (Possibly some licensed Goldfinger sleepwear from 1964?) Continuation series novelist Jeffery Deaver told GQ Magazinre in 2011:, "For his garments, Bond did give in to a bit of luxury. His suits were either pure wool, fine worsted or alpaca and though I have not been able to find a suit made of the latter fabric in my suburban mall, I suspect they are not cheap. His shirts were silk, as was his tie. Once he wore a pair of jeans, but he insisted that even his casual shirts be made of sea-island cotton."
When clothed in the films, he like tuxedoes quite a bit, even under his wetsuit. He doesn't wear a hat, but he likes to throw one on the hat rack in Moneypenny's office anyway.
GoldenEye clothing designer Lindy Hemming rated the fashion appeal of the movie Bonds:
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"We all felt that Sean Connery had the most fashionable and sophisticated look." |
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(Neither Lazenby nor his kilt were mentioned.) |
For Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's suits and tuxedos were made by Brioni, as well (their logo can briefly be seen on the suit bag for the tuxedo that Vesper gives him). His shirts and neckties were made by the British company Turnbull and Asser. In addition, he wears a sunglasses by Persol, cufflinks by S.T. Dupont, braces/suspenders by Albert Thurston, polos & t-shirts by Sunspel, shoes by Converse, John Lobb, & Nike, Ted Baker pants, La Perla swim trunks, a Giorgio Armani leather jacket, & an Omega wristwatch. Brioni also dressed every player at the Casino Royale poker table. In Quantum of Solace, American fashion giant Tom Ford was personally commissioned by Daniel Craig to design exclusive clothing for his 007 character. James Bond's eleven costume changes in the movie required about 420 pieces of clothing. There were nine versions of every suit used in the movie. Three were normal, three were battered with blood and debris whilst three were this but also waterlogged. Daniel Craig's swimming trunks are made by La Perla.She
also felt that Bond's fashions in the later films were "a bit soft and sloppy."
Roger
Moore had a flared pants/wide lapel look in t
he
70's which was "too extreme and now looks horribly dated."
In contrast, Timothy
Dalton's Bond was very much of the eighties, "very off the shoulders, unstructured,
very Armani and Hugo Boss."
In
GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan
is outfitted by the Italian company Brioni, whose suits sell for a minimum of
$2500 (apparently the British Secret Service is generous with their employess
clothing allotments). "We wanted to get James Bond back into a cool, elegant,
classic look," said Hemming. She fitted Brosnan in a sophisticated style, if not
well-fitted to the lifestyle of a real secret agent.
"The jackets are very lightweight, tailored into a long, slim line with a slightly
built up shoulder," said Hemming. "The pockets are fractionally jetted at an angle
with a ticket pocket on his business suits. The trousers are slim and single-pleated."
Not a lot of room for any Q gadgets, though, Lindy.
Brioni provided 50 suits--worth $150,000 wholesale -- but after all the mud, fake blood and bullets Brosnan and his stunt doubles tore through, only five garments survived. And yes, Brosnan got to keep the suits.
