We like to think that James Bond is the most stylish man in the world, but he is merely a character that real people created. Many people are responsible for Bond’s stylish sensibilities. In commemorating the 55th anniversary of the release of Dr. No on Global James Bond Day today, we celebrate the most important people over the past 55 years who contributed to James Bond’s style.
Ian Fleming
Starting with the novel Casino Royale written 64 years ago, James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming invented all of the basics of the James Bond character, from his job in the British government to his heavy drinking and smoking habits to his womanising. Fleming also gave Bond his pared-down but very particular sense of style.
Though Fleming did not specify many details about Bond’s clothes, we know that Bond likes wearing lightweight dark blue worsted suits, black-and-white houndstooth suits, white or blue silk or Sea Island cotton short-sleeve shirts, black knitted silk ties and black moccasin shoes. It’s not much, but it set the foundation for James Bond’s wardrobe.
Terence Young
The director of the first James Bond film Dr. No, as well as From Russia with Love and Thunderball, is the person primarily responsible for establishing the film Bond’s style. He dressed Sean Connery almost the same way as he dressed himself, taking him to his tailor Anthony Sinclair and his shirtmakers Turnbull & Asser and Lanvin.
Young updated the quirky style that Ian Fleming gave James Bond with a more elegant style that kept the basic look intact. Shirts had long sleeves instead of short sleeves, and Young lent James Bond his preferred style of shirt cuff, the turnback cocktail cuff. Young also updated the black knitted silk tie with the more elegant navy grenadine silk tie, made of a similarly textured woven silk that is more lace-like but also more formal.
Anthony Sinclair
The suit is still James Bond’s primary uniform today, and the overall style was established by Conduit Street tailor Anthony Sinclair for Dr. No. Sinclair provided James Bond with elegant West End-style suits that have a more natural-looking silhouette than most Savile Row suits have. Sinclair tailored a gentle silhouette for James Bond that gave him a confident yet comfortable look, with soft shoulders, elegantly roped sleeve heads, a strong chest, a softly shaped waist, a low button stance and trim but pleated trousers. Sinclair’s suits were lightweight in both the fabric and construction compared to other English suits at the time.
Narrow lapels made this timeless silhouette more relevant to the 1960s, but it is still a silhouette that is still admired today because of how well Connery wore it. James Bond’s suits since have continually been compared to the standards set by Sinclair.
Michael Fish
Turnbull & Asser was Sean Connery’s shirt maker in most of his James Bond films, and they also made shirts for some of Pierce Brosnan’s and Daniel Craig’s Bond films. Though many different people at Turnbull and Asser worked on the Bond films between 1962 and 2006, the most significant person there was the first person to fit James Bond’s shirts.
This person is the famous shirt designer Michael Fish, who opened a shop called Mr Fish in the mid 1960s where he sold boldly printed shirts to rock stars. Before that, Fish worked for Turnbull & Asser where he fitted Sean Connery in blue, white and cream shirts with the scallopped cocktail cuff that Connery made famous. With the return of the cocktail cuff shirt in Spectre, Fish’s legacy lives on.
Frank Foster
“Shirtmaker to the stars” Frank Foster has been involved with the wardrobes of more James Bond films than any other person has. Foster made Sean Connery’s shirts in Goldfinger, George Lazenby’s shirts for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Roger Moore’s shirts in all of his Bond films. Foster was involved with the Bond films starting with Dr. No and made shirts for many of the actors throughout the series besides James Bond, such as Anthony Dawson, Robert Shaw, Gert Frobe, Walter Gotell, Topol, Louis Jourdan and Christopher Walken.
Frank Foster’s style was typically for a closely fitted shirt with unique cuff designs (including his own takes on the cocktail cuff), prominent collars and a placket stitched close to the centre. George Lazenby’s ruffled shirts from Foster, despite looking dated today, were nevertheless beautiful creations.
Lindy Hemming
In the early days of Bond clothes, the clothes were made in the style of the craftspeople who made them with a little input from a costume designer or a wardrobe master. Later, costume designers took on more significant roles in determining the clothes that James Bond should wear along with necessary product placement agreements. Costume designer Lindy Hemming is the first prominent figure in the modern world of James Bond costume.
Hemming is responsible for establishing the style of two James Bonds in their debut films, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Hemming worked with Brioni to tailor her Bonds and their stuntmen for the extreme requirements of filming modern action films with the stars in suits. She is responsible not only for the design of Daniel Craig’s evening wear for the poker game in Casino Royale but also for all of the other men at the poker table.
In establishing Craig’s look for Casino Royale, Hemming dressed Craig in many items that Craig’s later costume designers would continue to dress him in. This includes navy polos, light blue trim-fitting swimming trunks, shawl-collar cardigans and chukka boots.
Hemming has also been involved with James Bond costume projects beyond the films, working on the Designing 007 and Madame Tussauds exhibits.
Jany Temime
As the costume designer for the last two James Bond films, Jany Temime has been one of the most controversial figures in James Bond fashion. Similar to how many of Roger Moore’s suits are recognisable as being of their time, the same will be said of Daniel Craig’s tightly fitted suits of the 2010s. Despite the fashionable fit of Craig’s suits, Temime chose classic and beautiful blue and grey suitings for Craig to wear.
Where Temime will be truly remembered is in the casual clothes and quintessentially British brands she dressed Craig in. From shoes and boots by Crockett & Jones to jumpers by John Smedley and N.Peal to Sanders & Sanders chukka boots to Dents gloves a waxed Barbour jacket to a Matchless suede jacket, Temime introduced the ultimate British world ambassador to brands he should have been wearing a long time ago. Other casual wear like the Billy Reid Bond pea coat and various Tom Ford pieces have since become Bond classics.
Many other people deserve mention for their contributions to James Bond clothing, such as tailors, Dimi Major, Cyril Castle, Angelo Vitucci, Douglas Hayward and Checchino Fonticoli, fashion designer Tom Ford, other costume designers such as Louise Frogley, and stylish directors such as Peter Hunt and Lewis Gilbert. James Bond actors Roger Moore and Daniel Craig are also responsible for bringing their own fashion senses and favourite styles to their Bonds. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan also deserve a mention just for wearing what they were given so perfectly.
For me the Most Significant Contributors,if not the creator, to James Bond Style IS Terence Young
I agree. Given what we know about the Young-Connery relationship, Terence Young practically molded Sean Connery into a version of himself, and it worked to great avail.
P.S. Matt, Did you have any input on this recent article by Mason & Sons? If not, It looks like they hit all the major tailored pieces for Dr. No pretty well.
https://www.masonandsons.com/blogs/intelligence/dressed-to-kill
I had nothing to do with that article! David knows his clothes very well!
I’d have put Dimi Major further up the list. The man who helped create the fashionable Bond.
Major’s suits are my favorite of the series, but he was only involved with one film. The others on the list were far more influential, so I think Matt’s honorable mention was fair.
Great write-up, Matt!
I think Tom Ford (the man) also deserves honorable mention. The TF clothing is QoS was basically of his own design as the brand was very new in 2008 (I remember having no idea what “Tom Ford” was), and the clothes and accessories in Skyfall and Spectre, while designed by Craig and Temime, still bear many of the hallmarks that Ford has personally infused in his brand. Unlike Brioni and other fashion brands, Ford is tied to his products in a unusually personal way that I think justifies his inclusion up above.
Yes, that is fair.
Dear Matt,
Sean Connery had full chest and drape in his Anthony Sinclair suits. Is it possible to make such full chest and drape in MTM-suit?
It’s unlikely to be able to get this effect if the pattern isn’t meant for drape. I have never seen a made-to-measure suit with the kind of chest on Connery’s suits.
You did not mention Louise Frogley – I think she would have merited that because she was the first costume designer to collaborate with Tom Ford and the look she created was far superior to that what Temime made out of it later. Why was she left out? Because she was only once costume designer for a Bond film?
I did mention Louise Frogley.
Yes, but only under “Miscellaneous”. I think she merits to be highlighted as Hemming or Temime.
Excellent list, Matt. I would put Terence Young as even more important than Fleming, strictly for setting the visual style to which we have grown accustomed. Temime – I initially revolted (too strong?) at her inclusion, but I think you are correct- her inclusion on the casual ware side and the British-brand side will long outlast her and Craig. Keep up the wonderful work.
I’d be curious to hear the story of Connery’s original visit to T&A to get measured for his shirts. I think too many of the key players are deceased now, or in the case of Connery too grumpy to discuss Bond at any length. (interestingly he’s frequently photographed by paparazzi 1 block away from T&A on 57th st in NY…)
I wonder if we might be giving Michael Fish too much credit here though. From the T&A 130th anniversary book compiled by James Sherwood, the description of Connery’s initial visit made it sound like he sat in the corner of the shop (a bit out of the water, and not yet having attained any status of note), and Fish put himself forward for the task, being one of the younger and more handsome gents at T&A who would’ve been up to also be part of the photographs. I would also assume the choice of the cocktail cuff came from Young, not Fish? Those b/w photos are indelible though, so I can’t begrudge the association there.
“The tailor made a fortune after this picture. Everybody kept writing in. They didn’t write about the picture, they just said ‘who is James Bond’s tailor?’ In fact, David Picker, who is the President of United Artists, and very much responsible for the Bond films getting made – he went out and bought about 30 suits the next week. I went to all his fittings for his clothes. I took him [Sean] to my shirtmaker in Paris and also in London. I must say, I think Sean was much better dressed in my 3 pictures than the others [laughing]”
– Terence Young on the ‘banned’ Criterion laserdisc commentary for Dr. No
Terence doesn’t drop any specific names here but obviously appears to be referencing Anthony Sinclair, T&A, and Lanvin.