Yesterday marked the official start of Bond 25, with the announcement of the cast and crew at Ian Fleming’s Jamaica home GoldenEye. The biggest news may have been the announcement of Bond 25’s costume designer, Suttirat Larlarb. Larlarb has previously worked on films by Bond 25’s original director Danny Boyle, but she has stayed with the production after Boyle’s departure and will be working with Bond 25’s director Cary Joji Fukunaga.
Unlike at the Spectre announcement, Daniel Craig wore a suit to the Bond 25 event. Thanks to the incredible @whatsdanielwearing on Instagram, the suit has been identified as from Thom Sweeney, with Craig styled by Michael Fisher. Thom Sweeney is an English tailoring brand with bespoke and ready-to-wear shops in London’s Mayfair, and they now have a shop in New York’s SoHo. It was founded by Thom Whiddett and Luke Sweeney, who both worked for Ralph Fiennes’ M’s tailor Timothy Everest before opening up the first Thom Sweeney store in 2009, so there’s already a Bond connection.
Daniel Craig himself has been a fan of Thom Sweeney for a few years. He wore Thom Sweeney while promoting Spectre, and Craig was spotted last year shopping at Thom Sweeney in New York’s SoHo. Craig is a fan of Sweeney in his personal wardrobe and was styled by a personal stylist for this event, so it does not mean that they will be present in Bond 25, even with Craig wearing their clothes at the press conference for the film. Even if they are not Bond’s tailor for Bond 25 and Tom Ford returns, we could see Sweeney in a smaller role like Brunello Cucinelli had in Spectre. The news of Bond’s tailor for Bond 25 will be coming soon.
Daniel Craig’s Thom Sweeney suit at the Bond 25 launch was in a very Bondian navy blue. The suit is a blue hopsack, which is a worsted wool basket weave that can be comfortable in a warm locale such as Jamaica. The suit jacket has two buttons, double vents and open patch hip pockets with a welt breast pocket. The jacket is tailored with soft shoulders and roped sleeve heads that recall the looks Anthony Sinclair and Douglas Hayward tailored for previous James Bonds. The suit overall has a lightweight construction. The trousers have a flat front and a mid rise.
The suit’s fit is very good, and it is especially good in the sleeves, which drape beautifully. Following the past decade’s fashion trends, the jacket is slightly short and the trousers have a lower mid rise, but the overall look is a tremendous improvement over most of the tailored clothes Daniel Craig has worn during the past decade. It is difficult to avoid the gap between the jacket’s fastening button and the top of the trousers, but it is the current fashion that Craig prefers. Though Thom Sweeney is a bespoke tailor, this is a ready-to-wear suit part of their current collection. The suit is flattering on Craig and helps to show off his healthy-looking physique better than a suit that is too tight. He is looking ready to play James Bond.
With the suit, Craig is wearing a white shirt with a cutaway collar. He’s wearing the shirt open-necked without a tie, which looks okay with the patch-pocket suit. Luke Sweeney himself said to Esquire in 2010 that his favourite outfit is a blue suit and white shirt.
What lets the outfit down are trainers. Whatsdanielwearing identified the trainers as the Converse Fear of God x Chuck 70 High in natural. Craig is always looking to make his outfits more fashion-forward, but here it looks like he is trying to be younger than he is, and it is not working. Considering the setting, I would have paired dark brown suede derbys or loafers with this suit.
Director Cary Fukunaga was the best-dressed man at the event, wearing an outfit similar to Craig’s but with elegant light brown full-strap loafers instead. Light brown shoes and no socks with a navy suit is trendy look, and it is more successful than Craig’s trainers. What primarily set Fukunaga’s outfit apart is it being a bespoke suit with a button one jacket and high-rise trousers, which would avoid the gap between the jacket’s button and trouser waist if he fastened the jacket. This is a look that recalls Connery’s blue suit in You Only Live Twice. Fukunaga’s personal fashion may signify a more stylish film than we’ve had from Bond in a long time. None of Craig’s other Bond directors showed so much personal style. Along with Craig wearing a better-fitted suit than before and a new costume designer, there is hope that Bond 25 will feature better fitted tailoring than in the last two Bond films.
Photos by Dave Allocca
I realize a stylist was partly responsible for this outfit, but I must say I never understood the interest in people who want to do cosplay of what DC wears in his personal life. Maybe I’m just too young…
And I should clarify I’m referring to the shoes. The suit is actually terrific.
I don’t know what Daniel or his stylist was thinking. The suit could certainly use a higher rise and/or lower buttoning point. But wearing trainers with it for a James Bond press event, let alone the launch of a new movie, is a simply bizarre choice.
Cary Fukunaga definitely benefits from bespoke tailoring here and I would not be averse to seeing Bond in a similarly styled suit — single button — 52 years after YOLT.
The tennis shoes with the suit is very hipster/trendy, at least around LA. It is too bad Craig goes this route (tennis shoes on a beach?), as the suit is quite good (the rise is simply reflective of today’s fashions). Fukunaga looks great; his work on True Detective season one (I have not watched Maniac yet) gives me hope that EON will bounce back from the Spectre debacle as they have bounced back after a misstep so many times before.
As I also mentioned in the two-button collar article, I feel either Craig or Fukunaga could have worn something that differentiates from each other. Personally, I feel the sensible business navy could have been Fukunaga’s color and Craig, as he is the protagonist and center of attention, could have worn something like what he wore at the last scene in Layer Cake – a cream suit with a light blue shirt.
I’m imagining the costume designer only noticed that the look he prepared for Daniel was almost identical to Fukunaga when they arrived, and they made the few differentiating changes they could think of on the spot. Pocket triangle, button unfastened, and of course, the shoes (which might even be someone else’s rented out to Craig for the day).
Matt, didn’t Suttirat Larlarb dress Daniel for the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony skit as James Bond? Below is an article that suggests it
https://www2.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2014/08/13/neverland-costume-designer-doesn-shy-away-from-big-projects/wbQrKAT9XnI8bEuWgBnJiI/story.html
She worked on the Olympics film, but in that Craig is wearing the clothes that Jany Temime chose for Skyfall, so I don’t think she had much input.
The low rise pants on Daniel Craig’s suit makes him look short waisted, never a good look. The trainers make him look like an 80 year old man or a dumb teenager, take your pick. Whether a Mr. Craig or costume designer decision, this was a bad choice.
According to Matt’s post, the costume designer had nothing to do with this outfit. Rather, it was chosen by a stylist. And you are the second person in the comments to mistate this. Do you lot even read the write-ups? They are quite good!
Spot on!
When the shrunken fit trend passes (and I think it is already on its way out) Craig’s wardrobe is going to look a lot more dated than Moore’s does.
I’m no great fan of open necked shirts with suits and Craig’s rig here is part of the reason why. When a soft-collared shirt collapses and folds in on itself it’s not a good look. It took me a long time to come around to Button Down Shirts but I’ve acquired a couple which mitigate this. They allow the collar to stand up and not fold in and collapse.
Can’t quite make out if Craig is wearing the new Seamaster but it looks like it. That’s a nice bit of kit, of which they may make a special limited edition when the film comes out.
I have one shirt with a button-down collar, and it still collapses. I think Craig’s collar looks fine here, but not great.
@whatsdanielwear on Instagram says the watch is the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m Co-axial GMT 43.5mm. I mostly stay out of Bond watches, since there are many people who know much more than I do.
Collar stays are your friend. Whilst to many they seem superfluous, I think they make a great inexpensive investment in appearing put together. Never been a fan of button-down collars (though admittedly own a few), and to me metal collar stays are a game changer – magnetic ones are even better, if a little fiddly.
On the Planet Ocean watches, they look fantastic, but are somewhat oversized and probably a bit expressive for Bond. Would prefer he wore a more classically sized dive watch. That said, if you’re a gentleman with some heft in the forearm then the proportions could be okay, such a thing would be entirely subjective and probably owes more to his own personal taste.
I really really like Craig’s suit and shirt, I’m ok with the sneakers. I don’t like it for me personally and would never do it, but Daniel Craig can do what he wants.
But as your article points out Cary Fukunaga looks great, while that may or may not translate to Bond’s wardrobe, it does tell me the head-space that he is in while working on Bond. The higher waist and single low button on the jacket tells me he is thinking about the past, specifically Connery. The shoes are also very reminiscent of FRWL in Istanbul. I have a lot of faith in him to bring me the Bond I want.
I agree that Fukunaga’s suit is very Connery. The From Russia with Love shoes in Istanbul are actualy are black derbies, which would look a bit out of place at GoldenEye. Connery’s brown Venitian loafers photographed in Istanbul (with a Dr. No suit) were his own and did not feature in From Russia with Love.
I knew the shoes weren’t actually in the film, BUT I didn’t know that was a Dr. No suit. I went back and looked, that’s a great bit of trivia. I just always assumed it was the same suit. very cool
Matt, is that the light grey mohair suit from Dr. No in the picture ? It looks nice with the brown loafers.
Yes, that is the suit.
The converse trainers with the suit are terrible. Shows to me that Craig either has bad personal taste or trusts someone else to tell him what looks good, either way this was a poor choice!
Two very badly dressed men. Cary’s trousers are so short that you can see that he’s not wearing socks. Daniel clearly can’t be bothered playing James Bond anymore, so he decided to adopt this stupid hipster look with the sneakers, just to spite Bond fans.
Would you like it better if he wore socks and a tie? If you look at the top picture the break doesn’t look so high. It’s a pretty well fitting suit.
I think Cary’s suit is beautifully proportioned, and the only reason the trousers look so short is because of the very low cut shoes.
I will agree about these shoes however; sockless is not a look I like at all, though I can appreciate that he’s trying- seemingly unlike Craig.
Say what you will about Craig, but Fukunaga’s entire outfit, including his trousers, fit almost perfectly. Perhaps you’re not accustomed to how loafers look with a suit.
Yep, Fukunaga looks excellent. Dare I say Fleming-esque!
Oh dear….truly awful taste in clothes by DG here, especially when the ladies went to such an effort.
But I suppose it is the film that matters.
I’m certain Craig and/or his handler went to some effort for his outfit. Effort doesn’t always equal well dressed, however.
Another pitiful example that ‘all the money in the world’ does not buy (good) taste.
Maybe it would sound naive to wish that the end of this wave would coincide with DC’s last
outing.
I agree with Stan; after Bond 25 is out, I will start the countdown towards (hopefully) a less angsty, classically handsome, CLASSICALLY TAILORED Bond!
We could still get classical tailoring in this film! Let’s not give up hope just yet. A new costume designer will surely have her own ideas. We will see if that is for better or worse.
Hope springs eternal…
Why does it seem that so many costume designers who are costuming men – and particularly recent Bonds – are women? I think we can all agree that results have been at best mixed in the last several films, I wonder if it’s an issue of gender? Matt, have you ever done a compendium of who was the CD for each Bond film? I generally liked Lindy Hemming (and Janie Bryant who did Mad Men) but didn’t like Jany Temime. Is it not logical to suggest that a man might know more about how to dress a man, at least some of the time? I’d like to see a bit more of the Terence Young influence on Bond and a bit less of the [insert trend-following contemporary costume designer’s name here]
Costumer designers and other wardrobe people are listed here: https://www.bondsuits.com/reference-guide/
Great list Matt, thank you!
It’s clearly not an issue of gender. The majority of costuming staff and supervisors working on past Bond films were women, based on the page Matt shared. I’ve seen just as many men costuming other men pretty poorly on film, down to shrunken suits, poor colour coordination, and fashion over substance. I, however, disagree that Jany Temime clothes men particularly poorly, especially when you look beyond the shrunken suits in the last two films — which an interview indicates was Daniel Craig’s personal preference and call — and beyond her work with James Bond.
Yeah, this theory doesn’t hold up when you look st the list Matt compiled.
Well just a passing thought but interesting anyway and thanks Matt for the input. In partial defence of my half-baked theory, it’s impossible to tell how much influence the tailors and in particular early directors had over the costuming. There’s a consensus that the early Connery clothes are among the best of the series, and it’s well known that Terence Young had considerable influence over Connery’s clothes in those films (wasn’t Sinclair his own tailor?)
While Terence Young may have dictated his preferences in shirtmakers and tailor, he and the following directors certainly couldn’t direct every single fabric, colour, and style choice made by the costuming department. They were surely responsible for far more than just Sean Connery’s attire, at that.
I really like the contrasting brown buttons on Fukunaga’s navy suit. It looks modern with a generally slim fit and flat-fronted trousers without looking ill-proportioned, like Craig’s suit. Although I think he ought to have worn a tie with that suit.
The suit is half lined for breathability. I could see it on Harris Thomas’s Instagram post on trying on the Thom Sweeney suit in New York.
A pair of mid brown derby boots would have looked a lot nicer here then the trainers. I do think that a patch pocket suit works ok with an open neck shirt.