Bond in Motion at the London Film Museum Covent Garden is the ultimate museum exhibit for James Bond fans, but it is one I have yet to visit. My friend Peter Brooker of Human Research recently visited and sent me a number of photos of the costumes to feature here. While I hope to visit the museum on my next trip to London, here are a number of the James Bond costumes that they have. All photos are by Peter Brooker.
Casino Royale: Bloodied Dinner Jacket
There are dinner jackets and dinner jackets; this is the battered. For one of the most brutal fight scenes of the entire James Bond series in Casino Royale, James Bond wears a beautiful black dinner suit from Brioni and a fine dress shirt from Turnbull & Asser. The most horrific part of this scene is how bloodied and mutilated the suit and shirt become! Bond in Motion has one of the bloodied examples of the outfit, which includes a black dinner suit with grosgrain lapels from Brioni and a white waffle-weave, fly-front dress shirt and black shantung silk thistle-shaped bow tie from Turnbull & Asser.
Peter already provided his thoughts about this outfit at Human Research. In Peter’s photos, the blood on the shirt and the damage to the front of the jacket are evident. Costume designer Lindy Hemming stated that Brioni made 25 dinner jackets for James Bond for Casino Royale, which included examples made for both Daniel Craig and the stuntmen. Some were made to look pristine for wearing at the poker table, while others like this one were damaged by the costumiers with stains and tears for wear at the end of the fight scene. As Peter pointed out, two of the covered buttons are torn off the left cuff. Rarely before did Bond’s clothes get this level of wear and tear in the field.
After all this excitement, Bond had a brand new dinner suit and shirt—identical to the ones that are ruined—to wear to finish the poker game. This would have been a good opportunity to put Bond in a new dinner suit, and Le Chiffre’s line, “You changed your shirt, Mr Bond,” would have been the perfect time to see James Bond in a different style of shirt. But perhaps James Bond’s clothes are supposed to mend as quickly as he does.
Octopussy: Reversible Tweed and Military Jacket
Roger Moore’s first outfit at the start of Octopussy is a brown herringbone tweed jacket, but moments after the film starts he removes his tweed jacket and turns it around into a green cotton drill military jacket. Because of the differences between the cuts of the tweed jacket and the military jacket, there is no way that they could possibly be reversible. A jacket with double vents could never be flipped over and be turned into a jacket with a single vent without there being a large flap underneath the vent. After the tweed jacket is reversed, the shot breaks away and then Moore is in reality donning a separate jacket that is just the military jacket without tweed on the reverse.
Peter’s photos show that the jacket at the exhibit is the initial tweed jacket made by Douglas Hayward that Moore wears at the start of the film. This jacket is made of a light brown and medium brown herringbone Harris Tweed. The tweed jacket is complete, with three brown faux horn buttons in a low stance on the front and three buttons on each cuff. It has Douglas Hayward’s signature flared double vents, which are cut with a noticeable flare when hanging on the display. On the reverse of the tweed jacket is an incomplete military jacket, without buttons or buttonhole and fake lapel that extends too far down to match the low button stance of the tweed jacket.
Beside the reversible jacket are reversible caps. The brown herringbone tweed flat cap—which matches the tweed jacket—at the top can easily be reversed into the soft military cap that is sitting directly underneath it. At the bottom is a separate stiff military cap with an insignia that is obviously not the same as the reversible cap above it.
Costume designer Emma Porteous did a brilliant job at designing this reversible jacket and uniform, but not even Q-Branch could properly execute this two-in-one jacket without the help of a little movie magic.
Peter already provided a few of his thoughts about this jacket at Human Research.
Tomorrow Never Dies: Naval Uniform
Costume designer Lindy Hemming followed James Bond tradition in Tomorrow Never Dies and placed Bond in his third Royal Navy Commander’s dress uniform for a brief scene. This uniform is also on display at Bond in Motion.
Peter’s photos show a close-up of the traditional Commander’s gold buttons with a roped rim and feature a crown atop a foul anchor. The close-up photos also show that the suit is made of the traditional wool barrathea. The suit overall is nothing out of the ordinary and perfectly matches what a Commander’s uniform should be. The uniform is detailed on the sleeves with the Commander’s rank insignia of three braids topped with an executive curl.
The shoes are also on display, which are black five-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes with straight lacing. The shoes have a rounded toe on an extended last. Because Pierce Brosnan wears Church’s shoes in all of his James Bond films, these are likely from Church’s as well. They resemble the Cartmel model in their current catalogue, but I do not know if this was a model they made in 1996 or 1997 when Tomorrow Never Dies was made.
Die Another Day: Winter Gear
Pierce Brosnan’s charcoal grey cashmere turtleneck jumper from Ballantyne drew attention in Die Another Day, but the clothes that he wears with it, over it and under it got little recognition. They are not easy to see in the film because the clothes are dark, the scenes are dark, and the clothes are obscured much of the time that Brosnan wears them.
This is the gear that is keeping Bond warm and dry when breaking into Gustave Grave’s lair in Iceland. Here is a neoprene diving jacket and trousers that Bond wears over his turtleneck jumper to keep it dry when going underwater. His thermal gloves and waterproof boots are included here.
A much better annotated and detailed account than I could give. Thanks Matt. If I make a return to Bond in Motion I’ll make sure to get some better pictures for the post.
Thanks for your contributions, Peter!
I wishe I could afford such well cut, perfect jackets and beyond so smart suits…my own are always awful, always an issue somewhere and no way to fix it. This exhibition must be a real dream. I was fortunate to have a chance to see very closely some attires from the movie Spectre two years ago on occasion of a Bond exhibition in Paris.
What issues are you having and what do you typically buy?
Out of interest, is it possible to describe the difference between grosgrain and ottoman? I thought my DJ lapels were grosgrain, but the store informs me that they are in fact the latter.
Ottoman has larger ribs than grosgrain. Faille, which you sometimes see on dinner jackets, has even more subtle ribs than grosgrain. These terms are often used interchangeably when discussing dinner jacket facings since there’s little noticeable difference.
Thanks, Matt!
James, what store was this?
Mr.spaiser,
The shoes he wore with the naval uniform; do you think he wore these shoes with all of his suits in the same film.
No, he did not. This is a style to wear with a uniform.
Could you wear these shoes with a double breasted blazer or are these shoes strictly for the uniform?
You could wear the shoes with a blazer, or even with a suit if you wanted to. They’re just not the most elegant or sophisticated style but rather a style associated with uniforms.
A must-see for any Bond-enthusiast visiting London! Apart from clothes you get to see vehicles, gadgets, storyboards and sketches. @Matt, if you want some more pics for the post, drop me an email.
Nice work done here!
PLEASE, write a whole article on the use of the Naval military uniform in 007 films.
It looked best on Roger Moore. I was very surprised that it didn’t look so good on Brosnan.
I doubt if it would suit Daniel Craig. He’s not tall and imposing enough.
By the way, I wonder if Brosnan and Moore are of the same height. Moore looks taller. Maybe it’s just his regal bearing and aristocratic carriage.
I already wrote an article on the naval uniform: https://www.bondsuits.com/royal-navy-commanders-dress-uniform/
Moore and Brosnan are the same height.