Has this suit got bigger? Or has Bond got smaller?
James Bond: Daniel Craig
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Costume designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
Tailoring: Tom Ford, Massimo Alba
Shirts and ties: Tom Ford and others
Footwear: Crockett & Jones
Overview
No Time to Die premiered five years ago, and I wrote a review of the film’s wardrobe immediately after the premiere. Five years later, I’m reviewing the film’s wardrobe again in more detail to see how my perception of the clothes has changed after sitting with them for five years. I also wanted to include the film in my wardrobe review series.
No Time to Die is Daniel Craig’s fifth and final James Bond film, bringing closure to his tenure as Bond. Bond’s wardrobe likewise summarises Craig’s style across the previous four films while also adding some completely new looks. No Time to Die brought on board a new costume designer with the American Suttirat Anne Larlarb, but as usual, Bond’s costume also saw input from Daniel Craig with some outfits reflecting Craig’s own taste.
Tom Ford returned to tailor Bond for a fourth time, but there’s less of their clothes in No Time to Die than in the previous three films. Crockett & Jones, Orlebar Brown, N.Peal, Barbour, Brunello Cucinelli, Danner, Albert Thurston and Benson & Clegg returned, but a number of brands that were new to Bond filled out the wardrobe, notably Massimo Alba. The film features a large number of brands, helping the wardrobe to feel more natural and less like an advertisement for one specific brand.
The film saw a number of delays in both production and release dates. While No Time to Die was released in 2021, it was filmed entirely in 2019. After being postponed from an original April 2020 release due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it premiered on 28 September 2021. The wardrobe is from 2018-2019, and I believe it’s important to view the wardrobe from that perspective and not from the 2020s.
Formal Wear
Bond iconically wears a dinner jacket in almost every film, so it was a must for Daniel Craig’s send-off. It’s a fitting outfit for the fancy party of criminals in Cuba. The Tom Ford dinner jacket in No Time to Die is primarily a callback to what Craig wears in Quantum of Solace, with a black dinner suit that has a medium-wide shawl collar (including a buttonhole) and gauntlet cuffs. Unfortunately, this dinner suit sees a significant downgrade from the former because it’s made from a stretch wool instead of a luxurious mohair and cashmere mix, and it’s styled with a sporty single rear vent instead of double vents. The single vent does not have any business being on a dinner jacket, yet Daniel Craig’s Bond has an odd and unfashionable preference for single vents on most of his suit jackets and dinner jackets. One positive attribute is the low button stance.
The dinner jacket is provided to Bond by Paloma, a throwback to Vesper providing Bond’s dinner jacket in Casino Royale. While the Casino Royale dinner jacket is excellently tailored, the No Time to Die dinner jacket looks more like ready-to-wear, which was not likely intentional. The collar gap and the sleeves being too snug are signs of this. Bond’s clothes should always inexplicably fit perfectly, as the dinner jackets almost do in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, when they should at least need alterations.
The Tom Ford dress shirt is an unusual one. It’s made of white cotton poplin with a pique cotton bib. The collar and cuffs are in white poplin, whereas they usually should match the bib. It has a point collar, ‘Dr. No’ cocktail cuffs, and a French front with mother-of-pearl buttons. The formality of a marcella front necessitates studs, but Bond wears buttons instead, which mirror the buttons on the cocktail cuffs. It would have been odd to use studs on the front and not have matching cufflinks. Cocktail cuffs, while a welcome Bondian touch, are not formal enough for a shirt with a marcella front, which should have double cuffs or single cuffs. The shirt’s design is Frakensteined—ideally it would have had a plain or pleated button or fly front and cocktail cuffs, or a marcella front with studs and double cuffs with cufflinks.
The black bow tie is a slim batwing, recalling the bow tie in Skyfall. He wears a folded white pocket square. Unlike in Craig’s previous three Bond films, he does not wear a cummerbund in No Time to Die. While Bond tradition does not call for a waistcoat or cummerbund, the marcella front should mean a cummerbund.
Bond wears black barathea braces from T.M. Lewin, which are made in England by Albert Thurston. They have black leather dual ends that allow them to be used with either buttons or clips, and Bond thankfully removed the clips and just uses the buttons. The braces are effective for black tie because they’re black, but they’re not special enough for black tie. Black tie braces should be fancier, like the moiré braces he usually wears.
Like most of Craig’s dinner jackets, there are some excellent concepts behind this outfit, but there are many mistakes in the execution. If Paloma herself picked out the whole outfit, she did well considering she’s not Bond. But Bond’s coincidentally amazing black tie outfits in Craig’s first two films shouldn’t give Paloma a pass for her mistakes, especially since this was to be Craig’s send-off.
Lounge Suits
Bond wears three lounge suits in No Time to Die. Tom Ford made the latter two, but the first one is a highly unusual suit for Bond, made of tan needlecord from Massimo Alba. The casual Italian suit is fitting for the Italian setting. It looks like it could be something that Bond picked up on his Italian travels, and it makes Bond look like he belongs in Italy.
Bond wears a suit to pay his respects to Vesper at a cemetery in Italy, but he wears a casual suit because he’s off-duty. If he’s mainly wearing the suit because he wants to spend a leisurely day in Italy wearing a suit, it suggests that Bond appreciates dressing up when he has no obligation to do so. It also gets Bond into a suit for an action sequence, which has always been a key aspect of Bond’s action uniform.
The soft construction and very close fit are very much of their time in the late 2010s, however, the suit avoids looking like it’s completely a size too small. The shoulders are too narrow, and the suit’s relaxed nature loses some of its essence in the snug jacket and very slim trouser leg. The jacket has three buttons on the front, with the lapels rolled to the middle buttons. Bond makes the mistake of buttoning the top button, which throws off the jacket’s shape, strains the chest and takes away from the relaxed feel. Bond rarely buttons the top two buttons of his button-three jackets, usually fastening just the middle button whether or not the top button is fastenable. Craig may be fastening the top button here if he needs to conceal a harness for the stunts.
The jacket has some nice details, like pick stitching, double vents and a ticket pocket, which elevate the suit in a Bondian way.
Bond wears the trousers with grey braces. Braces are an unusual choice for Bond to wear with any lounge suit, but especially with a casual suit like this one. Many people complain about Bond wearing braces with belt-looped trousers, but while it’s not ideal, it’s not traditionally a faux pas to do so. Bond should not be wearing braces because they’re out of character and because they are at odds with an Italian suit that has mid-rise trousers cut to be worn with a belt. Braces should be worn with high-rise trousers to get the most benefit and comfort from braces. While the braces ultimately aren’t wrong, there’s no reason for Bond to make the unusual character choice of wearing braces with this outfit.
Bond wears a rare denim button-down shirt with the suit. Bond previously wore button-down shirts in A View to a Kill, but only casually. Here he’s wearing it with a tie, which is especially out of character. It’s not wrong to wear a button-down collar with a tie, even for a British character, but it gives the impression that Bond had to pick up this shirt, and the rest of the outfit, on his travels because his luggage went missing. Bond isn’t the kind of person who simply loses his luggage.
The spotted burgundy Alexander Olch tie is also unusual for Bond, especially for Craig’s Bond, who otherwise wears solid or discreetly patterned ties. The tie’s unusual texture beautifully complements the suit, and the tie’s blue spots coordinate with the shirt. It’s also nice to see that Bond is wearing a tie when he has absolutely no obligation to do so. But the tie makes the outfit too colourful for the character. Even when off-duty, Bond shouldn’t be dressing completely differently. Bond should be wearing a casual tie that’s more in character, like a navy or brown silk knit.
His dark brown suede moccasin-toe boots from Drakes are another unusual choice for Bond. Craig’s Bond should be wearing something like the plain-toe chukka boots that he wears later in Norway. Or if he wants to go for the moccasin theme, they should be slip-ons like Fleming’s Bond wore.
The two Tom Ford suits in London bring Bond back into more familiar tailored looks, but unlike in the three previous films, the Tom Ford suits are a far less significant part of the wardrobe. Both suits are made in the ‘O’Connor’ silhouette, returning from the previous two Bond films but with some minor modifications. Like before, the jacket has a three-roll-two buttoning, giving it a button-two silhouette. The button stance is at a medium height, which is thankfully lower than usual for the era. The jackets have a straight shoulder with roped sleeve heads, and they are detailed with a curved ‘barchetta’ breast pocket, slightly slanted flap hip pockets and four buttons at the cuffs. The slight slant on the hip pockets is a nice touch, adding some movement to the suit without drawing the attention that hacking pockets would.
Unfortunately, the single rear vent has returned, which makes little sense considering contemporary fashions and the British association with double vents. The single vent does not look attractive on Craig from behind as it spreads apart.
The fit, while still too slim, is no longer aggressively tight like it was in the previous two films. It looks more intentional now and not like it’s a size too small and struggling to fit over the body. The jacket length is still too short, the sleeves and trousers could benefit from being wider so they move better with the body, and the skirt is too snug. The most significant problem is the collar gap, which, like the dinner jacket, makes these suits look like unaltered ready-to-wear. These suits were stored in Bond’s garage along with the Aston Martin V8, not purchased spur of the moment, so the only reason they don’t fit well is that Bond let himself go while in Jamaica.
Both of the suit trousers have a flat front, an extended waistband with a hook-and-bar closure, slide-buckle side adjusters, on-seam side pockets with the seam curving forward at the top, and a straight leg with turn-ups. The style is classic British, but the fit is Italian, with the rise too low and the legs too skinny.
Both of the suits are checks. The first one is a black and grey Glen Urquhart check, while the second is a blue, grey and black check that’s related to the glen check but a little different. The grey suit recalls the grey checked suit in Skyfall, while the blue suit more loosely recalls the blue checked suits from Casino Royale and Spectre. Bond rarely wears checked suits in London, usually opting for plains, semi-solids and stripes. It would have been nice to see a variety of suit patterns, with only one checked suit and the other a semi-solid or a stripe. From a costuming perspective, the two suits do not look distinctive enough, especially for being worn in consecutive scenes.
The first suit is made of stretch wool, which cheapens the look and feel of the suit, while the second suit is made of a much more luxurious blend of 94% wool and 6% silk. Stretch wool became popular for bringing comfort to skinny-fit suits, but at the expense of a good fit that allows the suit to move with the body. It’s an insult to Bond’s tailoring legacy for him to wear a stretch suit.
Bond wears the grey suit with a white tab-collar shirt from Tom Ford, another reference to Skyfall, with a solid blue tie from Tom Ford that recalls the ties from Spectre. With the blue suit, he opts for a light blue point-collar shirt from Tom Ford, a reference to Spectre, and his pindot tie is from Prada. The blue shirt with a blue suit is a classic Bond combination, and it is an especially effective look with Craig’s complexion. The collars were both unusual for Bond the first time Craig wore them, especially when a semi-spread or spread collar would have looked better on Craig, looked better with the suits and followed the fashions of the 2010s. Both shirts have cocktail cuffs, an old Bond style that Craig revived in Spectre, and it’s wonderful that he continued wearing the cuff for No Time to Die. Bond wears both ties with a Benson & Clegg rhodium-plated tie slide, sadly worn only attached to the tie rather than securing the tie to the shirt, and worn too high on the chest where it’s less effective than it should be.
With both of the suits, Bond wears a straight-folded white cotton pocket square. It’s a nice change to see Craig wearing a white pocket square with a blue shirt so he doesn’t look as matchy-matchy as he usually does. It recalls how Connery stylishly wore a white pocket square no matter his shirt colour.
His shoes are the black Crockett & Jones Highbury three-eyelet, plain-toe derby with Crockett & Jones’ own ‘City’ sole, a studded rubber sole that offers more durability and traction on city streets compared to leather but a trimmer look than Dainite. The shoes are an excellent choice for Bond, as they are both elegant and practical. Bond also wears this shoe with his dinner suit, where leather soles would have been a better choice.
Casual and Tactical Attire
Bond’s seven distinct casual looks largely define his wardrobe in No Time to Die. His layered outfits take on a life of their own when Bond adds, removes or swaps pieces to create subtly different looks in a realistic manner.
Bond is about to go for a swim at the start of the film in a pair of dark blue swim trunks, which I believe are still unidentified. They’re hardly visible in the film, and the close-up of Bond only shows his Barton Perreira Norton sunglasses. Nevertheless, they appear to be an appropriate choice for Bond.
In Matera, Bond dresses down in a dark blue linen-cotton shirt-jacket from Connolly, an off-white henley from Anderson & Sheppard and warm grey needlecord trousers from Massimo Alba. The basic colour combination is classic Bond, but the styles are not. The waist-length shirt-jacket is a beautiful piece, but the fit is very full. It’s refreshing to see Craig wearing something that’s not tight, but here the fullness goes too far, like an old man’s cardigan. Even though the fuller fit is now back in fashion in the mid 2020s, Bond should be wearing a cleaner fit.
The henley is an attractive look on Craig, and it’s a good complement to the shirt-jacket, but its workwear history makes it an odd choice for Bond. The lightweight corduroy trousers are a nice choice for the outfit, but the legs are too slim compared to the full fit of the jacket, so the outfit doesn’t come together cohesively. The overall outfit is not particularly Bond-like, and despite him leaving the service, it shouldn’t follow that he needs to dress like a different character. But if Bond needed to purchase new clothes during his travels in Italy, these are clothes he realistically could have purchased.
Five years later in Jamaica, Bond has let himself go and is no longer dressing as his usual self. He’s wearing a tattered T-shirt from Orlebar Brown and a pair of athletic shorts from Jed North. The shirt looks like something he’s had around for a very long time, and it’s possibly meant to be the same grey T-shirt that he wore years earlier in Casino Royale. It makes sense that Bond would be fishing in an old, worn T-shirt rather than ruin a nice set of newer clothes.
The shirt is highly unflattering on Craig because it’s much too small and makes him look like he’s put on weight. It’s unsettling to see Bond look this bad, but that’s the point. But it’s taken things a little too far from what Bond is supposed to be. Why not let him have some dignity in a ratty old Sunspel polo instead?
Bond cleans up a little better in a black silk shirt from Tommy Bahama, which resembles the shirt he wears to the Ocean Club in Casino Royale. It’s a suitable shirt for Bond, but the brand is an unusual choice for the character, not that it’s from Tommy Bahama in-universe. His jeans are light grey from Tom Ford in a slim fit, giving an awkward silhouette that is consistent with the fashions of the 2010s. Looser linen trousers like what Bond wears with the similar shirt in Casino Royale would have been a more practical choice, as well as more timeless.
Bond’s Sperry boat shoes go perfectly with the Tommy Bahama shirt, mimicking a classic look with the typical brands for the American retiree to Florida. They’re not up to Bond’s usual standards, but under the circumstances, they don’t need to be.
Bond transforms the outfit by throwing on a navy Barbour jacket and a navy Carhartt baseball cap. The jacket looks decent on Craig, despite it having a very full fit, and it elevates the look to something we’d expect for Bond. The baseball cap is appropriate for sailing and gives Bond a Steve McQueen-esque look. The look is too American for Bond, but ultimately, it looks good on Craig and suits the activity.
For 15 seconds, we see Bond fully absorbed in the workwear trend in a tan Rogue Territory Ridgeline Supply Jacket, a white Orlebar Brown crew-neck T-shirt, Naked & Famous blue jeans and tan Palladium boots. He’s dressed for doing work in his garage, albeit in high-quality, stylish workwear. The outfit is another one that makes Daniel Craig look like a character other than Bond.
Bond travels to Norway in a long olive-green needlecord duster coat from Massimo Alba, over an oatmeal-coloured linen-cotton shirt from Connolly x Finamore and a pair of black needlecord trousers from Massimo Alba.
Costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb told The Bond Experience that this is the kind of garment Bond would have grabbed from his home in a hurry without having time to plan his outfit. To me, this does not seem like the kind of coat that Bond would have had sitting around at home, knowing the history of the character’s wardrobe. It resembles nothing he has worn in the past. A green Barbour jacket would have been the right outer layer for this outfit if the idea is that this is a go-to jacket for Bond, and it would also have looked appropriate for the wooded setting. The coat is, however, wonderfully dramatic, but in a way that we’d expect from a villain rather than from Bond.
The black trousers present a corduroy-on-corduroy clash. Dark brown chinos or canvas trousers would have been a better fit with the rest of the outfit. The shirt is one of the nicer casual pieces, which looks good on Craig in both colour and fit, and it complements both the rest of the outfit and the surroundings. It brings a needed maturity to the casual wardrobe in this film.
He replaces the shirt with a henley from Rag & Bone, which he wears for the rest of the film. The henley feels more Daniel Craig than Bond, but it’s more appropriate for the rough action sequences than the smarter collared shirt.
Bond’s shoes are the Crockett & Jones ‘Molton’ chukka boots in dark brown rough-out suede with Dainite soles, an excellent choice for Bond and his best casual footwear of the film, but they’re a clash with black trousers.
N.Peal designed a sweater for the final act of the film based on a classic British military sweater known as the ‘Woolly Pully’, but they replaced the original round neck with an awkward boat neck. He wears the sweater over the Rag & Bone henley. The grey cotton combat trousers were made by the costume department and are supported with braces. His black boots are from Danner.
The look successfully combines a tactical look with a stylish one. Bond needs a tactical outfit for this mission, but as this is Bond’s final outfit of the film and the final outfit of Daniel Craig’s Bond tenure, he needs to have a stylish look. The sweater is an appropriate compromise. However, Bond removes the sweater because Mathilde needs it for warmth, and Bond must finish his mission in shirt sleeves with the braces on display. It creates a strong final image for Craig’s Bond, but if the outfit could have been designed for Bond to have been wearing a military-appropriate shirt instead of a henley, it would have improved the outfit.
Other Characters
Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes, is again tailored better than Bond is, but his clothes don’t stand out as much in No Time to Die as they do in Skyfall and Spectre.
Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, epically brings the safari jacket back to 007, thanks to Tom Ford. She’s oddly wears it in London, but presumably she just returned to London from Jamaica and didn’t have time to change.
Well Done, James
The wardrobe excels when it recalls previous Bond styles, like the shawl-collar dinner suit, the checked suits, the cocktail-cuff shirts, the black camp shirt, the Crockett & Jones shoes, and the grey and white T-shirts.
Bond wears a record four pairs of sunglasses in the film, including the ‘Norton’ and ‘Joe’ from Barton Perreira and the ‘Legend 06’ and ‘Edge 1613’ from Vuarnet. They all look quite good on Daniel Craig, though the ‘Joe’ looks harsh against Craig’s complexion in black. The four pairs are all classically Bondian, each in their own way.
Not Perfected Yet
Bond’s casual style breaks too much from his established style, especially with the reliance on needlecord clothes and henleys. Massimo Alba has a tremendous impact on Bond’s look in No Time to Die, and while the brand makes some sense when Bond is in Italy, the clothes are completely out of place in Norway. Bond breaks completely from his usual look with the garage outfit, and looking stylish and fashionable in that scene doesn’t excuse the fact that the character does not dress like any previous version of James Bond. When unveiling the classic Bond car, he should be wearing a classic Bond outfit. After wearing many British brands in the previous two films, Bond unfortunately breaks from that in No Time to Die with a reliance on Italian and American brands.
Verdict
After living with No Time to Die for five years, time has not been kind to the wardrobe. I still find the wardrobe largely inappropriate for the character as well as personally uninspiring. The magic of Bond style is missing.
The suits fit poorly once again, but this time it’s hardly a concern against the many outfits that inappropriately ignore and reinvent the Bond look. Bond leaving the service and going rogue yet again should not mean he loses his style identity. Bond’s style should be tied to him as a person, not his job. He doesn’t dress for the job; he dresses a certain way because it’s who he is. He shouldn’t need to be 007 to be James Bond. He left the service in style at the end of Spectre, and he shouldn’t have morphed into a different character with a different sense of style at the start of No Time to Die.
Whether it’s the costume designer who has chosen looks that go completely against Bond’s established style, or it’s Daniel Craig injecting too much of his personal style into Bond’s style—some of Bond’s clothes in No Time to Die began in Craig’s own wardrobe—the wardrobe has too many moments where the clothes feel wrong for the character, even if they’re suitable for the setting and situation. Craig’s final Bond film was not the time to once again reinvent Bond’s style.
Rating: 3/10
Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Leave your comments below.
The final scores from all the reviews…
Dr No – 9/10
FRWL – 9/10
GF – 10/10
TB – 10/10
YOLT – 6/10
OHMSS – 8/10
DAF – 6/10
LALD – 7/10
TMWTGG – 8/10
TSWLM – 5/10
MR – 6/10
FYOE – 9/10
Octopussy – 7/10
AVTAK – 8/10
TLD – 6/10
LTK – 4/10
GE – 7/10
TND – 7/10
TWINE – 9/10
DAD – 7/10
CR – 6/10
QOS – 8/10
Skyfall – 5/10
Spectre – 6/10
NTTD – 3/10
Bond actor averages
Connery: 8.3
Lazenby: 8
Moore: 7.1
Dalton: 5
Brosnan: 7.5
Craig: 5.6
It would be interesting to see a score for Never Say Never Again, and how that affects Connery’s overall average
I’ll get around to a review at some point. It will probably bring down Connery’s average a little, but not sure by how much.
Woops, I forgot Matt had later lowered SPECTRE’S score to 5 after some additional thought. That brings Craig’s average to 5.4
Bravo Matt! The time and effort that has gone into this review and of all the other films is absolutely phenomenal and you can rightfully be very proud. I have to agree with you that the outfits in NTTD stray too far from Bond’s style which is a shame given it was Craig’s Swan song.
Now that you’ve reviewed all the films in depth has it changed your ranking of the wardrobes at all?
I never realized the grey suit and the dinner suit were made of stretch wool, that’s truly awful.
Great comprehensive review of the wardrobe. I think you are spot on about the ways in which the film fails to honour the legacy of Bond’s dressing. A particular bugbear for me is the long corduroy coat which makes no sense in the setting or for the character. As has been said, time has not been kind to the wardrobe choices on display and reminds us that after all these years, Connery’s Bond still manages to look great.
Agree totally. The long green coat is hideous – like something a student would wear. And worn with black trousers? Yuck.
The clothes, as well as the film itself, are not holding up over time. Definitely a disappointment all around.
I’m assuming needlecord was just one of those things Craig was briefly obsessed with and then stopped wearing not long after. It’s ridiculous how much of it he wears in NTTD (and I say this as someone who loves corduroy).
That seems accurate. He’s since moved on to other brands and a different look overall… bond influencers who assiduously copy his look have been left holding the bag.
As long as it’s a Tom Ford bag, I am sure they’re happy…
I love the cocktail cuffs, I like that including both the point collar and the tab collar shirts gave some continuity to previous film, even if I don’t much like them. I like the duster with the linen shirt, but not on Bond. I never much liked the wardrobe in 2021 and I don’t much like it now, which is the same way I feel about the film.
Ah yes. That movie where Bond either wears a suit with a collar gap or a tight henley 90% of the time… I wish henleys were replaced by polos, or just basic tshirts. They look ridiculously fashionable, like if Craig wanted to emulate the workwear look a bit too much (henley, braces… only thing missing is the wide check flannel shirt and jeans). There seems to be an unwritten rule about the last Bond movie of an actor : with the exception of Brosnan, it’s usually one of the poorest regarding the wardrobe. From Hemming and Frogley carefully selected pieces to… this. At least M was well dressed. It would be great if the next Bond would wear Timothy Everest as well.
I still stand by my notion that Blofeld should’ve just created a version of Heracles that targeted collar gaps. Bond wouldn’t have survived past the pre titles sequence of NTTD, at that rate.
It certainly seems like the intention was to do a grand tour of all the other films’ styles, and in some senses that worked but as you’ve quite rightly described it’s a pretty chaotic medley.
In a somewhat perverse way, I feel like the Skyfall suits were the best execution of that idea, and every iteration since has just made the silhouette weirder – in this case particularly I find the width of the shoulders to look completely ridiculous with the narrowness of the trousers, and the button stance completely at odds with the short length of the jacket skirt.
There are so many missed opportunities to make what still amounts to a stylish wardrobe properly Bondian, and whilst I do like how this film looks, I think you have to pay attention to Bond, not Bond’s outfits. I almost feel like if it was 1978 and every single one of these outfits had been replaced by a well tailored version like Sir Roger would have worn, the solid fundamentals behind each outfit would have been so much better translated.
It’s a shame that the last couple of Bond films haven’t managed to generate a renaissance in cocktail cuffs on the high street like we saw with shawl collar cardigans. I’d love a shirt with them because double cuffs feel quite affected to me and single cuffs just seem a bit pedestrian.
Cocktail cuffs imo need a rather special pattern to work and look well. I have seen a few versions from low budget brands, like the French one Coton Doux, the result isn’t convincing. The cuff doesn’t roll properly and is usually ironed flat anyway. By contrast, cardigans aren’t that complicated to be made by a factory. I think cocktail cuffs will never look good unless the brand behind it has a minimum of heritage and/or experience regarding shirt design and construction. Which explains why the only that look good are from top RTW shirtmakers like Turnbull and Asser, Charvet, etc. Bespoke shirtmakers will do them well, but made to measure brands will rarely have convincing design. Most European mtm brands use the same factories anyway, some in Eastern Europe, others in Portugal.
I also would have to say I think the Rogue Territory jacket outfit is the worst of the film, just because of how matchy-matchy it is. Craig’s Bond has an excellent set of jackets over the years, but in this case the way it’s paired with raw denim just makes me think Bond had just done a bif shop in Rivet & Hide. The plot of the film is now: Felix dies in Bond’s arms, Bond goes back to London and becomes a selvedge nerd, and then heads into MI6 to confront M.
Wow, wasn’t expecting a lower score than LTK. But honestly, I can’t really disagree. That last outfit, once he’s lost the sweater, is particularly disappointing, given what a significant moment it is (even more so in retrospect, given it’s the final EON-produced film). I would’ve liked for him to go out looking more classically Bondian.
Always insightful and enjoyable to read your articles!
This film’s wardrobe (and the film itself but I’ll leave it at that) have not gained in my esteem over the past 5 years. In many ways it is the perfect encapsulation of the Craig era costumes: fit issues, over-reliance on trends, and too much of the actor’s personal tastes seeping in.
The collar gaps are beyond the pale for any big budget movie, let alone a Bond film. And things like the cocktail cuffs, while nice in concept, are let down by the execution. Some issues are extremely distracting, all I could think about with the duster was the gag from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
But above all my biggest complaint is with these costume designers. From the standpoint of understanding men’s tailoring and how Bond should be dressed, Temime and Larlarb are borderline incompetent. Larlarb is probably the worst, at least Temime made good choices for fabrics and casual clothes.
I really do not enjoy being such a downer, but the recent films (and their wardrobes) have left such a bad taste, this one in particular. I must agree with Matt’s score.
Overall NTTD seems to be a mix of decent looks indifferently or badly done, or outfits that Bond should simply not be wearing either way. I’ve not seen the film bar a few clips but having read a synopsis it seems in keeping somehow…
Worst wardrobe of the series! Who saw that coming when Matt started these reviews…?
I think it’s deserved. Before NTTD, I usually thought of LTK as the poorest Bond regarding the wardrobe, with Skyfall-Spectre being close. But with LTK, I see Bond, although poorly dressed. It’s regrettable, but I still enjoy the show. The costumes are poor but don’t distract that much. With NTTD, I see a fashionista playing Bond, and it’s so unBondian that I can’t get past it. It’s very different. And a precision : I am not saying this because I think Craig is a bad actor, Casino Royale is a top performance in my book and is amongst my top 5 favorite Bond movies.
I would personally put them at the same level, just for different reasons.
I think the problem is that Craig’s tenure was so inconsistent costume-wise that he feels like a fashionista; everything was always changing.
Many say Brosnan looked too much like a banker. Fair enough, but it was consistent through his tenure that it worked.
Moore followed fashions quite a lot as well, but crucially everything fit and he came across very at ease in what he wore. Which was not the case for Craig post Skyfall.
And frankly that’s the real issue with Craig’s Bond. It’s as though he never got past Vesper’s comment on the train about how he dressed. Dalton in LTK is the complete opposite, totally uninterested in how he looks.
I more or less said the same thing in another comment here, about how Craig-Bond doesn’t have real consistency in his wardrobe.
I should have given a tip of the cap to you Giselle.
I was trying to emphasize how the inconsistency is a big reason why Craig’s Bond can seem like a fashionista; more so than other Bonds who also leaned into the fashions of the day.
Oh, no, just noting that someone else noticed the same thing I did. That’s all.
I’d say its a 60 year old wardrobe indifferently blended sir, with an overdose of collar gap.
Colonel Spaiser is giving the lecture, tredstone !
Ouch! I will just take the carpet beater next time, Le Chiffre =D
I agree with most of your assessment. It was a bit of a hot mess.
I think it’s unfortunate that Craig’s costuming throughout all five of his Bond films doesn’t have real continuity compared to previous actors. Much of what worked well for him and/or was well received by the Bond-style-bros didn’t stay for more than one or two entries. Like suits that fit. Or shawl cardigans. Folded pocket squares and dress boots notwithstanding I guess?
Matt, are you planning on doing a post on what you’d like to see Bond wearing in the next film? E.g., which brands would work well, what sartorial choices would fit what style of film, which current trends in menswear costume designers might be tempted to pander to but emphatically should not, etc. I for one would be very interested to read that, and I’m sure others would too. Perhaps the right time would be when the new actor is (finally!) announced..
Hi Jonathan, I wrote a post on this subject 9 years ago, and I don’t think I’d change much today, except I clothes would have a fuller cut than what I would have given Bond back then. https://www.bondsuits.com/how-i-would-dress-james-bond/
I had read it before, but returning to it now this is as good a summary of what is required – and who could do it – as anyone could write.
Please Matt – send it to Amazon!!
Thanks Matt – I’ve read a lot of this blog but I had overlooked that one!
I can’t really disagree with Matt’s assessment and the general consensus of derisive comments following. A lot of poor choices or else poor execution, and a real lack of consistency / continuity among the Craig tenure.
One example for me is the outfit for the grand finale. I think many of us will agree that Bond just doesn’t quite suit the full tactical SAS kit as in NSNA, GE, TND etc., so a civilian interpretation of military items works better for him. Thus lace-up boots and cargo / combat style strides are OK, but then it’s topped off by another bloody Henley and some sort of upscale designer cashmere interpretation of a military wooly pully, with the added fiddly, fussy detail of the neck cord that the Bond we think we know and love would abhor just as he does shoelaces! As an ex Navy man, a simple navy wooly pully would have done the job, been much more authentic, and a realistically believable component of his wardrobe.
Over and over the producers / costume designers / Craig himself make choices like this – selecting ‘eye catching’ clothes that are at odds with the character and rather than contributing to the storytelling which ought to be the priority, they end up a jarring distraction. Other items like the duster coat are similarly jarring but the jumper and Henley stand out most as they are worn for a significant chunk of the film including the big showdown and the final impression that we’re left with for this version of Bond.
I want to say “to be fair” about the drawstring on the woolly pully because it was historically a field expedient modification made. I want to, but I won’t because the end result of the final product is that apparently in the universe of the Craig Bond films either MI-6 commissioned N. Peal/someone else to manufacture boat neck pre-drawstring’d woolly pullies as standard equipment or Bond, who absolutely would not be the sort to make that field modification on any iteration of a commando sweater, had it custom made for himself with a superfluous drawstring AND somehow made sure MI-6 grabbed it on their way to pick him up in Norway. It’s a neat modern interpretation of a classic look on its own, but like so many wardrobe bits in this film it’s not Bond.
This is a series where cars turn into submarines. It’s all pretty believable by comparison.
The simple truth is that if Bond was picked up by an RAF aircraft at a NATO airbase and needed some tactical clothing, he would have been given some form of standard-issue British MTP fatigues.
Exactly my point and another pesky leap in logic.
I understand that the original wooly pullies had a wider neck and drawstring with the idea that they could be pulled on over helmets / headgear but this detail was dispensed with long before Bond served in the Navy and is largely forgotten as the design evolved so long ago.
I don’t really agree about it being a ‘leap in logic’. At least, no more than something like him stealing a dinner suit that somehow fits perfectly.
Maybe standard issue commando sweaters still look like that in Bond’s world. I don’t think it’s important that Bond be dressed exactly like a real special forces person of the time, and there’s been plenty of examples where he isn’t.
I think artistic licence can be taken if it makes Bond look cool and stylish. And, in my opinion, he does (before he removes the sweater), though obviously we can disagree about that.
So I decided to finally go and read all the other wardrobe reviews (my keeping up with a lot of the usual blogs I care about has been spotty the last couple years) before commenting on this one in case it changed my initial impression. And frankly it didn’t; I think it’s safe to say the mistakes of Craig’s tenure in terms of wardrobe are – while not identical clearly – safe to say adjacent to those made during Moore’s, in that there is an overwhelming focus on trendiness rather than timelessness. Where they seem to differ is that Moore’s last few Bond films had the fortune of being made when what was on trend in tailoring at least was a somewhat more timeless look than the previous decade, while Craig’s did not. Had NTTD not been the culmination of the serialized Bond era, given Craig’s on- and off-screen swing away from the skinny suits of the 2010s that he helped popularize, I would not have been shocked if he wore something cut more like the suits of Wake Up Dead Man in a hypothetical post-2021 Craig Bond film. But clearly that is a useless hypothetical for the reality of what we got which I think we can all safely say is that his Bond wardrobes will, other than QoS, be treated as more dated than Moore’s 70s Bond looks have historically been.
Also so many of the outfits in this film especially feel to me like good in concept, bad in execution. The Norway look for example; why on earth did they not use an overcoat like the one worn casually in CR (if they absolutely had to give him the “Jason Bourne in Paris and Moscow two decades ago” vibe) or like you suggested the Skyfall Barbour if we’re supposed to think this was Bond grabbing a random assortment of casual clothes from his storage? Why did they go with black trousers instead of charcoal or navy or an earth tone? Why the brown suede chukkas instead of a black or charcoal pair? As cool an outfit as it is in a vacuum and as high end as all the brands are for it why is Bond absolutely steeping himself in Americana workwear vibes for the 15 seconds in his garage as a Brit? To paraphrase another Craig character it makes no damn sense; but, perhaps because of how bizarre the end results are, compels me though.
It’s a shame, I really like a lot of the fabrics and details of the NTTD suits – both the suit/shirt choices in London are great, and I appreciate that there’s a bit more variety in collar and cuff than the identikit outfits in Skyfall and Spectre. But the fit issues really are unforgivable. Even the vacuum-packed Skyfall suits avoided collar gaps this egregious.
Just as with the film itself, so the wardrobe was a sad ending to Craig’s tenure as Bond. Although the suits were too small, at least Spectre had some good Bond outfits – the Morocco polo, the Matchless jacket – but NTTD had literally not one thing that made me think, “I want that”. Too much of it was implausible and ill-matched. Why oh why did they not stick with the QoS approach?