I have criticised Skyfall and Spectre costume designer Jany Temime a considerable amount for the overly tight and short fit of the suits in which she dressed Daniel Craig, as well as for a few other smaller details. But her brilliant costume choices far outnumber the mistakes. There is still much to admire in the suits, shirts and ties she chose for Daniel Craig, as well as in Daniel Craig’s casual wear and in other characters wardrobes.
The suitings—the fabrics that suits are made from—that Jany Temime dressed Daniel Craig in are all unique and out of the ordinary. These suitings include herringbone weaves, sharkskins, glen checks and fancy but subdued stripes. She never dresses Bond in any suitings that would be inappropriate for the character (notwithstanding silk blends that still read as wool on screen). Temime chose grey sharkskin and checked suits that recall what Sean Connery wore as James Bond in the 1960s. The colours of Craig’s suits are never too dark to overpower his fair complexion, with most suits being medium shades of blue and grey. The exception is the black suit in Spectre, which is used very appropriately for a gangster’s funeral. She handled the black funeral suit exceptionally well in any case. By making this black suit in a large herringbone weave instead of a plain weave or serge, she made the black suit look vibrant and interesting rather than flat and dull.
Temime recognised the importance of dressing Daniel Craig in blue, a colour that flatters his warm complexion and brings attention to his blue eyes. In Spectre she dressed Craig in two medium blue suits, and in both Skyfall and Spectre she dressed Craig in many sky blue shirts.
Temime also made some brilliant choices in outer coat styles in Spectre. The navy herringbone Crombie-style coat in the London scenes is an elegant British classic that Bond never wore before, whilst the black double-breasted bridge coat at the funeral is a grand and unusual piece that recalls James Bond’s naval heritage.
Beyond the tailored clothing, Jany Temime excelled with inspired casual clothing choices for James Bond. Her greatest accomplishment in dressing Bond was introducing the character to many iconic British brands, including Barbour (the waxed jacket in Skyfall), John Smedley (the black jumper in Skyfall), Dents (gloves in Skyfall), Liberty London (scarf in London in Skyfall), Matchless (the tan suede jacket in Spectre), Sanders & Sanders (chukka boots in Spectre), Thomas Pink (the tie in the final scene of Spectre), Crockett & Jones (shoes and boots in Skyfall and Spectre) and N.Peal (jumpers in Skyfall and Spectre). She also dressed Bond in modern British brands such as All Saints (henley and corduroy jeans in Spectre) Neil Barrett (trousers worn with the blue suede jacket in Spectre) and the British high street brand Topman (chinos in Skyfall). Thanks to Temime, James Bond is once again representing his country through his clothes, though sadly not through tailoring.
Beyond British brands, Temime dressed Bond beautifully in casual clothes from around the world. A pea coat in Skyfall from the American brand Billy Reid is a fantastic piece that recalls Bond’s naval heritage whilst also being a very practical casual coat. Though overpriced, the navy Dior Homme jacket in Spectre is a simple—yet beautiful—and easy-to-wear piece. Temime worked with Tom Ford to copy clothes from other brands like Moncler, in the case of the nylon-front blouson in Spectre. Like the Dior jacket, this blouson is also practical and easy to wear, and it looks fantastic on Daniel Craig.
Spectre also saw the return of shirts with cocktail cuffs, a classic Bondian detail that hadn’t been seen in the Bond series since Moonraker. It’s one of my personal favourite elements of Sean Connery’s and Roger Moore’s Bond wardrobes, and I thank Jany Temime for making cocktail cuffs relevant again. Temime also brought back solid blue and black ties to Bond in Spectre, which were a staple of Connery’s Bond wardrboe. And after dressing Craig in a brown knitted silk tie in Spectre, every Bond actor has now worn a knitted tie.
Jany Temime did a fantastic job at dressing characters beyond James Bond. Mallory/M (Ralph Fiennes) is the most beautifully dressed man in Skyfall and Spectre, wearing classic bespoke suits in the London tradition from Timothy Everest. He’s dressed appropriately for Bond’s boss. Temime appropriately dressed Tanner (Rory Kinnear) in Hackett, a mid-range British brand for someone who wants a serviceable suit with some British flair but doesn’t care for or can’t afford something better. It’s perfect for someone in Tanner’s position.
The villains are dressed with the right amount of flair and the women are dressed beautifully under Temime’s direction. All of the supporting characters are dressed exactly as they should be.
There is much to praise of the work Jany Temime did on Skyfall and Spectre, and I believe that she will be remembered positively for the casual outfits she picked for Daniel Craig. Most of James Bond’s iconic outfits in the past have been his tailored clothes, but Temime tried harder than any costume designer before her to make the casual clothes just as special as the tailored clothes. She can’t be forgiven for the poor fit of Daniel Craig’s suits, but there is more to her contributions to James Bond than that.
Matt, this is a great article, and very classy on your part. Out of interest, what would you say is probably your favorite Bond lounge suit (I suppose this would probably be based on the suiting in combination with the tie and shirt color) and Bond casual outfit introduced by Jany Temime?
My favourite lounge suit of Temime’s is the blue sharkskin suit in Spectre. It’s such an interesting take on the blue suit, due to the subtle pattern and the shade of blue. My favourite casual outfit is the nylon-front blouson with the vintage-style stirrup trousers.
I think Jany will be remembered in a good light. The fit of the suits will be seen like flares of the late 1970’s, the very low button stance of the early 1980’s, the baggy fit of the late 1980’s or even the full cut and long fit of the 1990’s. The casual wear is very classic and won’t really date, that is important. My favourite piece is the midnight blue dinner suit in Skyfall, it doesn’t have as much of the overly tight look of the other suits in the film.
A fair and thoughtful article; I might have two more quibbles besides the short and tight fits (which we have beaten into the ground): (1) the dark brown suit arriving in Colombia in QOS is simply out of place, even allowing for Bond’s dark mood in that movie – a cream or tan would have been much better, and (2) Temime seems to dress Bond either in conservative suits or in contemporary casual wear (with the exception of the pea coat in Skyfall); I still think a navy blazer or a harris Tweed sport coat would fit in with Bond’s British heritage, and n, they would not make him look “old and stuffy”.
Temime isn’t the cause of all your concerns, Dan. The brown suit in Bolivia (filmed in Panama) in Quantum of Solace was the choice of Louise Frogley, not Jany Temime.
I stand corrected!
Hey matt, How about a reply and an answer on the quantum of solace suit he wheres for his id?
My apologies John, I’ve been very busy the last few days travelling and feeling under the weather. I will look into it.
Matt,
With you having been inside TOM FORD boutiques (I’m assuming many time), could you possibly do some infographics comparing all the different TF cuts? I was recently at the TF in Las Vegas and one of the associates (Mr. David Soto) told me that the Windsor cut is most likely being replaced by the Shelton. He said there’s not much difference between the two besides a softer shoulder and a slightly smaller ticket pocket on the Shelton.
Thanks in advance!
I’ve done infographics on all the cuts that James Bond has worn.
I’d like to see an info-graphic on the Benjamin Simon suits/jackets from The Living Daylights.
Agreed, this is very sporting of you much considering how much grief we have all collectively given Jany over the past few years! Ultimately, it was her decision to go with suits that don’t fit, but there were other things to enjoy in the film that she was responsible for. Nicely handled.
I must say I have been enjoying Bond’s casual wear most of all in the Craig movies – especially in CR and QoS. Excellent article!
This article echoes some of the comments that I’ve made regarding the two most recent Bond films. Her choices of shoes and accessories are excellent, Craig’s casualwear is some of the best in the entire series, and I do admire the suits in concept if not execution. Barbour, Crockett & Jones, Dent’s, N. Peal et al. are as you say excellent choices for Bond. It breaks my heart that such beautiful suitings are marred by an ill-fit. Tom Ford makes suits of excellent quality and they deserve better treatment! Not to sound like a broken record, but Bond’s tailoring under Temime is something to be admired in concept if not execution. Nice post!
I’ve been guilty of acting fairly scathing, I think. This is probably a good thing.
It’s easy to forget that Temime is responsible for the whole cast, and not just Craig. I’ve never once seen a problem with any of the other character’s wardrobe, and Bond’s outfit problems are few and far between. That said, I prefer both Bond’s suit and casual wear from Quantum of Solace more than anything from either Skyfall or Spectre but to say there’s nothing redeeming from the latter two movies would be wrong.
Cheers Matt! Good article.
Very nice piece, Matt. As someone who long has retained cocktail cuffs in my wardrobe I was thrilled to see their return in SPECTRE.
A comparison of casual wear across all Bonds would be an interesting article. Both Brosnan and Connery wore causal items quite regularly in their films, if I remember correctly.
I think I agree with Timothy above that I personally like a lot of Craig’s casual and formal wear in QoS, but I agree with you that there are a lot of brilliant British casual pieces on show in Skyfall and SPECTRE. I also far prefer Craig’s hair in QoS to Skyfall, but at least that was somewhat rectified in SPECTRE.
Cheers.
That is showing some fair play. Very elegant, Matt !
Thank you for giving Jany Temime a fair assessment. Her costume design is usually quite good — see the Harry Potter films from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards — and the suits are well chosen in fabric and design if not in the too-tight execution. She may well be responsible for reviving several classic British brands to a younger audience the same way Sunspel found a new demographic thanks to Lindy Hemming in Casino Royale.
The only thing my significant other (a seamstress) disagrees about is Madeleine’s second dress in Spectre, which she refers to as “a lace monstrosity”. But that can be forgiven somewhat as it was given to her.
There’s something off to me about Craig’s dress from QOS-SP but I can’t quite articulate it. To me it looks like somebody else dressed him. For example his cardigan, jeans, and button-down when he meets with Mathis in QOS. It’s nice-looking but it doesn’t fit his personality or his mood in the film, imo. I can’t imagine his Bond buying all that and wearing it. Same goes for his overly-flashy suits and even some of his casual wear. It just doesn’t look right to me on his Bond. It doesn’t look like he feels at home in them.
Timothy Dalton’s Bond was similar in personality to Craig’s but Dalton never looked like he was in a costume. His suits were a little big but they almost made him look more intimidating and on edge. He’s a killer first and playboy second and he doesn’t fuss over whether his clothes are perfect or not. Brosnan is frequently described as over-dressed, but that suited his white collar approach to the role. Nothing ever looked out of place on him. He looked as comfortable in his linen TWINE suit as he did in the combat uniforms at the ends of GE and TND.
To me, Craig is the Bond that the filmmakers really didn’t know how to dress. Maybe it’s because they went all over the place with his character over the course of four films: a hotheaded novice in CR, stone-cold, super-stylish killer in QOS, then suddenly an elderly dinosaur from a rich family in SF and finally a smirking superhero in SP. Maybe that partially explains the bizarre choices, but I think it may have more to do with Craig’s films being produced at a really odd time for fashion.
Excellent observations!
Dear Mr Spaiser,
May I know the brandof short sleeve flower pattern shirt worn by Craig in the chasing period in Bahamas at the beginning of Casino Royale?
thanks
Hello Sean, the shirt was made by a costumer and is not from a brand. You can read more about it here: https://www.bondsuits.com/a-printed-shirt-in-madagascar-in-casino-royale/