The name's Bond...

It certainly would be a struggle to find a gentleman more iconic and identifiable than James Bond. It is easy to see why we gravitate towards this timeless figure – he has the machismo of an action figure, the appeal of a spy and a flawless dress sense. While many actors have portrayed the world's most famous spy, his polished, tailored look has remained a symbol of British style. From his first appearance in Dr No, played by Sean Connery, there have been different portrayals and fashion moments, but he's always sure to be impeccably turned out.

“Of course, fashions come and go but metrosexuality isn’t a fashion – it’s an epoch. It represents a fundamental shift in what men are allowed to be and to want. Men are now permitted to be ‘passive’ – inviting our gaze.” (Mark Simpson)

From Sean Connery to Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, Bond has come a long way from what author Ian Fleming first imagined with his hounds tooth suit.

“Environmental changes are redefining what it means to be a 'man' and therefore, the phenomenon of the uninterested fashion-less male is outmoded...Generation Y males have been socialised by mass media and marketing activities to a greater extent than previous generations.” (Bakewell 2006 p170)

James Bond must be the most influential figure in menswear that doesn’t actually exist. He is not so much a fashion icon as a moving advertisement for the belief that a man can wear beautiful clothes and still be seen as masculine.

“In the evening every man looks the same. Like penguins. Women have a special dress for that event; men, the same tuxedo.” Roberto Cavalli

However when we think of James Bond, we automatically think of the tux but with Bond's extremely well tailored looks he will always stand out. Add an impressive selection of watches to the suits and you have a character with style that will constantly remain relevant. Suits are the powerful, dashing statement of the successful man.

As a style icon the character James Bond helps to showcase the best of tailoring.

The new James Bond costume designer, Lindy Hemming has reinvented Bond slightly whilst preserving his incomparable style. She has created, along with Tom Ford, a balance between modern designs and classic cuts.

“I feel now, with Tom Ford, they’re now using the tailoring to make his (Craig’s) shape more mean, more tense,” 

Due to the amount of action in the Skyfall film, each suit had to be ordered multiple times. Tom Ford had to deliver suits, as well as shirts and ties, in duplicate for various scenes and stunt doubles. For instance, 60 duplicates of the light grey suit in the film’s opening sequence.

Each fit is impeccable and there is never a crease or hair out of place… unless he is in the center of a gun battle.

Black and White Life

Movies mirror society. Changing cultural norms have significantly influenced how costumes are designed and how they look on screen, as have advances in technology.  

In Black and White, silent movies, designers created visual interest chiefly through silhouette, pattern, contrast between light and dark, and reflectivity of satin, beads and sequins. Mark Bridges, costume designer for the film The Artist (2011) has said that ‘the silence was very freeing because you don’t have to worry about microphones rubbing against taffeta, and dangling jewellery’.

The silent movie era, which bore the strong influence of vaudeville and music hall, was marked by exaggerated conventions of performance. This was matched by costume design which was often intended to convey a strong archetype on first sight. Actors in silent films usually were portraying classic characters who were easily identified and defined by their clothing, hair, and makeup.  For women, this meant two main categories of characters: the virgin or the vamp. There were other types that branched from this including the flapper, the ingénue, the girl next door and the ‘It’ girl. The fashion in these silent movies helped to portray the characters to the viewers. The characters were defined by what they wore and in turn women of this era also became defined by their fashion. 

With film becoming extremely popular with the general public it meant film helped to spread fashion trends out to rural towns as well as the usual fashion forward cities, which gave everyone a taste of the new styles emerging. 

Possibly the most iconic persona of the silent movie era is ‘The Flapper’. This persona helped inspire the fashion of the twenties but still inspires fashion houses today. Actress Colleen Moore personifies this character. Her characters were entertaining, lighthearted, daring, and free-spirited, but never vampy or obscene. Her portrayals helped make the flapper accessible to the public.