The Many Lives of James Bond

by Mark Edlitz

  Can you sum up what it’s meant to you to do the artwork for three Bond movies?

  The other day I saw an article on a website about the top ten Bond posters of all time and they listed three of mine. That was nice. I’m amazed that I got to be part of something that has been around so long. When I was in art school in the ’60s, I was reading the Bond paperbacks. I never dreamed that I’d end up doing the poster work on them. I didn’t even wish for it. It was floating around in the back of my head and then it turned out that I’d work on them. I was pretty lucky.

  THE LOOK OF BOND

  JANY TEMIME

  “Everyone who’s ever put on a tuxedo thinks he’s James Bond,” mused 007 screen-writer Bruce Feirstein in his interview with me. Though Feirstein might have been half-joking, I tend to agree. The notion is similar to novelist Michael Chabon’s observation that just as a towel tied around a neck turns a child into a superhero, a tux transforms an otherwise levelheaded adult into a handsome and suave secret agent.

  But it’s not just his tux. In fact, Bond’s entire wardrobe is inextricably linked to our understanding of his character. His impeccably tailored and carefully curated clothes are his uniform. Bond dresses smartly not solely due to vanity: he is also selecting his garments based on the calculated effect they will have on those he encounters. In other words, there’s a reason that Bond is always dressed to kill.

  Through his clothes he’s deliberately sending a message to the villains he intends to vanquish, the colleagues he hopes to bend to his will, and to the women he means to seduce. In these instances, his wardrobe is a weapon, a shield, or an invitation; it’s his wordless opening salvo in the dangerous and high-stakes world of international espionage.

  Although it’s easy to imagine Bond shopping on Savile Row when he’s not off globetrotting, in the decidedly less-glamorous world of movie making, the costume designer, supported by the wardrobe department, is responsible for designing, fitting, buying, pressing, and steaming the clothes that James wears. In the case of the two Sam Mendes–directed Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, costume designer Jany Temime dressed Daniel Craig in his dapper duds. The French-born Temime also worked on six Harry Potter movies and the nail-biting Sandra Bullock/George Clooney sci-fi thriller Gravity (2013), the Barbara Broccoli–produced Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017), and Judy (2019).

  Can you describe your process? After you read the Skyfall script, what happened next?

  First, I had a meeting with Sam Mendes. I found that we were both James Bond fans. It is necessary to be a James Bond fan if you want to work on a Bond film. We both think he is an amazing character. Then I go through the script. I take note of things that are constant in every James Bond film. Bond always meets one or two ladies, he has to save England two or three times, he will always have a car chase or boat chase. You have these things, which are a constant of James Bond. But usually, the films don’t talk about where he was from or his parents. While we know a lot about his professional life and his sexual life, we know little about his private life. But Skyfall was the first time we learned about his personal life. It was the first time we learned about his childhood and that’s what fascinated me.

  Daniel Craig’s 007 is well-suited for any adventure.

  ILLUSTRATION BY PAT CARBAJAL

  That’s what fascinates me, too. His clothes are his armor and he’s using his wardrobe to send a message to everyone he meets.

  It’s good that you say that. It’s exactly why I put the cufflinks with his coat of armor. I thought it was important in the twenty-first century to understand where he’s coming from. Where Bond’s coming from says a lot about his personality. The fact that he belongs to the Scottish aristocracy and to the United Kingdom says a lot about his attachment to the queen and his devotion to the country.

  What did you and Daniel Craig talk about in your discussions about Bond’s look?

  We were in agreement about Bond’s clothes. I like a suit that’s a second skin. I like a suit that is molded to Daniel’s body and shows his body. I don’t like it when it’s too heavy. Although I used that approach for Ralph Fiennes’s M, who likes the stature of his office. For him, I’m emphasizing his power and not his sexuality. But when you are proud of your body like Bond, when you’re using your body like Bond and when you’re a playboy like Bond, then why not show that body? It’s very sexy. So I use that and I dress him that way. Daniel completely agreed. Daniel is very aware of fashion; he has a good fashion sense. Even when he’s dressing for himself, he always dresses extremely well. We talked about it a lot.

  How would you describe Bond?

  He is an English superhero. He is also an old hero; he’s been around for decades. He has some quality that people love about him. His appeal is the mixture of him being a gentleman, being a superhero, and being capable of doing things that no one else can.

  He’s a charmer. He wins us over. Even when he’s a bad boy we love him. We sympathize with him. There is nothing casual about him. He is extremely prepared for every situation. From seven years old he was in school and then he went into the military. So he is a guy who has always lived a code of discipline. He’s calculated and organized in every aspect of his life.

  Let’s discuss some of the outfits that he wears throughout Skyfall and Spectre. In Skyfall, after he fails his mission and is presumed dead, he’s living on a beach. He doesn’t have to dress for work; he can dress for himself.

  Bond’s down and out. He’s rundown. He’s drinking all the time. He’s dressed like someone who is living on a beach. He’s shabby. He’s not dressed up like the James Bond we know.

  Psychologically, he’s not himself. In his heart, M is his mom. He’s been let down by M who ordered Moneypenny to shoot at him [in an attempt to kill an enemy agent]. Bond felt that his mom didn’t care if someone killed him and that broke him completely. He comes back not only to save the country but also to prove to mom that he’s worth much more than she thought he is.

  He learns of the destruction of MI6’s headquarters while he’s drowning his sorrows at a bar on the beach in Turkey. When he confronts M at her flat in London a day or so later, he’s wearing the same outfit. Bond went right to M. He didn’t stop to change.

  Sam wanted to show the urgency of the situation by having Bond go directly to M. In a previous draft of the script it indicated that Bond goes home, shaves, and then goes to her. But because he’s presumed dead, that’s not possible; all of his possessions have been given away. Bond has no home anymore, so he goes directly from the plane to M.

  But once he’s deep into his mission, he’s dressed the way we’ve come to expect Bond to dress.

  He’s dressed for work and he’s wearing his armor. Everybody’s clothes are their armor. Even if someone is wearing a tracksuit, that is his armor. Everybody shows who they are by the clothes they’re wearing. Bond’s clothes are his armor and he’s impeccable. But don’t forget that he’s an English gentleman.

  Look at the education he had. He was in a public school [what Americans refer to as a private school] from seven years on. From seven years old on, he’s worn a tie. You cannot dissociate the character of James Bond from being an English gentleman or from the aristocracy. He was sent away when he was seven and he had to wear the correct school uniform with a tie every day since he was a child. That is such a part of himself that when he goes to work every day he wears a uniform, which is a perfect suit. That’s what he’s accustomed to.

  In Skyfall, once he goes to his parents’ house, he’s wearing his day-to-day clothes and not his professional wardrobe.

  You’re right. He leaves London in his suit. But then he changes right away into country clothes. So now he’s dressed like a gentleman farmer. Not only working on a farm but wearing clothes that are adaptable to a country house environment. But he also knows that he’s going to have to fight the villain and his men. He has to wear something that he can fight in. What he’s wearing is completely adaptive to Scotland.


  He’s also wearing a scarf. I wanted a scarf that looked like the one worn [in World War II by British] General Montgomery. That was the reference I had. I also thought it suggested the high collars and the look of the military in the eighteenth century.

  Let’s move on to Spectre. When we first see Bond in the pre-title sequence, he’s dressed like the dead. It’s an unexpected look for our hero.

  Right, it’s the Day of the Dead in Mexico so he’s dressed like a cadaver, like a skeleton. He’s wearing a long coat, a top hat, and a mask. It’s a reference to the folklore in Mexico about the bride and the bridegroom to the dead. That’s how that costume originated. It’s a little grander than the traditional outfit but that’s where it came from. I designed fifteen hundred costumes for the extras and the one Bond wears is just one of many.

  I dressed him in that particular coat for a few reasons. One, even in a long shot from far away the audience should know who he is, and the coat gives Bond an elegant silhouette. Two, the outfit had to be practical. Bond goes into the hotel room and takes off his coat and he has a suit under it. He takes off the hat and the mask, and then he has to go complete his mission. Finally, it also has to be sexy.

  Later on, we get a rare glimpse at his personal life. When we see him in his flat, he’s wearing a bathrobe.

  Yes, it is a Turkish antique bathrobe. Bond travels a lot. I wanted to get something that he could have brought back from one of his exotic holidays. [Note: Spectre is not the first time that audiences saw Bond dressed for comfort in his home. In Live and Let Die, Roger Moore’s Bond wears a dressing gown with the initials J.B. embroidered on it.]

  The white jacket he wears on the train became the poster image.

  Yes, it was very important. I said to Sam Mendes that I could not do another tuxedo suit better than the dark blue one we used in Skyfall. I had to go in another direction. I was thinking of Morocco, traveling in trains, the 1940s, and then I thought of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. So I put him in the same white suit as Bogart. The open lapels and double-breasted jacket would give it a 1940s look.

  I know that I should have thought of Sean Connery’s white tuxedo in Goldfinger but I promise you that I didn’t. Everybody said to me that it was an homage to Connery. I am pleased that it became an homage to Sean Connery, whom I adore, but it’s not that.

  At the end of Spectre, after Bond resigns from the secret service, he returns to Q branch to retrieve his beloved Aston Martin. Theoretically Bond would be dressed for a life outside the purview of his profession. Yet he’s dressed like James Bond, impeccable and ready for anything.

  It’s funny that you say that because we discussed that. I wondered, should he peel off that suit and wear something else? We all thought about it but then we decided against it. Logically, he should be in jeans but James Bond should never be wearing jeans. Never. So he’s back in a suit. But it’s a light-colored suit. It’s not really a business suit. Because he’s picking up the Aston Martin, he might also be meeting someone in the office. He’s wearing a suit because he might also be there for business. Don’t forget that he’s stealing the car, so he better be dressed up for the job, even though he was not ordered to do it by somebody.

  But there is another reason. We decided that if he’s going to take the time to pick up the “James Bond car” he should be dressed like James Bond. After all, Madeleine is in love with James Bond. That’s why we put him in the suit.

  James Bond (Daniel Craig) is dressed to kill in Spectre.

  ILLUSTRATION BY PAT CARBAJAL

  I love that you said that Madeleine fell in love with James Bond, the professional, as opposed to the man.

  Of course she’s in love with Double-O-Seven. Double-O-Seven saved her. If it weren’t for Double-Seven, she’d be dead. She falls in love with the man who jumps into an abyss with her to save her life. She doesn’t think, I love him because he cooks so well. Of course not. It’s the element of danger in his personality that she loves. The danger is why women love James Bond. Even if they resist the danger, they still come back to it.

  As a costume designer, do you have to figure out how many suitcases he needs to pack before embarking on a mission?

  It’s not that many outfits. He’ll pack a sportswear outfit, a classic suit, and a tux, because you never know what you’re going to need. It’s familiar to him. It’s also a social class thing. He will wear a suit because it’s the most elegant thing a man can wear. He dresses like that also because the people he meets will also be dressed like that. Three pairs of outfits and two pairs of shoes, it’s not that much.

  It must be a challenge to make Bond fashionable but not simply of the moment. You don’t want to date the look of the film.

  Completely. When you see the films later on, Bond should still look impeccably dressed. I want to make Bond look like an English gentleman and that has nothing to do with fashion. When you are dressed up classically, you can be dressed in that style for ten years and it still won’t change. The suits are not “fashionable”; they are well made, and that is a big difference.

  There are websites like Bond Lifestyle, The Suits of James Bond, and The Bond Experience that pore over every detail of all aspects of his lifestyle, including his wardrobe. The Bond Experience has created videos with titles like “The Belts of James Bond” and “The Gloves of Spectre.” “The Jackets of Skyfall” video has around one hundred thousand views.

  Oh, you have no idea! I was at the opening of an exhibition at the James Bond museum. There were so many boys dressed up as Bond.

  They came dressed up in the exact outfits you selected for Daniel Craig?

  Yes, yes, yes. When I come to a lecture, they come dressed up as Bond. With the trousers, with the sweaters. Exactly. They spend all this money on his wardrobe.

  What do you think when you see that?

  It reminds me of a story. When I was a student, I was working in Paris in a bathing suit shop. You know the scene in Dr. No with Ursula Andress coming out of the sea in her bikini? We were selling an imitation of that bikini, with a little knot on the side. You have no idea how many women came in to buy that bikini. I’m not talking about supermodels; I’m talking about every body type and every kind of woman. From young to old. They thought that when they were buying the bikini they were buying the body as well. I’m sure that when those guys dress up as James Bond, they think they are James Bond. It’s pretty easy to get the clothes; all you have to do is buy them. Then you go out, hang out with your friends, and you’re James Bond for a night.

  GAMING BOND

  GLEN A. SCHOFIELD

  The last time Sean Connery played James Bond was not in the 1983 film Never Say Never Again, it was as a voice-over actor in Electronic Art’s 2005 video game James Bond 007: From Russia with Love. The game, which also features his likeness, mostly adheres to the plot of the 1963 film, but it playfully diverges from the source material with appearances by the Aston Martin from Goldfinger and the jetpack from Thunderball. From Russia with Love also features a new ending in which Bond squares off with henchman Donald “Red” Grant and raids the headquarters of OCTOPUS, a SPECTRE-like organization.

  For 007 fans who aren’t necessarily interested in gaming, the most interesting aspects of From Russia with Love are the multiple nonplayable scenes that, if strung together, would form the basis for an animated Connery-era Bond film.

  In addition to From Russia with Love, Electronic Arts also made the Bond video games Tomorrow Never Dies (1999), The World Is Not Enough (2000), 007 Racing (2000), Agent Under Fire (2001), its sequel Nightfire (2002), and Everything or Nothing (2003).

  Glen Schofield, the executive producer of From Russia with Love, who would later become vice president at Electronic Arts, directed Connery in his final portrayal of Bond.

  How did you get Sean Connery to play Bond one last time?

  Pierce Brosnan wasn’t doing the Bond films anymore but EA [Electronic Arts] still had the license to make more video games. But the question was, what wo
uld that game be and what would Bond look like? I liked the idea of making a game based on a Bond film from the ’60s. The people I worked with initially thought it was a pretty unconventional idea but I thought it would be fun. I really wanted to do it. So we built a bunch of elements for the game. We put together a good pitch, which included a potential scene from the game.

  I first pitched the game to my boss at EA and he said, “There’s not a big chance that we’re going get this one through, but you guys have spent so much time working on the pitch, I’m going give you a shot.” When we were done with our pitch, Don Mattrick, who was the president at the time, said, “Why wouldn’t we make this game? We have to get Sean Connery.” I don’t know all the details about how they got Connery but I was thrilled that they were going ahead with the game.

  Dinner with Sean Connery in the Bahamas. Glen Schofield on the far left, audio director Paul Gorman, and Sean Connery.

  PERSONAL COLLECTION OF GLEN SCHOFIELD

  Where did you record his lines?

  He wasn’t going to come to the States so I had to fly down to the Bahamas, where he lived. I had the best time working with Sean Connery. But before we started working together, I wanted to have dinner with him and I was nervous about what he’d say. I’m sitting by a pool waiting, and I’m nervous. I don’t normally get nervous but it was Sean Connery. I get a call a few hours later and he says, “Yep, we’ll go to dinner, and we’ll go to this place that I know.” I went with a colleague to meet him. When we arrive, this extra-long golf cart pulls up with a driver and Sean Connery is sitting in it. He says, “Hop in.” We hopped in the cart and drove to the restaurant. It was just a wonderful evening where we listened to Sean talk.

  What do you remember about that dinner?

  I remember Sean’s stories. I would tell a story about making a game or something [relatively inconsequential]. But he’d tell a story about Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, or the Scottish government. Sean would say, “I was having dinner with the queen the other night.” I’m like, “Man, I got nothing.” He’d also tell us stories about being a celebrity and that sometimes he just wanted to keep to himself. I remember the music was a little loud for him, and he pulled the waiter over, and said, “We like that we’re talking over here.” Immediately, the music was turned off.