No Time to Die Shakes Up James Bond’s Iconic Wardrobe
If one character has a clear-cut fashion identity, it’s James Bond. Ever since Dr. No made its way to the big screen in 1962, England’s foremost spy has been associated with a sophisticated look that has transcended changes in location, generation, and actor. With the franchise’s latest installment, No Time To Die, breaking global box office records, it’s clear that Bond remains one of cinema’s best-loved and -dressed heroes. As the final film with Daniel Craig as 007, the fast-paced action movie, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, marks the end of an era that brought realism and grit to the series. With his perfectly tailored Tom Ford suits and sleek tactical gear, Craig’s Bond has menswear gravitas, but his swan song required a wardrobe that went beyond expectations.
Enter costume designer Suttirat Larlarb: the woman behind the realistic yet impactful look of films like Slumdog Millionaire and Steve Jobs. A longtime fan, she didn’t want to mess with perfection. “It wouldn’t have been right starting from scratch,” shared Larlarb via Zoom from Los Angeles. “I was hyper-aware of the responsibility that comes with taking on this character. Bond has so much history, and we wanted to make sure that we were paying respect to the franchise, its characters, and the world within the costuming.”
Larlarb and her team dove deep into the series’ past, first analyzing the 25 movies and their recurring visual motifs, then creating a series of reference documents for themselves. “I re-watched all the films, some of them for the fourth and fifth time,” says Larlarb. “Afterwards, a couple of key assistants and I made a library using screen grabs, stills, and whatever we could find in terms of imagery. Working within the Bond family, we had access to their archives and the costumes from previous films [as well], so we compiled everything we found into groups and made encyclopedia binders for each character and type: villains, Bond girls, James, Moneypenny, etc. This way, we had everything on hand for when we wanted to use the references and when we chose to ignore them.”
Documenting everything Bond and his cohorts have ever worn on-screen was time-consuming, but it allowed Larlarb to see the patterns that arose. “With the villains, you can see a sort of minimalism throughout,” she says. “There tends to be a standing collar—not sure why that emerged the first time around, but it’s become so prevalent that it’s parodied in Austin Powers. Surprisingly, there was a lot more variety amongst the women. When we started, I assumed there might be a silhouette that recurs with, say, Moneypenny, or a certain color, but their outfits have been pretty diverse.”
All the information came in handy when Larlarb began working one-on-one with Fukunaga and the cast to align each character’s look with what the actors envisioned for their performances. “I come from the theater, so, fundamentally, I start with the script,” says Larlarb. “I needed to know what the script would throw out in terms of action sequences, the emotional states.” Conversations with Bond vets like Craig, Naomie Harris, and Lea Seydoux proved to be enlightening. “I’m the new person stepping into this world, so I wanted to know everything about what they’d done with these characters previously,” says Larlarb. “Costumes are an extension of the characters, so I wanted to know which aspects [of their performances] they were planning on continuing, and which they wanted to move away from. Knowing that was fundamental [because] it allowed me to think about how we could move things forward.”
2021’s Bond isn’t a carbon copy of the man audiences remember from Spectre. Having retired from MI6 and settled into a new life in Jamaica, he’s (momentarily) left the martinis and three-piece suits behind. “When we meet him in our film, he’s retired to beach bum life,” says Larlarb. “He’s completely pared down, wearing an old t-shirt and swim trunks. Now his day-to-day life is about going fishing for his dinner, not being the iconic James Bond persona. So I had to figure out how we get him back to that and find ways to tell that story through costuming.”
The character’s sojourn into island life is brief, but Larlarb wanted to maintain an effortless sensibility throughout. “What does the best dressed man in the world wear when he isn’t someone who hems and haws over clothing decisions,” she explains. “Everything needed to look instinctual, as though it was barely a decision. No one thinks about James Bond standing in front of the mirror asking, ‘Is this tie right with this shirt?’ He has to look like he was born in whatever he’s wearing in each scene.”