Bond on film | Clothes on Film

Posted by Chris Laverty on September 1, 2009

Jane Seymour was just 22 years old when she played white witch Solitaire in Live and Let Die (1973). Her wardrobe was a mixture of uniform (as tarot reader), casual (escaping the poppy fields, New Orleans airport) and sexualised (sacrificial peasant dress, various chemises).

Most illustrative of her kooky characterisation however are the maxi-dresses. There is something intrinsically spiritual about a maxi dress; the way it flows and veils the body. It gels with the divine aspect of Solitaire and later, with its rapidly decreasing neckline, epitomises her sexual awakening by Roger Moore’s randy new 007.
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Posted by Chris Laverty on July 4, 2009

Live and Let Die (1973, directed by Guy Hamilton) is a fantasy Blaxploitation movie made in the wake of Shaft and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (both 1971).

Roger Moore’s first stab at James Bond pitted his tightly buttoned jackets and high waisted trousers against a bevy of colourful, flared, snap-brimmed seventies street wear as commanded by corrupt diplomat/New York drug kingpin, Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto). For the first time in his existence the world’s foremost super spy would be all but invisible.
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