James Bond | Clothes on Film

The final trailer for The Rhythm Section features more costume changes than a Lady Gaga concert.

It’s the most celebrated, the most special, the most significant watch of all time; Rolex is symbolic of many things in the movies: style, wealth, attitude, and perhaps most importantly, taste. That is not to say a Rolex is elitist, but rather that the wearer on screen, anyone from James Bond to Steve McQueen, is someone possessed of the knowledge that there is no better. Rolex is the pinnacle. The history of Rolex on film is not nearly as interesting as the scope of its wearers and how this simple act of either subtle or ostentatious display can define character. Take James Bond, a man whose breeding was forced upon…

So what’s been happening this week then? Blue Jasmine ‘In costuming the past we lose the present.’ Wonder Woman Michael Wilkinson has basically said nothing about Wonder Woman’s outfit, yet we’re still hanging on his every word. Mad Men Jessica Paré chats about the show’s costumes and her own ‘French with a rock edge’ style. Dallas Costume designer Rachel Sage talks about her work on the TNT reboot. The Oscars Catherine Martin wins and wins BIG. Kudos. Red carpet fashion Tyranny of Style casts his educated gaze over the winners and losers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D More Tyranny of Style, this time revisiting Ann Foley’s stylish contribution to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D…

MILD SPOILERS Costume designer Michael Wilkinson’s main accomplishment with American Hustle has largely been overlooked in favour of praising him as some kind of vintage stylist with an eye for provocative gowns and desirable heels. The truth is he has carefully brought to life a world, not of parties and glamour, but cheap sex and dirty desperation. The costumes in American Hustle do tell a story, particularly through their ever darkening colour palette, yet Wilkinson’s deftest skill is reflecting an era when fashion was as confused as the politics surrounding it. American Hustle is an unapologetic tale of low down dirty double-crossers whose clothes, like them, were a lie. A…

This is a personal post about designing my custom made James Bond shirt. It is not an advertorial and wasn’t paid for. All photographs are of the final finished shirt(s) and taken by David Wade of Vogue Shot photography. There are now ample custom shirt makers online, but as a pre-existing customer of Deo Veritas what made this company stand out for me was a steadfast, almost stubborn desire to get everything ‘just so’. Seemingly no query or request is too much trouble. Bearing this in mind I tasked Deo Veritas with recreating a shirt I have always sought yet been unable to find off the peg or in my…

The week in costume design.

Thanks at least in part to the wintry weather, this week’s costume round up is coats on film.

Ben Affleck’s pseudo-cowboy costume in Argo harks back to the golden age of the sports jacket.

George Lazenby’s fashionable Bond is sartorially similar to Daniel Craig in Skyfall.

A new compilation of sartorially revealing James Bond photographs by Terry O’Neill.

A look at the costumes you can expect to see and enjoy at Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style.

A new web documentary analysing the look of James Bond.