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AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012
WIZZ MAGAZINE
27
James Bond Style
The upcoming release of
Skyfall
marks James Bond’s 50 years
as a cinematic icon. When it comes to style, nobody does it better
Words
Clive Morris
WITH THE RELEASE OF
SKYFALL
THIS AUTUMN
,
British secret agent James Bond is sure to regain pole
position as top movie franchise. Harry Potter has given
007 a run for his money, but his flying broomstick is no
match for the Aston Martin DB5.
Along with beautiful women, larger-than-life
villains and exotic locations, a key ingredient in the Ian
Fleming novels were the hero’s lifestyle accessories. As
Britain emerged from post-war austerity, Bond smoked
custom-made, high-nicotine cigarettes and drank vodka
martinis (shaken, not stirred). His watch was a Rolex
Oyster Perpetual, he wore Sea Island Cotton shirts and
drove a pimped-up Bentley Mark II Continental.
Today’s James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, still
has his vodka martini (he downed six in the last film),
plus the 1960s Aston Martin introduced in Fleming’s
novel,
Goldfinger
. As for the rest, well, it’s an ad man’s
dream. Following their appearance on Craig in 2006’s
Casino Royale
, sales of retro-style Sunspel navy polo
shirts and Grigio Perla swimming trunks rocketed.
But it’s sometimes hard for a fan to keep pace.
“Today Craig’s Bond wears a lot of Tom Ford, which
is extremely expensive, even for the luxury market,”
observes Remmert van Braam, who runs the James
Bond Lifestyle website. Bond’s style, he says, owes
much to the slim-cut Conduit suit from London tailor
Anthony Sinclair, seen in the 1960s films, and van
Braam singles out
Thunderball
as the pinnacle of
Connery cool. The Sinclair name was recently revived
by British designer David Mason, who has offered
recreate famous Connery suites for fans from a Mayfair
shop off London’s Piccadilly. The light grey outfit from
Goldfinger
, to which Leonardo diCaprio paid homage in
Catch Me If You Can
, is a particular favourite.
Current interest is on the new Omega watch, both
the 38.5mm Aqua Terra, worn by Craig in
Skyfall
, and
the 50th anniversary Limited Edition Seamaster Planet
Ocean, which has the ‘007’ logo on the number 7.
For some, there’s only one Bond watch. “Rolex didn’t
pay to get it shown in the films, and is in the Fleming
novels. I can’t think of a better proof of quality and
accuracy,” says Rick Dos Santos, who as ‘Donald Grant’
runs the James Bond Watches Blog. He owns the Rolex
Submariner thick-cased 6538 and 5510, thought to be
the Connery model, and Rolex 5513 Submariner from
Roger Moore’s
Live And Let Die
. Last year the original,
supposedly equipped with a magnet used by Bond to
unzip a girl’s dress, fetched
€
150,000 at auction.
LEFT:
SEAN CONNERY
WITH BOND’S ORIGINAL
LONDON TAILOR,
ANTHONY SINCLAIR