DAY 20: THE DINNER JACKET
as seen in Casino Royale (2006).
There are, as Vesper Lynd once quipped, dinner jackets and dinner jackets. This jacket from Brioni was the latter: the dinner jacket that launched the Craig era. Before this jacket, he'd been working towards 00 status, acting as hired muscle. But here, on his first mission after promotion, he was finally dressed like 007.
The jacket was sourced from Brioni, the menswear house Eon Productions had used for the Brosnan era, providing a rare thread of continuity between the old and the new. Costume designer Lindy Hemming, who was herself carried over from Brosnan's era, explained: "For the evening suit, [Daniel Craig] was happy to go with Brioni…because he knows and likes their style. But, because of Daniel's more muscular physique, the evening suit is a new shape, so he looks modern in it…Daniel likes the tailored look." The tailoring would eventually get tighter with time, as the suits moved away from Brioni and toward Tom Ford in Skyfall.
Featuring a one-button front that buttoned at the waist, no vents and silk facing on the peaked lapels and pockets, the jacket was a feat of modern Italian tailoring with British finishing touches. Like Sean Connery in Dr No, Craig wore neither a waistcoat nor cummerbund (all the better to show off his physique). Instead, the tuxedo was finished with white Albert Thurston braces, a Turnbull & Asser shirt and bow tie, and S.T. Dupont palladium cufflinks. The braces were a special nod to Timothy Dalton's way of wearing a dinner suit as Bond, and reflective of the similarities between Dalton and Craig's performance.
Such a jacket would have been logistically impossible for Vesper to organise in a week without Bond trying it on beforehand. Its perfect fit is a true feat of Bond movie magic. Or perhaps she was in cahoots with MI6 to make sure Bond, via his tailor, was truly ready for the mission. As the information is undoubtedly classified, we'll have to settle for guessing.
The full tuxedo was sold in a charity auction in 2007 for £12,000. It has since been sold twice for undisclosed amounts.
Sources: Bond Suits, Bond Lifestyle, Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007, Manchester Evening News.
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