Jul 16
GOLDFINGER 1964
Sean Connery
seen from Bulgaria
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Spain
seen from Taiwan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from Israel
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Switzerland
seen from Slovakia
GOLDFINGER 1964
Sean Connery
Fr really was a legendary triple release run . 🥇🥈🥉
31 Days of Bond Fashion
DAY 14: THE TERRYCLOTH ROBE as seen in Goldfinger (1964).
James Bond is held up the world over as a paragon of masculinity and gentlemanly style, and each Bond has his signature wardrobe piece. Roger Moore had the safari jacket, Pierce Brosnan had his overcoats, Daniel Craig had his knitwear, and Connery? Perhaps because of his background in bodybuilding, he loved wearing little more than a towel. His most memorable towelled resort outfit – even more memorable than his towel skirt in Thunderball – was this blue terrycloth playsuit.
The outfit, which is widely considered Bond’s first fashion faux pas, might have come down to an error in communication. The script called rather ambiguously for “combination robe-trousers’ for the scene, but the costume department interpreted it as this: a belted onesie with a camp collar and three-quarter zip that took its shape from a jumpsuit. Underneath, and visible because of the playsuit’s very short shorts, Bond wore a pair of blue swimming trunks. The trunks were outshone by the playsuit and some other very famous blue swim shorts in the franchise decades later.
Playsuits were typically worn by women at the time and the outfit hints at a few themes related to gender and sexuality across the franchise: dress and undress, the popularity of towelling in 1960s clothing, and Bond as an object, more Bond Girl than Bond.
While the playsuit isn't considered Bond's most fashionable look, it has proved popular enough for Orlebar Brown to make a replica, albeit with slightly longer shorts. It's priced at £395.
Sources: Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007, Bond Suits.
31 Days of Bond Fashion
DAY 10: THE GOLD WAISTCOAT as seen in Goldfinger (1964).
The moniker ‘Bond Girl’ might have us believe that there is only one way to be a woman in a Bond film. Media historian Professor James Chapman describes Bond Girls as: “well-scrubbed, big-breasted, long-haired and sexually available” women who often meet grisly ends, a Playboy-esque fantasy of the feminine that caters strictly to the male gaze. But even early on in the franchise there are hints of more than one type of Bond woman. Enter Pussy Galore, a woman who, in the words of scholar Elisabeth Ladenson “both is and desires pussy galore”, and whose sexual unavailability towards Bond lasts as long as it conceivably can.
A pilot, a gangster and the second lesbian in a Bond film after Rosa Klebb, Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore is the first Bond Girl – and one of a minority in the franchise – to meet Bond in a trouser suit. She has an affinity for masculine tailoring (or, what was considered masculine for the context), probably owing to her job and sexuality. Her custom-made gold leatherette (that is, synthetic leather) waistcoat is the pièce de résistance of her wardrobe. Introducing herself mid-plane ride to Bond with a gun in hand, she wears it with a black suit, signifying her alliance with the villain of the piece. After she switches sides, she wears it with a white suit, communicating her turn towards allyship with Bond. The waistcoat was originally meant to be leopard print to match Pussy’s feline name, but the metallic finish looked better onscreen, and fitted with the broader approach to costuming. Even today, it's a core part of many Pussy Galore costume kits available for parties and Halloween dress-ups.
While no costume designer was credited on the film, it was Beatrice ‘Bumble’ Dawson who came up with a number of concept sketches. She incorporated gold into everything in line with the philosophy that a costume designer must stick to a colour scheme so that all of a film's wardrobe looks cohesive. The sketches for Ms Galore’s costumes – and the outfits of her Flying Circus – are the oldest in the Eon Productions Archive.
Sources: BAMF Style, Clothes on Film, Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007, Lovely Lesbians; or Pussy Galore, The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader, Vogue.
GOLDFINGER 1964
Sean Connery
GOLDFINGER 1964
Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Sean Connery