EDITOR’S LETTER>> three decades later, echoed the off-duty mili-
tary look in GoldenEye in a navy-blue cable-knit
sweater, silk foulard cravat, narrow-leg moleskin
trousers and Church’s brown brogues. And Brosnan,
like every other custodian of Commander Bond’s
uniform, expressed a liking for that most regimen-
tal of jacket, the blue blazer.
The early films were not just spy capers, they
were also extended travelogues for a generation
that had hardly been abroad, let alone attempted
to do it in style. Everyone wanted in. So success-
ful was Connery that he soon caused a flurry of
imitations: James Coburn’s Flint, Robert Vaughn’s
Napoleon Solo, Frank Sinatra’s Tony Rome,
Dean Martin’s Matt Helm and Peter Wyngarde’s
Jason King. And so successful was the image that
throughout the 1960s dozens of manufacturers
sought licences to call their products – shoes,
shirts, ties, suits, cologne, cigarette holders, even
condoms – “007” or “James Bond”. Bond advertised
Jim Beam, Smirnoff and inspired the Dormeuil
man, for years the most enduring male fashion
icon. Boussac, once France’s most important textile
group, created a line of Bond raincoats, shirts and
pyjamas bearing the 007 number.
When Connery tired of being an international
clotheshorse he was replaced (briefly) by George
Lazenby, whose main contribution to the sarto-
rial legacy was the sky-blue two-piece ski suit,
complete with white rollneck top, which he wore
in his only Bond outing, On Her Majesty’s Secret
Service. Either that or using his heavy silver Rolex
as a knuckle-duster.
For years, Roger Moore was considered by
some to be the least successful Bond (even less
cool than Lazenby) and not just because of his
clothes. Admittedly, he chose some rather fine >>NOVEMBER 2012
Ahead of Skyfall’s release, GQ compiled a 42-page dossier to celebrate all things 007: (from top) David Walliams
took on the suavest man to carry the licence to kill, Sir Roger Moore; Ben Whishaw received a wardrobe as
sharp as his character’s gadgets; Dame Judi Dench opened the file on M’s most enigmatic charge yetOCTOBER 1995
Marking the season when Pierce Brosnan took over
from Timothy Dalton, Neil McCormack joined ‘the fifth
man’ and GQ cover star on the set of GoldenEye.
Photograph by Keith Hamshere04-20EditorsLetter_3351554.indd 36 13/02/2020 11:42
36 GQ.CO.UK APRIL 2020