James Bond is introduced to cinema audiences at a casino table. That first scene in Dr. No (1962) set the template for sixty years of films: a dinner jacket, a card game, a beautiful room and a man who never looks worried about the stakes.
Dr. No (1962): the original
We first meet Sean Connery's Bond at a chemin de fer table, a form of baccarat, in a London club, delivering the line "Bond, James Bond" over a cigarette. He wears a midnight-blue dinner jacket with a shawl collar and satin trim, made by the Mayfair tailor Anthony Sinclair, with a white shirt and a black bow tie. Midnight blue was a deliberate choice: under artificial light it can look darker and richer than black.
GoldenEye (1995): Monte Carlo
Pierce Brosnan's first film brought Bond back to Monaco, with a baccarat duel in the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Brosnan's Bond was dressed by the Italian house Brioni, in sleek, slightly fuller tailoring of its era.
Casino Royale (2006): the reboot
Daniel Craig's first outing turned the card game into Texas hold'em, the game that was then booming on television and online, played for a huge pot at the fictional Casino Royale in Montenegro. The Montenegro scenes were actually filmed in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, where the Grandhotel Pupp became the Hotel Splendide and the old Kaiserbad spa building stood in for the casino.
The wardrobe, by costume designer Lindy Hemming, was again made by Brioni. Craig's sharply cut black dinner suit is famous for the scene in which a fitted dinner jacket appears in his hotel room, and for the way it marks Bond's transformation from blunt instrument to gentleman spy. It was the last Bond film in which he wore Brioni; Tom Ford dressed him from Quantum of Solace onwards. And it was in a poker game in the Bahamas, earlier in the film, that Bond wins his Aston Martin DB5.
Recreate the look
| Piece | The Bond version | Your version |
|---|---|---|
| Jacket | Midnight blue or black, shawl or peak lapel | A single-breasted dinner jacket, tailored to fit |
| Trousers | Matching, with a satin side stripe | Same cloth, no belt loops, side adjusters or braces |
| Shirt | White, with a turn-down collar | White, with a pleated or marcella front |
| Tie | Black silk bow tie | Self-tie, never pre-tied |
| White square | A white linen square, straight fold | |
| Shoes | Black, highly polished | Black patent or polished calf Oxfords |
Commissioning one? Start with our guide to custom tailored suits, add the pocket square and check casino dress codes to see where black tie is still at home.
Bond's games
- Baccarat and chemin de fer: Bond's game in Ian Fleming's novels and many films. Players bet on the banker's or player's hand; the closest to nine wins.
- Texas hold'em: Casino Royale's game. Two private cards, five shared cards, the best five-card hand wins.
- Roulette and blackjack: occasional appearances, usually as a backdrop to the plot.
Bond's real secret is not the tailoring. It is that he looks as comfortable at the casino table as he does anywhere else. Practise the game, wear the suit often, and the confidence follows.
