Fashion Influential #25: James Bond
JAMES BOND
Born:
1953. Fictional birthday: November 11.
Number of films:
22
Highest Grossing Movie:
Thunderball, $966,435,555
Lowest Grossing Movie:
License to Kill, $271,586,451
(Inflation adjusted)
Total Box Office:
$11,615,711,960 Beginnings.
Occasionally, maybe because they’re the sum total of a collaborative effort, fictional characters make an enormous stylistic impact and James Bond is a perfect example. Hatched from the mind of Ian Fleming in 1953, Bond instantly personified what many still consider to be the perfect man: Smart, strong, charming, quick-witted, and impossibly stylish. In fact, 1962’s James Bond, in his classically tailored suit, would mix effortlessly at a Gucci reception today.
Career Highs.
The character was named after an American ornithologist (read: bird watcher) of whom Ian Fleming was a big fan. Like Bond’s trademark classic style, Fleming wanted his name to be very understated. He told Readers’ Digest, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find… Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department." And so he was. As of this writing Bond movies have collectively raked in over $11.5 billion dollars; 1965’s Thunderball itself almost hit a billion alone. “The best Bond” argument will no doubt rage on as long as the English language is spoken, but so far it's a tight race between Connery and the current Bond, Daniel Craig.
I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him.
–Sean Connery
Dalton as Bond, not so much. Career Lows.
Timothy Dalton. Dalton played the British special agent in two of the three lowest grossing Bond films ever. Not only could Dalton not convince moviegoers that he was the British special agent, he wore the “Bond uniform” like a sophomore at prom – his black tie small and feeble like the actor himself. Dalton also sported an awful leather bomber jacket with a popped collar in 1987’s The Living Daylights. Just awful.
Legacy.
Any man, from now until the world ends, whose attire is so classically sharp and is so well polished that he renders women helpless, is referred to as “very James Bond.” Bond will forever be the answer to the hyped-up, over-the-top action hero cliché. Anyone standing next to James Bond can’t be taken seriously.
Bond, done right. Get the Look.
Every red-blooded man should own a tuxedo, regardless of their means. Hugo Boss, D&G, and Gucci all make swell tuxes. Then again, you can always pick up a used version from a tuxedo rental shop or even Goodwill. Bottom line, own a tuxedo – preferably one that’s tailored – and find an excuse to wear it
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