146 FASHIONING FILM STARS 14. Elle, 22 April 1960, features Bardot in a broderie anglaise shirt and a headline announcing: 'Brigitte launches broderie anglaise in Saint-Tropez'. 15. 'Brigitte Bardot contre Martine Carol', Cinemonde no. 1182, Easter special issue, 4 April 1957. 16. Archive footage of the young Bardot modelling ski outfits can be seen in a Without Walls documentary on Bardot, Channel 4 Television (1994). 17. The Lilli doll came from a cartoon in the tabloid Der Bild. The doll was designed by Max Weissbrodt and manufactured by the firm 0. M. Hausser. From 'Dear Prudence', an article on the Lilli doll, , accessed February 2004. 18. Camille Paglia, interview on Bardot in Without Walls documentary. 19. One version of this picture can be seen in Crawley, 1975, p. 25. The obsession with these is obvious in, for instance, a website devoted to Bardot's petticoat pictures: . 20. Servat (2003) claims it appeared in November 1960, in the photographs of Brigitte with her newborn son, Nicolas. However, her hairstyle in, for instance, the 1959 Voulez-vous danser avec moi? is close to the choucroute. 21. 'La Choucroute de Brigitte Bardot', 25 ans de Marie-Claire de 1954 a 1979, Numero special, 1979. No exact date is given for the article, but it coincides with the release of Vie privee (February 1962). 22. <^wvw.drivingwithdawn.com/archives/2002/12/brigitte^bardot_hair_is_back.shtml>; The Times, 28 July 2003. 23. Quoted in 28 December 1989 obituary, , accessed February 2004. 24. It is not easy to verify exactly how many films they worked on, as a number of Bardot films have no acknowledged costume designer. However, Rea\ are credited as having designed Bardot's clothes for Vie privee. 25. I thank Steve Allen for helping me clarify this point. 26. Cinemonde, 22 November 1956, p. 22. 27. In Jacques Esterel cuttings file, Musee Galleria. 28. Elle, 7 December 1967 (no page number). Bardot features in a Paco Rabanne ensemble and in a faux-bullfighter costume by Yves St Laurent. 12 'Sean Connery Is James Bond': Re-Fashioning British Masculinity in the 1960s Pam Cook and Claire Hines Within the context of the cinematic James Bond's extraordinary resilience as a cultural phenomenon, there remains the equally interesting question of Sean' Connery's status among many fans and aficionados, and in the public imagination, as the definitive Bond. Despite 007's shape-shifting over more than four decades, no other actor has achieved the degree of authenticity attributed to Connery's interpretation - although each of the others has their own following.1 In theory, James Bond could be played by any sufficiently mature, urbane and athletic actor - and there are rumours that when Pierce Brosnan retires, a non-British actor might take on the role of the British secret agent.2 Indeed, 007 has already appeared in American form.3 This is less of a travesty than it appears; after all, the special relationship between Bond and his CIA counterparts is a consistent theme throughout the franchise, and a primary element in a spy's job description is their ability to disguise themselves successfully. In a sense, the way has been paved by Brosnan, who is the most 'transatlantic' of all the Bonds, not least in his accent. However, if this were to happen, it is predictable that the desire to re-establish an original James Bond, most likely in the form of Sean Connery, would intensify. This article sets out to explore what it is that makes Sean Connery the perfect, the quintessential James Bond. Bond is a post-modern phenomenon, on one hand, an international icon whose origins are indeterminate, on the other, a figure whose Britishness is a defining characteristic, and an essential element in marketing the films - but always an ironic cipher whose existence appears to be predicated on his chameleon-like lack of identity. He constantly re-invents himself - rather like an actor. 007 can, and does masquerade in a variety of roles in the line of duty, yet he remains himself: Bond, James Bond, as he frequently reminds everyone. He is identified by a name, and a number -perhaps a nod to his military background as a commander in the Royal Navy-and his back-story is minimal. It has been argued that the star persona - that is, the loose set of attributes that make up what we understand as a star's identity, creating a recognisable brand name - informs and inflects the characters they play, investing them with special qualities and setting up audience expectations (Dyer, 1979). Clearly, it is important to get the relationship between star and character right, if audiences (and advertisers) are not to be alienated or disappointed. Choosing the right actor to play FASHIONING FILM STARS 007 is a complex and hazardous business, especially as this is a subject on which just about everyone, whether they are fans or not, has an opinion. In cinematic terms, there is no character without the star/actor persona. Yet rather than just being a character, James Bond has become the equivalent of a star persona in his own right, in that he possesses a limited set of characteristics that are carried over from film to film, and that are mobilised in advertising and marketing campaigns. The cinematic 007 is a brand name that extends far beyond the Bond films themselves - indeed, the films are only a part of the global Bond phenomenon.4 When Pierce Brosnan advertises Omega watches, he does so courtesy of his role as James Bond. It is possible, then, that James Bond transforms the accepted relationship between star and character by conferring star status on the different actors who play him, rather than the other way round. If that is the case, it would seem important that the actors who depict Bond should not be top-rank stars such as Tom Cruise or George Clooney, since their high-profile personas would outshine that of the special agent himself. The implications of this are, of course, that in playing 007, an actor aiming for major international stardom risks being identified with the role to such an extent that all his other performances are tarred with the Bond brush - and, indeed, despite having become a global superstar with almost seventy films to his credit, Sean Connery's seven outings as James Bond still define his acting career for many people, causing him to distance himself from those films.5 On the other hand, playing James Bond can help revive an acting career - as with Roger Moore, for example - or represent a nail in the coffin, as with George Lazenby, or transform an actor into a star, as in the case of Pierce Brosnan. Connery's and Brosnan's careers as 007 mirror one another to some extent: Connery kick-started the series, making an international name for himself in the process, while Brosnan revived the franchise, achieving worldwide recognition which has gained him considerable power in the industry. Brosnan's turn-of-the-century action hero has travelled some distance from Connery's suave 1960s' dandy - but that is the subject of another article. Here, we want to investigate how the working-class Scot Sean Connery was fashioned into the English gentleman-spy James Bond, contextualising our analysis in the cultural history of the 1960s. Our focus will be on the re-invention of British masculinity in the period, under the impact of consumer capitalism, and how that was manifested in both fashion and cinema. We shall also look at the connections between James Bond and the US male lifestyle magazine Playboy, launched in 1953 by Hugh Hefner with a view to re-styling the American man. Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman went to considerable lengths to find the right British actor to play Ian Fleming's sophisticated special agent, who had been popularised during the 1950s in the risque James Bond novels and a cartoon strip that first appeared in the Daily Express in 1958 (Jones, 1999, p. 62). In the early 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, the highly publicised scandals of British communist double agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, explicitly linked to their homosexuality, had cast doubt on the trustworthiness of the British Establishment. Burgess and Maclean came from the upper echelons of society, and were Cambridge men. In the context of contemporary research studies into male and female sexuality by Alfred Kinsey,6 which SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND had revealed some surprising statistics about the incidence of homosexuality in married men, and the lack of sexual gratification experienced by many married women, the implications were that all was not well with the 'normal' heterosexual marriage that formed the bedrock of the post-war consumer economy. At the same time, state legal intervention into formerly private arenas such as prostitution, homosexuality and abortion was attempting to reform and liberalise sexual morality in the direction of individual freedom and choice (see Hall, 1980). Against this background, James Bond emerged as both catalyst and symptom. His relationship to the British Establishment in class terms was not that clear, but his aggressive heterosexual masculinity and his inclination for slightly kinky rough-and-tumble distanced him from what was increasingly perceived as an effete, snobbish and outdated upper class. As a maverick risk-taker and sexual adventurer. Bond flouted the hierarchical, military-style rules and regulations of his stuffy superiors. While his patriotic allegiance was not in doubt, his rebellious tendencies made him vulnerable, both to exotic female spies and to the authoritarian system for which he worked. Bond was a hero for the times, a transitional figure encapsulating the changes and contradictions facing British society in the throes of modernisation. The expansion of post-war consumer capitalism had produced groups with increased spending power, among them young working-class males, whose newly acquired wealth created a market for styles and fashions that would reflect their challenge to the status quo. Stars such as Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando and James Dean, dressed in T-shirt and jeans or black leather, articulated this youthful rebellion, which expressed total antipathy to the suits, shirts and ties of the conservative older generation. In Britain, a new style of actor emerged in response to the influence of the disaffected American male: the Angry Young Man, initially incarnated by Richard Burton in Tony Richardson's 1959 film Look Back in Anger,7 who was driven by hatred of the British class system and the elitism of British society in general. In the late 1950s and early 60s, British cinema began to feature muscular, virile, working-class rebel heroes, personified by the likes of Albert Finney, Richard Harris and Stanley Baker, whose bodies were put on display for erotic contemplation, and whose hedonistic, amoral attitudes threatened the polite surface of the public-school ruling class. In this context, James Bond represented a bridge between tradition and modernity. Although not a working-class hero, his opposition to the British Establishment was clear in his tendency to break ranks and his disregard for authority. His aspiration to the lavish lifestyle and privilege of his superiors, coupled with his amorality and proclivity for sexual violence, reflected an impatience with, and occasionally contempt for, British middle-class hypocrisy. In many ways, then, beneath his urbane sophistication, James Bond possessed many of the attributes of a rebel hero, masquerading as a member of the Establishment and producing a kind of ironic commentary on its shortcomings. In the wider social arena, Bond encapsulated the strengths and weaknesses of Britain on the world stage, and its need to modernise. With the decline of the ruling classes, the Empire and the traditional heavy industries, Britain attempted to reinvent itself as a democratic, technologically innovative nation, vying for a place at the forefront of 1 50 FASHIONING FILM STARS developments in aerodynamics, the chemical industries and electronics. During the 1950s and 60s, Britain's trade and cultural links to both Europe and the US were consolidated by ambitious projects such as Concorde, and by the increase in imported ready-to-wear men's fashions from continental Europe, particularly from France and Italy, which challenged the domination of American popular culture in the British marketplace. The latter had inspired many of the youth subcultures, and had also transformed traditional dress for older men by creating a more casual fashion for open-necked shirts, often worn without a jacket. New synthetic fabrics such as Dralon, Orion and Terylene, when mixed with wool, produced lightweight garments which kept their shape and were easy-care, allowing for greater freedom of movement. These lighter fabrics were to completely transform the military-style, formal tailored suits worn by the English City Gent, which were already being parodied by the street fashions of groups such as the Teddy Boys, who merged English style with elements of American iconography. This period heralded an era of intensified male consumerism in fashion and commodity consumption which had a dramatic impact on attitudes to male dress, and helped to establish Britain as a major force in the burgeoning global consumer economy, led by the US (Costantino, 1997, pp. 78-93). In the international context, Bond represented a cosmopolitan European-British style in contrast to those youth subcultures inspired by US popular culture and music.8 Indeed, although relatively young (he is described by Ian Fleming in Moonraker as in his mid-thirties), his military background and experience placed him at some distance from both teenage youth culture and the twenty-something Angry Young Man. At the same time, he was definitely not part of the older generation, and his style and expensive tastes identified him as a well-heeled bachelor with no strings - in other words, he spent all his money on himself. Despite being disposed to conspicuous consumption when it came to fast cars and other boys' toys, his dress style was defined by its understated elegance, presumably in order to allow him to merge into the background when necessary. How, then, did Sean Connery, whose previous cinematic roles had been confined to Celtic working-class villains in films such as No Road Back (Montgomery Tully, 1956) and Hell Drivers (Cy Endfield, 1957), land the part of the suave James Bond against competition from a prestigious line-up of British actors that included Trevor Howard, Cary Grant, Richard Burton, Patrick McGoohan, Roger Moore and David Niven (see Macnab, 2000, p. 197)? This list is interesting in itself - the inclusion of the Irish McGoohan, the Welsh Burton and the Scottish Connery demonstrates how the bias towards upper-class Englishness that characterised British male stars until the 1950s was breaking down, producing a more inclusive definition of Britishness, in class and regional terms. However, Connery's Scottishness could have been perceived as a drawback, particularly in the all-important American market: despite landing a contract with Fox, and appearing as romantic interest in Another Time, Another Place (Lewis Allen, 1958) and Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), his career in the US had not taken off. Yet in some respects he possessed the ideal attributes to play Bond. He had an athletic physique,9 and a certain grace of movement, thanks to some dance training. Due to his experience as a male model,10 he was used to posing in suits. He also had a dark, brooding qual- SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND ity that seemed to match Fleming's description of his hero in Moonraker. '[A] rather saturnine young man ... something a bit cold and dangerous in that face ... Looks pretty fit... [a] tough-looking customer' (quoted in Jones, 1999). Connery's relaxed physical-ity and oredatory sexuality, the obverse of the 'stiff upper lip' brigade, was exactly the right image for the cool, modern version of British masculinity represented by the cinematic Bond, who would break with the past and project a vision of Britain at the forefront of technological and economic progress. This image drew on traditional British class stereotypes, while redefining them for the modern world. Connery's Scottishness can thus be seen as a key element in that process of revision, displaying a new version of Britishness that would be viable in world markets, without sacrificing the hallmarks of quality and superior standards of craftsmanship that traditionally characterised British products. It also carried with it connotations of the history of Scottish antagonism to English imperialism, a factor that would appeal to American audiences in particular. Connery has always insisted on his Scottish roots - something which has endowed his persona with a degree of authenticity (see Macnab, 2000, p. 199). One might speculate, then, that he brought some of this authenticity to his performance as 007, and that it has contributed to his reputation as the 'best' Bond in many people's eyes. The authenticity seems to reside less in his ability to accurately portray the English gentleman-spy, than in his skill in re-defining and updating British stereotypes. Another significant element in the choice of Connery was the fact that, although he Designed for action: Sean Connery dressed to kill in Dr No (1962) 1 52 FASHIONING FILM STARS was an established actor, he was still relatively unknown to cinema audiences. This meant that his persona would not eclipse that of Bond himself, the true star of the films.11 The working-class Connery had to be tutored in style, manners and dress sense for the role. Terence Young, the director of the first film, Dr No (1962), who was an Old Etonian and ex-Guardsman, and whose background was similar to that of Fleming's Bond, acted as mentor, taking the actor to his tailors in London and Paris and encouraging him to go out in the evening wearing Bond's clothes, so that he became accustomed to 007's urbane image. In addition to acquiring the special agent's expensive tastes, Connery was required to enhance his slightly receding hairline with a toupe, and his bushy eyebrows were plucked (see Broccoli, 1998, p. 171). Connery has recognised Young's decisive role in defining Bond's stylish and sophisticated on-screen image through a process of familiarisation which lent polish to the aggressive masculinity and rugged exterior that the actor brought to the role.12 The biographical details for Connery in Dr No's British pressbook continued to emphasise his working-class origins and confident physicality following 'a succession of rough-and-ready jobs requiring plenty of physical activity and stamina', promoting 'James Bond - Milkman' as a populist figure.13 Bond's was an image constructed through wardrobe and studied by Connery, whose performance in Dr No was described by the News of the World as 'fitting Fleming's hero like a Savile Row suit', a comparison which forecast both the actor's identification with the role and the continued attention paid to Bond's attire in subsequent additions to the film series.14 The immediate cultural impact of the first Bond films was astonishing. Connery was so successful in creating Bond as an international style icon that the image quickly became a trademark, with multiple tie-ins to men's fashions and accessories. As well as the many licences granted to manufacturers eager to label their products with the lucrative '007' or 'James Bond' logo, the style was reflected in contemporary articles and advertisements in men's magazines, which proliferated in the 1960s. In 1966, American GQ devoted an editorial to Connery's interpretation of the Bond style, while Playboy magazine, which had a long-standing association with Ian Fleming and his James Bond, displayed an approach to male fashion that shared a number of features with the Bond films. The publication of an original Fleming novella entitled The Hildebrand Rarity in its March 1960 issue meant that Playboy became the first American magazine to print a Bond story, an alliance sustained by the serialisation of a further five Bond adventures during the 1960s.15 In addition to the growing popularity of Fleming's work, his publication in Playboy was also a result of publisher Hugh Hefner's self-confessed admiration for both the 'tall, Continental-suited, profoundly British, profoundly sophisticated' author and his creation.16 It was an appreciation that, Playboy suggested, was based on mutual esteem since Fleming was said have to been convinced that 'James Bond, if he were an actual person, would be a registered reader of Playboy', as the reader was offered a hero who lived the fantasy lifestyle that the magazine recommended.17 Playboy's articles were to take men's fashion seriously, introducing the reader to the importance of sartorial style within the consumerist, sexualised and liberated lifestyle that it promoted. Atypical article in the January 1965 issue on 'The Progressive Dinner r SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND 1 53 Party' illustrated the magazine's propensity to combine fashion with other elements of the playboy lifestyle. The article constructed a fictional narrative of the evening's events, while a series of photographs depicted the party's 'host' and guests engaged in a number of sociable activities including dinner, conversation and dancing, followed by breakfast in a suitably 'exurban hideaway'. Surrounded by women, the playboy host's party attire was described in detail: Host is impeccable in Italian olive-colour nubby-silk dinner jacket with black satin lapels and sleeve cuffs, black mohair-and-worsted trousers with satin extension waistband and side stripes; jacket $85, trousers $35, both by Lord West. Formal shirt is of cotton broadcloth, has narrow pleats, double cuffs, by Excello, $9. (Mario and Green, 1965, p. 107) Functioning as more than a dinner jacket, the host's 'impeccable' attire was intended as a fashion statement, and as an aspirational style for others to copy. Despite its libertarian approach to (hetero-)sexuality, Playboy was reluctant to put the nude male body on display, a reluctance shared by men's magazines even today. Cultural commentators have put this down to the difficulty associated with 'forcing men to look at themselves self-consciously as men', since it is a look fraught with overtones of homo-eroticism - a threat to the aggressive heterosexual masculinity advocated by both Playboy and the Bond films (Mort, 1986, p. 41). In surrounding Playboy Bond with hordes of glamorous desiring women, the intention was to make it clear that they were the natural objects of male attention. This disavowal of effeminate homosexuality made it possible to redefine consumerism, previously associated primarily with women, as a legitimate masculine activity, as heterosexual male readers and viewers could consider fashion with their sexual identities more or less intact. Even so, the sheer force of the disclaimer indicates the enormous effort required to overcome the 'problem'. The attention to detail exhibited in such articles about male fashion, and in the costuming of the cinematic James Bond, smacks of a dandyism which seems to be at odds with the virile man of action. Such fetishism threatens to distract from the serious business at hand, whether that be the seduction of beautiful women, or saving the world from evil. Connery's besuited frame achieved the status of an icon during the 1960s, and despite the fact that he wore many different outfits as the secret agent, it is this image of 007 in a suit that has endured, and has become synonymous with the Bond films. The suit also remained an integral item in the wardrobe of Playboy magazine. It has been argued that the garment is 'symbolic of traditional manliness', displaying qualities associated with 'self-restraint, and focusing energy on ... goal-directed behaviour', traditional masculine characteristics which the playboy bachelor transformed, imbuing them with hedonism, style and sexuality (Bruzzi, 1997, p. 69; Rubinstein, 1995, p. 58). Yet for others the modern suit is erotic in itself, revealing the contours of the broad-shouldered, idealised male body established by classical Greco-Roman culture (see Hollander, 1994). As the 60s progressed, the international box-office success of Connery's Bond offered Playboy a tangible vision of its model hero, and a special 'James Bond issue' of the mag- SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND 155 azine published in November 1965 contained both an interview with Sean Connery, and a pictorial essay on 'James Bond's Girls'. Connery's comments were indicative of the new attitudes to male fashion fostered by both the magazine and the Bond films: I think I've got seven or eight suits now; I took them all from the films - plus a couple I bought a while ago in a moment of weakness. Something came over me and I went out one day and spent £300 [$840] on two suits.18 Connery's willingness to spend his disposable income on his wardrobe supported the ethos of affluence presented by Playboy, while his admission that he had experienced a 'moment of weakness' endorsed the acceptability of such reckless spending. The masculine identity associated with Playboy Bond was defined by an aggressive individualism signified by a sophisticated style based on conspicuous consumption, sexual promiscuity and an easy familiarity with the brand-named products represented as the necessary accessories for his bachelor lifestyle. The suit, which underwent a radical transformation during the 1960s, played a vital role in shaping this identity. As a version of the gentleman-spy, Fleming's Bond was well dressed, in a simple, classic style: dark suit, white shirt and black silk tie and shoes. The understated style of the modern English gentleman seems to have originated with the dandy Beau Brummell in the early nineteenth century, who was instrumental in creating a new, urban male identity which aspired to aristocratic and upper-middle-class status, but was available to anyone who could afford it. Brummell and his followers revolutionised male dress, creating a fashion for an unadorned look that depended on superb cut and fit, and new pliable fabrics, for its effect. Despite its simplicity, however, this look was blatantly erotic: the dandies' tight, figure-hugging breeches and cutaway jackets displayed the sleek Tiale body in all its graphic beauty. Many of the features of this dandy fashion philosophy can be detected in the Bond image. As described by Elizabeth Wilson, [t]he role of the dandy implied an intense preoccupation with self and self-presentation; image was everything, and the dandy a man who often had no family, no calling, apparently no sexual life, no visible means of financial support. He was the very archetype of the new urban man who came from nowhere and for whom appearance was reality. His devotion to an ideal of dress that sanctified understatement inaugurated an epoch not of no fashions for men, but of fashions that put cut and fit before ornament, colour and display. The skin-tight breeches of the dandy were highly erotic; so was his new, unpainted masculinity. The dandy was a narcissist. He did not abandon the pursuit of beauty; he changed the kind of beauty that was admired. (1985, p. 180) The nineteenth-century dandy's look was a reaction to the highly decorated male fashions of the time, whose effeminate take on masculine identity was deemed inappropriate to the more restrained, serious ethos of the Industrial Revolution. It was a classless, upwardly mobile fashion that relied on classic British tailoring combined with innovatory materials and techniques. It was accompanied by a fastidious attention to FASHIONING FILM STARS style detail, and to personal hygiene, redefining these trivial, 'feminine' preoccupations as legitimate, serious male pursuits. The dandy did not subscribe to the contemporary work ethic; rather, he lived by his wits, and worked on himself, as pure image. The dandy was a style icon, but he also embodied an ironic critique of the emerging middle class. As a transitional figure, who resolved social change and contradiction on the level of image, the Regency dandy has much in common with Connery's Bond, whose sartorial style was a response to the traditional dress of the English Establishment, as well as to the 'peacock revolution' of the burgeoning counter-cultures. Youth fashions of the 1960s were characterised by mimicry and pastiche. They appropriated styles and iconography from different periods and cultures, mixing them together to produce new, dashing configurations which were deliberately iconoclastic. The 'peacock revolution' referred to colourful, decorative styles for men, which allowed them to enjoy and consume fashion, while displaying themselves to attract women. At its most extreme, this peacock style was exhibited by rock stars such as Mick Jagger, who sported a flamboyant, long, frilled tunic reminiscent of eighteenth-century 'effeminate' dress. The bi-sexual, or 'unisex' fashions of the period challenged gender boundaries while being compatible with heterosexuality. At the same time, French designers such as Pierre Cardin, completely revamped the design of the conventional city suit and the way it was produced, revolutionising tailoring methods to produce ready-to-wear designer garments for the young, fashion-conscious male (see Costantino, 1997, pp. 94-107). While he participated in the 'peacock revolution' to some extent, notably in his desire to dress to attract women, Connery's Bond positioned himself firmly against the strident iconoclasm of the counter-cultures, and even the milder version exhibited by the Beatles, whose low-necked, collarless suits were inspired by Pierre Cardin.19 In Dr No, Connery ... wore Turnbull & Asser shirts with French cuffs, specially made by Michael Fish (who went on to open his own hugely influential shop, Mr Fish); he wore a Nehru jacket, and razor-sharp suits made for him by Anthony Sinclair in London's Conduit Street. Connery was both smart and casual, and the knitted short-sleeved shirt he wore when helping Ursula Andress out of the sea has been a casual-wear classic ever since. He was influential in other ways: because he always favoured two-piece tropical weight suits that offered serious mobility, men bought them in their hundreds of thousands; because he wore a white tuxedo, it began filling the pages of countless fashion magazines. (Jones, 1999, p. 62) Connery's outfits were a mixture of old and new, bespoke and off-the-peg: Michael Fish was one of the new young designers leading the 60s' sartorial revolution. He had trained with traditional outfitters in Jermyn Street, and worked for exclusive shirt-makers Turn-bull & Asser, before opening his own ready-to-wear shop just off Savile Row, the bastion of fine English tailoring. Designed by Anthony Sinclair, Connery's jackets were cut a little fuller, allowing Bond room to carry his gun while still following the contours of his figure. Michael Fish provided similarly sympathetic tailoring, supplying Connery with SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND double-cuffed shirts using buttons rather than cufflinks in order to allow Bond to dress and, of course, undress, more easily.20 007's suits may have been custom-made for him, but they were mass-produced and bought in their thousands through the burgeoning men's fashion retail outlets. The 'smart casual' look, which extended to the suits and the formal tuxedo, courtesy of Connery's relaxed body language and habit of posing with his hands in his pockets, evoked the dandy's and the playboy's refusal of the puritanical work ethic. Yet this casual air was something of a masquerade, since in the line of duty, Connery's Bond was required to be quick on his feet in order to extricate himself from sticky situations. Fortunately, the suits were made in lightweight fabrics, allowing for maximum mobility. Like the dandy, Bond lived, and survived, by his wits. On many occasions, it was his own survival, rather than that of the Western world, that seemed to be most at risk. In this respect, he resembled the modern-day super-heroes who exist solely for the purpose of resolving major crises which threaten destruction on a global scale. In Connery's case, it was often explicitly his genitalia, and by implication his heterosexuality, that were under threat.21 His sharp suits, and his 'smart casual' demeanour, on one hand revealed his body and sexuality, rendering him vulnerable to homosexual and female desire, and on the other masked his ability to muster a repertoire of survival tactics. Thus the suits both empowered him, and revealed his weaknesses. Those weaknesses were necessary to his sexual allure, while making it clear that he would never be able to survive without the array of state-of-the-art technological gadgets developed by the best scientific minds Britain had to offer. It is not difficult to regard Connery's Bond as an anachronistic throwback to a traditional type of white, heterosexual masculinity, an example of unreconstructed manhood arising just when the radical social changes heralding the modern women's movement, and the gay and civil rights movements were making waves. He can also be seen as a conservative reaction to Cold War politics, and to the growth of continental Europe as a world power at a time when Britain's relationship to the EU was on the agenda. However, such readings do not exhaust the available meanings in Connery's Bond persona. It is precisely his (often cringe-making) regressive qualities, and his lack of political correctness, that underpin his enduring appeal. His sadism and habit of treating some women as disposable objects are counter-balanced by an occasional chivalric tendency, and by a penchant for strong, independent women who present a challenge to his manhood in that they are not necessarily immediately available, and are his equals in professional skills and sexual expertise. While they do generally submit to his charms, they give him a run for his money, and his ability to be'up to the job' is constantly tested. The crude racism of the 1960s' Bond films, completely unacceptable in social terms, is tempered by a comic-strip quality that removes it from the realms of reality, allowing audiences to enjoy forbidden fruit in safety. These tensions are often played out in sartorial terms: in Goldfinger (1964), for example. Bond's superiority is established by the understated elegance of his wardrobe in contrast to the more florid attire of the villainous Goldfinger or the untidy disarray of his henchman Oddjob's outfit, itself a gross parody of the classic English city suit. In this cartoon universe, Bond's aura of 'cool' resides in his ironic awareness of himself as fiction, as pure image. Connery's knowing 1 58 FASHIONING FILM STARS SEAN CONNERY IS JAMES BOND 159 performance encapsulates this sardonic distance, while endowing 007 with a certain authenticity,.courtesy of his physical attributes, his working-class origins and his Scottish nationality. The success of his rendition of Bond lies in a particular combination of rebel hero, dandy and heterosexual playboy that offers the pleasures of identification while enabling an ironic take on white, heterosexual masculinity itself. Sean Connery Bond Filmography Dr No (Terence Young, 1962, UK. Eon Productions) From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1963, UK. Eon Productions) Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964, UK. Danjaq/Eon Productions) Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965, UK. Danjaq/Eon Productions) You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967, UK. Danjaq/Eon Productions) Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971, UK. Danjaq/Eon Productions) Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner, 1983, UK/USA. Woodcote/Talia Film Productions/Producers Sales Organization) TV Documentary Material Brits Go to Hollywood: Sean Connery (Christopher Bruce, 2003), Channel 4, 22 November 2003. 'Inside Dr No' documentary, special feature on Dr No DVD, UA/MGM, 2000. Notes 1. See for example 'Bond 1 - Sean Connery', accessed 2004. 2. Australian Hugh Jackman is one of those tipped to play the next Bond 3. American television network CBS broadcast a one-hour adaptation of Casino Royale on 21 October 1954 as part of its weekly thriller series, Climax!, in which Bond was played by Barry Nelson, an American actor best known for his starring roles on Broadway. See Chapman, 1999, pp. 40-2. 4. In addition to the international box-office success of the Bond films, and Bond's circulation as a popular cultural icon, related merchandise and product tie-ins have included a mini-industry of music, clothing, cars, toys, alcohol, books, cosmetics and memorabilia, updated with the release of each new film. See 'A View to a Sell', Time, 11 November 2002, p. 70, with reference to Die Another Day (Lee Tamahori, 2002). 5. See the Channel 4 documentary Brits Go to Hollywood: Sean Connery. 6. Alfred Kinsey's report on Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, published in 1948, was followed by his report on Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, published in 1953. 7. Based on John Osborne's 1956 Royal Court Theatre production, starring Kenneth Haigh as Jimmy Porter. 8. However, some of the subcultures, such as the Mods, defined themselves in terms of European (i.e. Italian and French) styles as well 9. Connery won a bronze medal at a Mr Universe contest in London in the early 1950s (see Macnab, 2000, p. 197). 10. As well as posing as a model for students at the Edinburgh College of Art, Connery also worked as a photographic model for a men's mail-order catalogue firm. See Sellers, 1999, pp. 25-6. 11. The tag line 'Sean Connery Is James Bond' was first used on the posters for You Only Live Twice (1967), trading on Connery's identity as Bond, in contrast to Casino Royale's spoof treatment of the character. 12. See 'Inside Dr Wo' documentary, special feature on Dr Wo DVD, UA/MGM, 2000. 13. These jobs are said to have included 'cement mixer, bricklayer, steel bender, a printer's assistant and a lifeguard'. See DrWo Pressbook, BFI microfiche. 14. See News of the World. 7 October 1962. 15. This included two short stories, Octopussy (printed in March and April 1966) and The Property of a Lady, published in Playboy's tenth anniversary issue, while April, May and June of 1963, 1964 and 1965 featured serialisations of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live 7Vw'ceand The Man with the Golden Gun respectively, each within a short time of their initial publication in hardback editions. 16. See 'Playbill', Playboy, March 1960. 17. Ibid. 18. 'Playboy Interview: Sean Connery', Playboy, December 1965, p. 80. 19. Note 007's ironic reference to the Beatles in Goldfinger, just before he's knocked unconscious! 20. See 'Inside DrWo' documentary, special feature on DrWo DVD. 21. Among many references to physical castration, the laser sequence in Goldfinger remains a classic.