Costume Designer Lindy Hemming talks about her work on Casino Royale, and dressing the new James Bond - Daniel Craig...

Casino Royale Costume Designer Interview - Lindy Hemming
9th December 2006

Lindy Hemming is James Bond’s personal shopper. His elegant, stylish wardrobe is full of classic hand made shirts and suits, cool leather jackets, and, of course, the perfect fitting tuxedo for those occasions - like say, playing high stakes poker - when nothing else will do. And it’s all thanks to Lindy.

Months before the cameras started rolling at Pinewood Studios or at any of the glamorous locations around the world, Lindy was busy sourcing material, designing shirts and suits and bargaining with some of Europe’s leading fashion houses to secure the stunning outfits for Casino Royale.

The look of James Bond - played for the first time by Daniel Craig - and the Bond women is as much a part of the film as fast cars and dynamic action sequences. “You know, that’s one of the things that for an actor when they come on to Bond is such a lovely surprise,” says Lindy. “Because we really do use some of the best tailoring in the world for our actors and especially for Bond himself.” The suits, designed by Lindy, come from Brioni Roma, a leading Italian tailor. The shirts are hand made by one of London’s finest gentleman’s outfitters, Turnbull and Asser and Bond’s shoes and boots are also hand made by London cobblers John Lobb Ltd. And even his under garments are specially made by Sunspell, a menswear company based in Nottingham, England. Bond’s style, she says, has to be a fine balance. “We want him to look contemporary but classic, too. These films last a long, long time and people look back at them and so you are trying to create a look that won’t date very quickly.”

Above: Costume designer Lindy Hemming

Once Lindy had met with director Martin Campbell and producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and discussed their ideas for Casino Royale, she met with Craig himself and then began to source the clothes that would be seen in the film.

Each suit, every shirt and jacket, and pair of shoes, has to be ordered in multiple so that they can be used in different stages of a sequence in the film. For instance, if Bond is wearing a tuxedo at the start of a sequence when he is playing poker in the Casino Royale, it has to be immaculate.

Above: Lindy Hemming on the set, actually near Pinewood Studios

But later in the evening, when Bond has been involved in a fight and a chase, that same suit is distressed and damaged. And then, another replica suit has to be available for stunt doubles who might have to stand in for Craig for a part of the action.

“So we would have something like 25 suits for that scene because there’s Bond at the table and he always has to be immaculate and you have to have about five (suits) to inter change for that - no creases in the bum and all that sort of stuff,” she laughs. And then there’s a huge fight sequences where he’s falling down the stairs. And then he gets kidnapped and driven away into the night and taken to be tortured and he has his clothes cut off before he gets tortured. So there are about 25 suits which are for him and his different stunt doubles. And that applies to any garment that he wears. Like the chase at the beginning (of the film) where he wears a shirt, which I designed and had made, and those linen pants.

“There were something like 40 shirts and 40 pairs of trousers. And for something like the cricket scene, where he goes to the cricket pavilion and he kills a guy in the shower, even though it’s only a few seconds in the film, there were about 30 versions of that suit.”

Lindy first joined the 007 team for GoldenEye back in 1995. She won the Oscar for Best Costume Design in 2000 for her work on Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and has been nominated for two BAFTA Awards (Four Weddings and a Funeral and Porterhouse Blue). Her other credits include Life Is Sweet, The Krays, Blood and Wine, Little Voice, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Batman Begins.

Lindy is from Carmarthenshire in Wales and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London to study stage management. Whilst there, she took a design course. “And that was it, I knew there and then that I wanted to do costume,” she recalls. She now divides her time between the UK and her home in Italy.

When did you first start on Casino Royale? Probably in about June, July of 2005. I’d read the script and then talked to Michael (Wilson), Barbara (Broccoli) and Martin (Campbell). After that there were a few meetings with Martin where we discussed the film and what he intended to do and what kind of film it would be. And then the next stage was to talk to Daniel Craig and to go through the script with him and pass on the costume department’s intentions according to what had already been discussed and to pick up his ideas as well, of course. Because I know him and I’ve worked with him before a couple of times. Where do you get the clothes for Bond? Well, from different sources. For Bond himself, we have his suits made by an Italian company we have used for a long time called Brioni Roma and they tailor all of his suits, day wear and evening. We have a lot of his shirts made in London by Turnbull and Asser. We have his shoes and boots hand made by a London company called John Lobb Ltd. And all of his under garments, T-shirts, things like that, come from Sunspell Menswear in England. You know, that’s one of the things that, for an actor when they come on to Bond, is such a lovely surprise. Because we really do use some of the best tailoring in the world for our actors, especially for Bond himself.

Above: Daniel Craig is the sixth 007

Sunspell made trendy tight T-shirts but normally they would have made a much more conservative kind of garment. And you know, working with companies like that and getting stuff made for the film is really good fun.

How long does it take to prepare the costumes for a film this size?
You never have enough time! (laughs). Actually, if we had been filming in Britain we’d have been OK but because we were filming out of the country it was a little pressurised. We had about 12 to 14 weeks. But with that you are only servicing the first few weeks of filming and you obviously go on doing it as the film proceeds. So you hope by the first day of filming you have the clothes for the first month under your belt and things are still being made for a few weeks in and then you are examining who is coming next and you probably don’t even meet the actors for the next part until later. So it’s an on going process.

Above: Eva Green, Daniel Craig and Caterina Murino in the Bahamas

How many multiples of a costume do you need? For example when Daniel is playing poker at the Casino, how many suits would you need?
He’s in evening wear for that scene. So we would have something like 25 suits for that scene because there’s Bond at the table and he always has to be immaculate and you have to have about five (suits) to inter change for that - no creases in the bum and all that sort of stuff. (laughs). And then there’s a huge fight sequences where he’s falling down the stairs. And then he gets kidnapped and driven away into the night and taken to be tortured and he has his clothes cut off before he gets tortured. So there are about 25 suits that are for him and his different stunt doubles.

And presumably these suits are at various stages of distress to reflect the scene that Daniel is shooting?
Some immaculate, some distressed, some fire proofed. But that is what you do with them and sometimes you have them made in different ways - sometimes you have them made bigger so that it can go over a wet suit for instance. And that’s how it goes on, really. And that applies to any garment that he wears. And that applies to any garment that he wears. Like the chase at the beginning (of the film) where he wears a shirt, which I designed and had made, and those linen pants. There were something like 40 shirts and 40 pairs of trousers. And for something like the cricket scene, where he goes to the cricket pavilion and he kills a guy in the shower, even though it’s only a few seconds in the film, there were about 30 versions of that suit.

To ask the obvious question, why so many suits?
Well, it has to be that way when you think about it, you can’t ask the same people to wear the same clothes. People won’t do it anymore whereas once they probably did - but not now. Every stunt person that is involved and Daniel has to have five or more suits so you very soon end up with 25 or 30.

This was Daniel’s first experience of plunging into the extraordinary world that is Bond. How did he take to it?
Wonderfully well. He just shut off everything and got on with it, really. He’s a proper actor, that’s the thing, he’s a really, really good actor and I think he inhabited the part the way he would any other. I think he’s great but he’s definitely not like any other Bond.

Above: Bond was given a classic look

But that’s the point, presumably, he has to be his own Bond.. Absolutely that’s the point. I personally think he is very sexy. He is more my sort of guy than a lot of Bonds would be. And I think he makes a fantastic Bond. Does Daniel’s looks - the blond hair and those piercing blue eyes - affect the clothes you put him in? Yes, it does. It made me use mostly blue, to be honest. Nearly everything he has got is navy blue, pale blue, grey, mid grey and black. But then I almost never use colour on Bond because colour dates everything. So it’s mainly blue and grey and black and white. What are you trying to achieve with his look? Well we want him to look contemporary but classic, too. These films last a long, long time and people look back at them and so you are trying to create a look that won’t date very quickly. I mean, if you look back at some of the Roger Moore films, for instance, they do look very seventies. There’s one where he’s wearing the white safari suit and it does date them. We’re trying to go for a look that won’t be dated. So whilst we want Daniel in clothes that look sharp and contemporary, we also want him to have that classic Bond style and that is timeless.

Tell me about the bathing trunks he wears. That image has already been seen all over the world.
(laughs). Yes, that was my idea! Because I knew that those bathing trunks were just about to become really, really hot and trendy and they have subsequently become that. And I knew that he would look really sexy in them. And why should it always be the girls in the bikinis! (laughs)

And it could become as iconic as Ursula Andress coming out of the sea in her bikini in Dr No…
I meant it to be like that. It’s a joke between all of us that there is often someone coming out of the sea in a Bond film and I said ‘well, if someone is coming out of the sea, they have to look as sexy as Ursula Andress..’ And he was every bit as sexy in that scene as the girls ever are. And he 100 per cent went along with that. In fact, I took loads of different shapes to show him before we had those made and we came down clearly in favour of that shape.

And he’s clearly in great physical condition and trained hard for that role. And if you are going to wear a pair of shorts in a Bond movie you’d better look good.
Well, exactly. That’s what we said. It’s like the girls dieting themselves insane. But if you know, which we all know, that all these photographs will still be around in 50 years time you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to really go for it. It’s like when we did Halle Berry in the orange bikini (Die Another Day) it was like ‘this is going to be the alternative to Ursula Andress..’ and they will be looking at those images for a long, long time. And people laugh when I say this, but I know that when a journalist goes into a file to look for something to illustrate any point - like holidays in the Caribbean, the colour orange, anything, it just goes on and on.

Part of what you have to do is pick clothes that are going be coming into style say a year or so from when you first start looking. How do you do that?
I talk to the manufacturers and I talk to the style people and see what it is they are producing for their next collections. It’s the same with the women’s wear, we go and see them and see what samples they’ve got and what they are going to be making. Often with designers like Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, they were willing to make me things in different colours out of their own collections because they knew they would get big exposure just about the time when their own clothes are out. It’s fantastic for them. It’s the same process for the men because you can persuade designers to do things for you.

Above: Daniel Craig sporting the $4000 Armani leather jacket

Can you give me an example?
Well, there’s a leather jacket that Daniel wears in the film. That jacket was $4,000 when I saw it in Los Angeles and I showed it to him and we all agreed it had to be in. And so I talked to Armani and they said ‘yes, yes, OK, we’ll make it for you..’ and I thought ‘oh no, we’ll never be able to afford this..’ and I warned everybody and said ‘look,, it’s this really iconic jacket but it cost $4,000…’ and we needed like a huge number, probably 25 - you can see how the budget goes up. But do you know that they made them for me in the factory and they only charged me something like 400 euros each. So things like that are really great. The good thing for me is that the people who make the Bond films, Michael (Wilson) and Barbara (Broccoli), are very, very supportive.

Above: Eva Green as Vesper Lynd

What was the look you were going for with Eva Green? Her clothes were Versace, very up to date. She’s stunning and a very, very nice person. I haven’t seen the finished film yet but I know that she is going to be marvellous. This is the question you get asked all the time I’m sure, but what happens to all the clothes when the film is finished? Well on this one all the clothes were kept. Obviously Daniel has the pick of anything he wants. But often an actor like him wouldn’t really want to wear the clothes he has worn in the part; some do, but not Daniel so much. The girls can have things but mostly it’s gone into the archives. Most films are not the same but on Bond they have this archive and one day I’m sure there will be this enormous exhibition of all these clothes. But couldn’t you re use some of those lovely suits? No, I wouldn’t because then someone would say ‘oh that’s the suit he wore in such and such..’ (laughs).

Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli (Eon Productions) and directed by Martin Campbell, CASINO ROYALE was released on November 16, 2006 in the UK. Principal photography started on January 30th 2006, with locations in the UK, Czech Republic (Prague), Italy, and the Bahamas. It is British actor Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond. He is the sixth actor to play the 007 role in the franchise.

The film also stars Judi Dench, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Tobias Menzies, Ivana Milicevic, Clemens Schik, Ludger Pistor, Claudio Santamaria and Isaach de Bankole.

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