James Bond Style

Bond is back. But for "Quantum of Solace," the 22nd installment of the franchise, the always-dapper 007 has a new costumer, a new tux designer and a new muse. Actually, make that an old muse: Sean Connery. "I wanted to take Bond back to the '60s -- simple and skimpy, the look Bond had when he started," said veteran costumer Louise Frogley, who is making her debut as the woman behind the man -- and the 200 other characters and stunt men in the film. What did it take to outfit them all? The British designer, whose credits range from "Bull Durham" to "Leatherheads," recently chatted with StyleList about the challenges.

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For decades, Bond and Brioni were synonymous. But for Bond 22, it was out with the high-priced Italian menswear house and in with the high-style American, Tom Ford, who created 007's suits, coats, shirts and ties. Luckily for Daniel Craig -- who wears Ford off-screen and on -- both the designer and the costumer were literally on the same page. "We were both inspired by William Claxon's book about Steve McQueen," said Frogley. "I wanted to take Bond back to the '60s, and, by coincidence, that was exactly what Ford was doing in his menswear."

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For Bond's suits, Frogley said she asked Ford to used a tonic mohair fabric that she says "a lot of groovy young things are wearing. It's slightly shiny and very nice." New Bond-girl Gemma Arterton (Agent Fields) shows up in lots of Prada sheaths, like this charcoal confetti-splatterd design from the Fall '07 collection. If it all has a bit of a "Mad Men" feel, that's the point. "The sheath dress, cut just below the knee, is very of-the-moment," Frogley says.

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Now that's more like it. Channeling the rugged Steve McQueen, Bond ditched his natty Tom Ford suits for something more rough-and-tumble. To create the ripped-and-rugged look, Frogley brought in pieces from Adidas Y3 and Levi's Sta-Prest Pants.

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With films like "Leatherheads," "Syriana" and "Traffic" to her credit, it's clear that Frogley loves dirty movies -- or, should we say, mud-and-mayhem movies. It's not that grime is tougher to do than glitz -- the sleek "Ocean's Thirteen" is another of her films -- it's just trickier." One of the main considerations is quantity," she says. "Instead of one stunt man, you have several doing stunts for Bond. And you often have to have the clothes aged to different stages of deterioration. We wound up with 20 multiples for each change. If Bond is wearing a suit, then you have 20 suits made, 20 shirts, 20 ties, 20 pairs of shoes. That means each stuntman has to have his own wardrobe to do his particular skill, like climbing ropes or driving cars."

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To transport Bond back to his roots, Frogley created a look that was "detached from reality. We wanted something very, very iconic . The pieces had no patterns at all. His ties -- when he wore them -- all had small self-patterns. The feel is very graphic." Necessity, of course, is the mother of invention -- or, at least, small shirt collars. "The thing about Daniel Craig is that, like most classic film stars, he has a big head and face, and if you compete with that with fashion, you spoil that good thing about him."

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"Quantum" may have been shot in color, but the effect Frogley envisioned was steely, "almost like a graphic novel." For Judi Dench's character "M," the costumer chose pieces by sportswear designer Marina Rinaldi, hoping to echo some of the tenseness of "Good Night and Good Luck," the sober '50s era drama that Frogley also costumed. "We wanted this to be all black and white and strict," she said. "I like that tenseness."

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"Often people think that if you dress in a classic manner, you are dull and live a quiet life," Tom Ford told Time magazine this month. "James Bond lives exactly the opposite life." Similarly, Frogley didn't think clothes for the Bond women had to shout. "I didn't want to do a lot of bosoms," she says. "Everyone's got a bosom." The one dress that isn't a plain sheath is the flirty Prada dress worn by actress Olga Kurylenko (who plays Camille). It had the one thing every Bond girl needs: "It was a really brilliant cut, with a lot of hidden panels, so she could move a lot," says Frogley."

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Sometimes girls just wanna have fun, which is what Frogley did by adding a dash of colorful Jasper Conran to Kurylenko's wardrobe. Though "Quantum" is utterly testosterone-driven, Frogley says it's not hard to dress a mostly male cast. "It's all very straightforward. What's hard is the proportion of the face to the body and what looks good in a closeup. That is my primary preoccupation -- getting everything to the right scale."

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Perhaps the most clever of Frogley's tricks: her take on the classic guayabera. "I had them made from old tablecloths, and they were just fabulous," she laughed. "We were filming in Panama, and I found them in a shop in Colon. I had loads and loads matched up."

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