Double-o seven has taken a desk job at HSBC, Worthing branch. He’s switched gadget-packed watches for a nice packed lunch (egg and cress sandwich, since you ask), and his Martini for Mini Cheddars in the break room with Linda from accounts.
Not quite, but that was the first reaction from the fashion desk in this here parish when Daniel Craig appeared at the Knives Out 3 premiere last week. The 57-year-old actor looked rather more staid and traditional than we’ve seen him in recent times, in a classic grey suit and the full sartorial repertoire of shirt, tie, pocket square and black leather Oxfords.
Let’s be clear; there’s nothing wrong with that. The suit, in what looks like a discreet wool herringbone, is immaculate. The sweep of that peak lapel is elegant and masculine, the cut sharp. The tie is Shantung silk, which lends a slightly rougher, more interesting texture.
Craig’s hair is markedly different too; a crowning sweep of grey that’s pretty fulsome, even blow dried. Again, nothing wrong with that, but a very middle-management kind of look for a man who’s traversed various style territories over the years, from slickly-cut action man to experimental MAMIL (that’s Middle-Aged Man In Loewe – do keep up).
His latest look is steadfastly traditional and more sedate, although it could be a nod to his Knives Out character Benoit Blanc’s bookishness. Perhaps it’s such a departure because he’s been so experimental of late.
When cult Spanish house Loewe – then under the creative director of Irish wunderkind Jonathan Anderson, now helming Dior – enlisted Craig in its campaigns, it marked an astonishing sea change in his style. Loewe had previous experience in taking established actors – Anthony Hopkins, Dame Maggie Smith – and applying their own dusting of aching cool, but Craig really turned it up to 11.
He went for the full Loewe-ification of his look – 1970s yellow-tinted specs that called to mind the kind of man who has bolts on his basement door, a sweep of hair, some high octane knits, cargo trousers and stomping boots.
It led to the term MAMIL, for the kind of guy who eschews the Porsche and the paunch in favour of shaking up their style with something more experimental and fun. After all, you’ve got your whole retirement to sit in polite brown cardigans.
This was a shift away from Craig’s Bond era, in which he embraced all things tight and sculptural in terms of tailoring, all the better to showcase the hefty chiselling that went in to create the Bond body.
His suits, often created by Tom Ford, came lean on the frame and as precise and exacting as a shot from Bond’s famous Walther PPK. His bougainvillea-toned velvet evening jacket, crafted by historic London tailoring institution Anderson & Sheppard, was a standout during this era, back in 2021. Pink to make the icy cobalt of his eyes wink, perhaps.
Craig’s shift back to more traditional temperatures – a straightforward suit, if you please, nothing to see here – is also in chime with a return to proper, serious upright tailoring across the spectrum. The winds of fashion have (thankfully) blown away casual streetwear in favour of sharp suiting, with shirts and ties (remember those?) and proper shoes, as opposed to dad trainers.
Even Gen Z are on the case; there’s been a marked rise in young men discovering elegant tailoring, perhaps understandable when their dads are in Supreme trainers and Palace T-shirts. The trend also has a Gordon Gekko/captain of industry flavour (in contrast to less “done” varieties worn with T-shirts and trainers), perhaps reflecting today’s “Greed is Good” Trumpian era. Patrick Bateman, the great sartorial bellwether of the 1990s, is back, after all, with a remake of American Psycho in the offing next year.
One note on the dashing Mr Craig’s hair – it’s rather long and swept up into a quasi-bouffant that lends the appearance of an Eighties morning TV presenter. Keeping it shorn and short on the sides would look more deliberate and a great deal sharper.
Not that we’re in the habit of getting our own knives out about a celebrity’s appearance, just some helpful advice for men in their 50s. Whether you choose to take up the more quietly solemn suiting like Craig is up to you.