Earlier this year, right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saturday Night Live treated us to an exclusive look at No Time To Die…

Well, sort of.

Though the sketch was created to parody James Bond a month before release, the studio ended up postponing the release date to November 2020 and later April 2021. Just the same, we got a valiant attempt from SNL’s wardrobe department at recreating Bond’s look. At first glance, this dinner jacket looks the part. A closer inspection reveals a few differences.

“Craps? I thought your game was selling state secrets.”

As the scene opens, a pastiche of Bond Girls meets our favourite fictional spy in a Las Vegas casino. After exchanging the usual flirtations and threats, Bond casually rolls the dice at the table to punctuate his demand.

Much to his surprise, he wins.

Bond quickly loses sight of both the mission and the woman next to him, humorously whipping off his bow tie and unbuttoning his collar as he begins to perspire. This is, of course, nothing James would actually do in-character. At least without good reason, such as that deadly scene from Casino Royale. But it does bring him down to the level of the more realistic, casually-dressed onlookers at the table. Too bad an open collar doesn’t work with a dinner jacket. Ever. Raf, friend of The Kavalier, elaborates in this video.

The dinner suit

The jacket is, in classic black tie tradition, a single-button front with narrow satin peak lapels. In 24 films, Bond has only messed up by wearing a two-button dinner jacket twice. The buttons and lower pocket jettings are also faced in satin, the latter being a more modern concession that is still more or less correct. The waist button, in line with current trends, is somewhat high, which leaves a rather unattractive triangle of white shirt exposed below. The sleeves have four buttons at the end, and the jacket is a bit tight for Craig. The lapels bow out when buttoned and the upper sleeves dimple slightly under the shoulder. The length is slightly shorter than traditional, like all of his Tom Ford “O’Connor” suits, but the look flatters him well.

The medium-low rise trousers have a flat front, the usual satin stripe, and narrow legs. Like all of his trousers, they have no break. Unfortunately, Bond doesn’t wear braces here. That may have been an oversight since Craig’s Bond has worn them in every movie since Casino Royale.

The dinner suit is obviously not made by Tom Ford, unlike the “Atticus” model seen in No Time To Die. SNL’s wardrobe department has a different “house cut”, unsurprisingly. The clearest giveaways are that Tom Ford has a lower button stance, barchetta breast pocket, and Milanese lapel hole. A $6000 dinner suit is likely not worth the expense for a weekly sketch comedy series. The one he wears is decent and correct in all the basic details, but it’s not quite elevated to James Bond’s usual standards.

The shirt

The shirt is plain white cotton poplin with a semi-spread collar, double cuffs, and a French fly front. Bond has worn a few fly front shirts for black tie, however they’re always the type with a decorative placket. The reason for this is that it looks more symmetrical and adds interest to a shirt without visible buttons or studs. Unfortunately, the shirt doesn’t have a fancy front or self-patterned fabric to bring up the formality, leaving it looking a bit ordinary. A pleated front shirt would have been the better choice.

Holding the cuffs together are standard, hinge-back cufflinks of black onyx set into silver circles. They’re the same style you could get at any department store and nothing special, unlike the double-sided cuff links favoured by well-dressed people like 007.

Bond orders his usual vodka martini… before quickly changing his mind to vodka and Red Bull in a pint glass.

The finishing touches

The bow tie is black satin and rather wide for Craig’s face. Although he’s worn wider bow ties on the red carpet, the costume designers of his five Bond movies always put him in a narrow shape, and with good reason: a narrower bow tie looks better with his face. It also would have looked better with the narrower spread collar on this shirt.

The shoes, which we only see very briefly, appear to be black patent or corrected grain leather oxfords. I certainly hope it’s patent leather. Craig’s Bond usually prefers calf leather, which is an unusual and more modern choice for black tie but still a correct one.

Finishing off the look is a white linen pocket square. Bond wears it with a presidential fold. Bond has consistently worn pocket squares in this style since Quantum of Solace, having last done so 44 years earlier in Goldfinger. Some may call this choice of pocket square boring, but it’s really the only option for James Bond’s black tie attire, so the wardrobe department made a good call here.

The most authentic part of this outfit is its most surprising, probably worth more than everything else he’s wearing combined: The Omega Seamaster from Spectre, complete with the striped NATO band. According to some, watches shouldn’t be worn with black tie, but it is something Bond has done for over 50 years at this point and is true to his character. It works, if for no other reason than its iconic status. It’s not a big stretch to consider the possibility that Craig provided this watch himself, given his 14-year association with the brand.

Bonus

The pistol he draws on the croupier is a stainless steel Walther PPK. This is probably the closest gun SNL’s prop department could furnish for the sketch. Though Bond has only carried it in black throughout the movies, the stainless steel version was used in a promotional shoot for Casino Royale, so one could consider it an Easter egg. A stainless steel Walther PP, the full-size version of the compact PPK, was also held by Timothy Dalton in posters for Licence to Kill.

We get a good view of the shirt here after Bond disposes of the disguised Spectre agent.

Conclusion

Overall, SNL’s wardrobe department did a pretty good job of approximating the James Bond look. While some details aren’t quite up to snuff and the fit could be better, no one would look terribly out of place at a black tie event wearing this. In fact, they might be one of the best-dressed people there.

Make sure that you know what to wear to your next black tie event by following The Kavalier.

Special thanks to my friends Matt Spaiser of Bond Suits and Caleb Daniels of Commando Bond for their help in researching this article.

About the Author

This is a guest post by my friend, the talented style writer Giselle Gauthier. Giselle is a menswear expert and freelance writer who gained an interest in dressing well upon re-watching James Bond movies, researching what makes him so stylish, and later engaging with others in online spaces to learn more. She has written about tailored clothing for over a decade through her blog, Nouveau Vintage, after being inspired by others to share her passion.

Saturday Night Live: The No(t Quite!) Time To Die Dinner Jacket