It's 9:45am. Your line manager emails through today's to-do list: you need to chase the Peruvian ambassador across the rooftops of Marrakech, followed by a swift execution and rendezvous at the extraction point. It's a tough gig. So what does one wear for such a tedious job?
Comfortable, functional gear that allows for big jumps across souks, you'd think. Or luxurious Tom Ford suits, purpose-built for consuming champagne and Ferrero Rochers at said ambassador's residence. James Bond, in his wisdom, would almost always settle for the latter – and until recently, Daniel Craig's turn with the Walther PPK has been no different.
But 007 may have finally got sick of taking his suits to the tailor for repairs, judging by the new posters for No Time To Die. The pared-back portraiture, which landed alongside the trailer for a trailer (yes, that's a thing now), shows Craig in something a lot closer to actual special ops gear, rather than a nice suit.
That meant a ribbed combat jumper, complete with epaulettes and patches, from his favourite knitwear brand, N. Peal. In a nod to the day job there are vents to the boat neck, presumably for comfort when you're getting too close for comfort to Russian people traffickers. Below, cargo trousers. Some Hitman-style strangling gloves. Holsters that look really quite functional (think of them as an update on those crossbody bags that have been unavoidable for past couple of years). And that's, well, it.
All of which is a far cry from the wildy-unsuited-to-the-job wardrobe that's long made James Bond so James Bond. It's fitting, though; Craig's 007 has always carved out a grittier, more realistic path than his safari suit-clad forebears. This look, then, strikes a happy medium between sleek spycraft and the kind of outfit you'd wear for 22 hours sitting in a Fiat Punto, in Crewe, outside the house of someone who recently placed a suspiciously large fertiliser order.
This sharp-meets-practical style extends to his co-stars, too; Lashana Lynch, who's been cast as Nomi, rumoured to be MI6's first female 007, opts for equally sensible Kevlar. Of course, some Bond girls are in evening attire, though the world's greatest super-spies largely avoid satin while on the job.
We can still expect tuxedos, and one-liners, and demolitions, and Rami Malek being all wide-eyed and murderous. That James Bond is still there. Just this time round, he might actually make some of these rooftop leaps without tearing his favourite trousers.
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