'Quantum' Costume Design By Louise Frogley

QUANTUM COSTUME DESIGN BY LOUISE FROGLEY
Costume designer discusses dressing Daniel Craig and the other ‘Solace’ stars

Costume designer Louise Frogley talks about working with director Marc Forster to create the right look for Quantum of Solace. “I hadn’t worked with Marc before so I had to learn his taste so that the costumes would feel right to him. I would show him everything I did right from the beginning; I just kept sharing everything with him until I understood what he wanted. He is extremely respectful of all the people that work with him, he really likes ideas to be offered up. Our ideas give him a feeling for what he wants and we can go ahead and do it. It’s a very exciting time.”

Renowned designer Tom Ford was chosen to supply all Bond’s suits in Quantum of Solace. “We arrived at Tom Ford for Daniel’s suits because I wanted something very sleek and extremely well cut and Tom Ford uses a prestigious Factory in Italy. I wanted something that was beautiful and elegant that would remind us of the type of suit Sean Connery wore in the early Bond films. I think Tom Ford is a genius, he just got it, he understood what we needed and that why I wanted to use him. They worked so hard to get what we wanted, he sent somebody to Italy just to track down a particular material for us. I wanted to use ‘mohair tonic’ for the suits. It is very difficult to find because it is a sixties fabric and I am quite sure Sean Connery would have worn it in at least one of his suits. It is a very strange material but it films beautifully, it’s just lovely. Not only did we want a very rare material but we needed a huge quantity because we had to make so many suits. Tom Ford found it for us.”

‘In some cases, Bond could go through 24 hours in the same clothes having been blown up, shot out of a plane and stranded in the desert.’ –Louise Frogley

Daniel’s suits in the film have a very specific cut. “These suits don’t have belts, they have side adjusters and they are higher on the waist, the trousers are narrow and there are no pleats. The jackets are single breasted, two buttoned with a narrow lapel and as narrow a shoulder as possible for a man that is as muscular as Daniel. They are extremely waisted and slightly flared out in the skirt part of the jacket so there is some movement. They give a lovely silhouette.”

Quantum of Solace

Frogley explains how she approaches a project of this size with so many locations to consider, “Firstly, you have to read the script and figure out how many costume changes there are for a character. Then what will happen to the character whilst he/she is wearing each costume. In some cases, Bond could go through 24 hours in the same clothes having been blown up, shot out of a plane and stranded in the desert. I have to predict how the clothes will look after certain events happen that we may not have shot yet. It is quite a delicate balancing act–too much or too little just won’t work. I go through it with the stunt coordinator and do as much research as possible about what is likely to happen to the clothes. It is very important because you are trying to put the story together–the more information you can gather, the better equipped you are to do that.

“Working with Daniel is really good because he knows his body incredibly well and he knows when something looks right. There is nothing better than an actor like that. I put him in a Y-3 jacket, he looked great–he knew it and I knew it, I put him in a pair of Staypress trousers and they were just perfect. Often you can put clothes on and they are OK but every now and again you get something that is fabulous and with an actor like Daniel, you can just go for it.”

‘I put him in a Y-3 jacket, he looked great–he knew it and I knew it, I put him in a pair of Staypress trousers and they were just perfect.’ –Louise Frogley on dressing Daniel Craig

For the party scene in Panama, Louise Frogley wanted a contemporary look for Camille (played by Olga Kurylenko) and Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton). “We dressed both the girls in Prada for the party scene. It is not like we did a deal with Prada, it just worked out that way. The dresses were very simple but elegant and they were just perfect for the characters and the look I was going for.” Olga’s character has to jump out of a plane in the costume worn at Greene’s glamorous fundraising party. Frogley and her team had originally thought they would have to dress her in a trouser suit, but that didn’t feel right to Frogley, “I realized we were designing the costume to fit the stunts and it seemed to me we were putting the cart before the horse. People took it for granted that it had to be a certain way but when we actually looked at it carefully we questioned why we were designing a trouser suit with arms for a glamorous party set in a hot country–it didn’t make sense. So in the end, Camille goes to the party in a fantastic black Prada dress, NOT a trouser suit!”

Frogley describes how she uses costume to add another layer to the storytelling process, choosing clothes that reflect the character. “I wanted the bad guys to be eccentric but not intrusive. If you notice the clothes, they are a little off but it doesn’t hit you over the head. With Anatole [Taubman] I used a Chrome Hearts medallion for Elvis. It is a rather spooky chrome doll. Anatole really liked it and I think it helped him in some way to develop Elvis’ character.”

‘You have to have a really good grip on who is wearing what, when and where and then you work it out backwards.’ –Louise Frogley

Quantum of Solace filmed in more locations than any other Bond film to date with big set pieces in each local. Frogley explains how she approached the challenge. “First of all you have to have a really good grip on who is wearing what, when and where and then you work it out backwards. You see what you don’t have, where the holes are. When you are working on location, you have to decide if you think you can fill those gaps in the countries you will be working in. I always have what I call ‘the mother ship’ back in England who can send materials to me if necessary. On Quantum of Solace, I actually found lovely evening dresses in Panama which we used for Tosca Opera scenes in Bregenz, Austria. The Panamanians like to go out a lot but don’t want to spend a lot of money, so it was ideal for dresses. Then I topped them up with more dresses from Angels in London, mixed it up a bit and I think it worked really well.”

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