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James Bond’s Beach Suitcase – Sean Connery Edition

Nick (luckystrike721)
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Sean Connery with Claudine Auger in the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball (1965), which was set in the Bahamas.

Vitals

Sean Connery as James Bond, British secret agent

Nassau, Summer 1965

Film: Thunderball
Release Date: December 29, 1965
Director: Terence Young

Background

Bond: Sir, I respectfully suggest that you assign me to Nassau.
M: Is there a reason besides your enthusiasm for water sports?

You really can’t blame James Bond for eagerly volunteering to take on MI6’s post in the Bahamas. Of all of Sean Connery’s early 007 adventures, Thunderball always struck me as the most aspirational, perfectly blending adventure, danger, style, and wit with the necessary Bond elements of exotic surroundings, clever gadgets, and a bevy of international beauties. Lurking threat of nuclear disaster aside, Thunderball presents the ideal summer holiday.

To celebrate the summer solstice, I’m somewhat departing from the usual BAMF Style format for a feature that highlights the best of Bond’s warm-weather duds… and where you can find them today to pack for your own beach vacation.

What to Pack

007’s pro tip: Think pink and blue with a touch of neutral sand tones as needed. Shirts should be short-sleeved with camp collars, shorts should be short, and everything should go well with a pair of espadrilles.

For purposes of practicality and ease, this feature will focus solely on the warm-weather casual wear worn by Sean Connery during his tenure as James Bond, mostly centered around Thunderball and Mr. Bond’s timeless dressed-down wardrobe for a mission in the Bahamas.

NB: Originally published June 2018, all links are reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Latest update: May 20, 2021
If linked products are unavailable as you’re reading this, you can still use the details as a guide to researching and finding your own Bond-inspired beach gear.
Items I own (and, thus, can personally endorse!) are marked with a light blue asterisk(*).

Shirts

During the Connery era through the 1960s, James Bond’s preferred top for warm-weather casual-wear was a short-sleeved sport shirt, made from a light, breathable fabric like linen or summer-weight cotton and detailed with a sporty one-piece camp collar and a “convenient pocket”.

Pink linen camp shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with light blue linen short-inseam swimming trunks and Rolex Submariner on a striped NATO strap.

Pink Linen Camp Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Enjoying a refreshing boozy drink by the waterside with a lovely new acquaintance.

The details:

Now that we know Tommy Bahama is a Bond-approved brand—per Daniel Craig’s Jamaican-dwelling 007 in No Time to Die—it’s no surprise to see this Seattle-based island-themed outfitter offer some of the best examples of alternatives for what may be Bond’s most popular beach shirt! (As of summer 2021, at least…)

Where to find similar shirts:

Pink-and-white gingham camp shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with pink linen short-inseam swimming trunks, black sunglasses, and Rolex Submariner on a striped NATO strap.

Pink-and-White Gingham Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Romantic rendezvous on the beach after a private swim

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Blue-and-white gingham camp shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with light blue linen short-inseam swimming trunks.

Blue-and-White Gingham Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Helicopter ride over the ocean

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Slate blue-striped camp shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with cream linen trousers, brown leather sandals, and steel Breitling Top Time dive watch.
007 holds Largo’s Remington 1100 semi-automatic shotgun, though there’s no good reason you’d need one of these for a beach getaway… depending on what kind of getaway it is, of course.

White-and-Slate Striped Camp Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Lunch and cocktails on a private island estate

The details:

Shirts directly inspired by Connery’s Thunderball shirt:

Where to find similar shirts:

Blue silky short-sleeve camp shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with matching flat-front trousers (ill-advised) and a NATO-strapped Rolex Submariner soon to be replaced with a Breitling Top Time geiger-counter watch.

Blue Three-Pocket Camp Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Shopping… and running into an old friend

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Tan linen camp shirt in You Only Live Twice (1967), worn with brown linen trousers and brown leather sandals.

Tan Linen Camp Shirt

As seen in: You Only Live Twice (1967)

The situation: An earthier day spent further inland

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Sean Connery first shows his face in Diamonds are Forever (1971) wearing this super-’70s sportswear consisting of a safari-inspired terry shirt and tonal slacks.

Off-White Terrycloth Shirt
Newly added for 2021!

As seen in: Diamonds are Forever (1971)

The situation: A salacious stop on the beach

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Navy cotton Fred Perry polo shirt in Thunderball (1965), worn with white short-inseam swim trunks, Rolex Submariner dive watch on undersized NATO strap, and light blue canvas espadrilles.

Navy Fred Perry-branded Polo Shirt

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: A nighttime ride

The details:

Where to find similar shirts:

Swimwear

Sean Connery in his light blue linen Jantzen swim trunks, flanked by co-stars Claudine Auger and Martine Beswick, on location in the Bahamas for Thunderball (1965).

Short-inseam swimming trunks

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The details:

Where to find blue trunks:

Where to find pink trunks:

Where to find white trunks:

If you get trunks that have belt loops but no belt, pick up a black nylon web belt with a plastic buckle (like this) to complete the Connery-inspired look!

Trousers

Cream linen trousers in Thunderball (1965), worn with a white-and-slate blue striped camp shirt, brown leather sandals, and Breitling Top Time dive watch.

Cream Linen Trousers

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The situation: Lunch and cocktails on a private island estate

The details:

Where to find it:

Brown linen trousers in You Only Live Twice (1967), worn with tan linen camp shirt and brown leather sandals.

Brown Linen Trousers

As seen in: You Only Live Twice (1967)

The situation: An earthier day spent further inland

The details:

Where to find it:

Footwear

No socks needed!

Light blue canvas espadrilles in Thunderball (1965), featured on screen as Bond disarms a thug of his Beretta pistol.

Blue Espadrilles

As seen in: Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965)

The details:

Where to find them:

Brown leather sandals in Thunderball (1965), featured on screen as Bond hands Domino’s yellow towel to her.

Brown Buckle-Strap Leather Sandals

As seen in: Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967)

The details:

Where to find them:

Accessories

Sean Connery sports a pair of black rectangular-framed sunglasses in Thunderball (1965)

Black Rectangular Sunglasses

As seen in: Thunderball (1965)

The details:

The online Bond fan community has invested considerable time and arguments into the discussion of who exactly made Sean Connery’s über-cool shades in Thunderball. The big names like Persol and Ray-Ban are easily ruled out, with the most likely contender being the Polaroid Cool-Ray N135, though some still insist upon the Oliver Goldsmith “Consul” model. (Check out Iconic Alternatives for specific evidence in favor of the Polaroid!)

Where to find them:

Straw hat and sunglasses in Thunderball (1965), worn with Bond’s ill-advised matching blue shirt and pants combo.

Straw Pork Pie Hat

Bond’s flat crown indicates that his hat is of the “pork pie” style rather than the pinched crown of a trilby or fedora.

Keep in mind that genuine straw is expensive  but often worth it, especially when compared to its lesser “paper straw” cousins.

The details:

Where to get it:

Sean Connery wears 007’s classic Rolex Submariner 6538 on a striped NATO strap in Thunderball (1965), just as he had the previous year in Goldfinger (1964).

Dive Watch on NATO Strap

As seen in: Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965)

The details:

Though 007 is issued a Breitling Top-Time pilot watch with a geiger counter function, the Rolex Submariner 6538 is the classic Bond watch, not to mention that a dive watch is more apropos the beach setting and the NATO strap would be far more comfortable on your wrist on a hot sunny day than the metal pilot-style bracelet of the Breitling.

Rolex discontinued production of the ref. 6538 Submariner in 1961, four years before Thunderball was even made.

If you want the real deal, you either need to get lucky or plan on spending a pretty penny either for a classic Rolex or a newer evolution of the Submariner, like the 6538’s spiritual successor, the non-date ref. 114060. Luckily, budget-driven shoppers are not devoid of options…

Where to find the watch:

Where to get NATO straps:

Sleepwear

White cotton pajama pants in Dr. No (1962)… Bond’s only armor when fighting off a deadly tarantula.

White cotton pajama pants

As seen in: Dr. No (1962)

The details:

Where to get similar pajama pants:

Where to get white pajama sets that include similar pants:

What Else to Pack

Let’s assume you plan on leaving your Walther PPK at home and focus instead on some of the other essentials of Bond’s travel: books and booze.

Even Sean Connery doesn’t let an exotic island location interfere with his reading plans! The light blue trunks he wore for this photo session on the set of Woman of Straw (not Thunderball) inspired Sunspel to create its first swim shorts for men.

Literature

In the novels, Ian Fleming focused much more on Bond’s reading habits, providing his own readers with a solid glimpse of what was on 007’s bookshelf. Assuming that instructional guides about golf, genealogy, and card-playing aren’t your idea of the ideal summer reads, check out this list of Bond-inspired reading material:

Libations

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Bond’s tried-and-true Vodka Martini. The preferred ingredients of the Connery era appear to be:

For proportions, the six-to-one ratio of vodka to vermouth as stipulated in Live and Let Die will serve you well: six parts vodka, one part vermouth, shaken with ice until it’s ice-cold, and poured into a a chilled martini glass.

After sending a hapless henchmen on his way, Bond eagerly mixes a martini for himself. Whether or not this feckless Felix (Rik Van Nutter) will get a cocktail is well has been lost to time… or the editing room floor.

Now, the more beach-friendly option: the Rum Collins. Bond is served this refreshing Caribbean alternative to the venerable Tom Collins cocktail before his lunch with the villainous Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) at Palmyra, Largo’s Bahamian estate.

The Tom Collins first emerged in the United States in the late 19th century, recorded by “father of American mixology” Jerry Thomas in his 1876 edition of Bartender’s Guide. Little has changed in the preparation of the Tom Collins in the last century and a half, and the basic ingredients are gin, sugar, soda water, and lemon.

The Rum Collins replaces the original cocktail’s gin with light rum, delivering a more tropic-friendly flavor. The rum is up to you, though Daniel Craig’s order of Mount Gay and soda in Casino Royale makes the aromatic Mount Gay Silver a reasonable choice. Since Largo’s bartender doesn’t share his secrets with the audience, we have only the expert word of the Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide to guide us in the actual concoction…

Ingredients:

Shake the rum, lime juice, and sugar or syrup in an ice-filled shaker, then strain into a tall, chilled Collins glass. Add a few more ice cubes to ensure it’s cold, fill the mixture with club soda, and stir. The finishing touch à la Largo? Garnish with a slice of lemon and a maraschino cherry.

A courteous lunch guest always accepts a Rum Collins from his host… even if said host is a pompous megalomaniac.

Can’t live without brown liquor? Blended Scotch whisky seems to serve Bond’s needs in the film series’ tropical settings, beginning with Black & White in Dr. No and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label that shows up in Paula Kaplan’s hotel room in Thunderball. Decades later, Daniel Craig’s exiled Bond swigs Macallan while living the island life, but one suspects the influences of product placement at work than an earnest reflection of Fleming’s original character.

The Quote

Bond: My dear, uncooperative Domino.
Domino: How do you know that? How do you know my friends call me Domino?
Bond: It’s on the bracelet on your ankle.
Domino: So… what sharp little eyes you’ve got.
Bond: Wait ’til you get to my teeth.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Watch Thunderball, the high water mark (if you’ll excuse the pun) of Bond’s beach-going style. Sir Sean’s other beach-friendly Bond flicks cited in this post include You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.

Make this year’s beach vacation one to remember!

Looking for more? Iconic Alternatives lives up to its name with countless options to channel Bond’s attire across all price points, from his revere-collared sport shirts and swim trunks to sunglasses and espadrilles.

Have you found other items that help you channel 007’s style at the beach? Share in the comments below!

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