Tagged: Layer Cake
Layer Cake – Rust Brown Chalkstripe Jacket and Jeans
Daniel Craig in Layer Cake (2004).
Vitals
Daniel Craig as an unnamed London drug dealer (the credits call him “XXXX”)
London, Summer 2004
Film: Layer Cake
Release Date: October 1, 2004
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
Background
The outset of Layer Cake introduces its unnamed central character, a shrewd, young drug dealer played by Daniel Craig with a level of stoic cool that argues the film as a potential “audition” of sorts for Craig eventually taking the 007 mantle.
To drive the Bond point home, Craig’s character meets with fellow villains to announce his retirement at the Stoke Poges Golf Club, the venerable setting for Bond’s iconic golf match against Auric Goldfinger forty years earlier. Continue reading
The Cream Suit in Layer Cake
SPOILER ALERT! Some photos in this post sorta give things away out of necessity. If you’re familiar with the film, great. If you’re not… eh, maybe wait a bit before reading this one.
Daniel Craig in Layer Cake (2004).
Vitals
Daniel Craig as an unnamed London drug dealer (“XXXX”, for simplicity’s sake)
London, Summer 2004
Film: Layer Cake
Release Date: October 1, 2004
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
Background
As summer comes to a close, so will the seasonal focus on how to wear a good summer suit. There have been a range of styles, from fashion-forward mod suits (Michael Caine in The Italian Job) to double-breasted three-piece affairs (J.J. Gittes and Chalky White).
At the end of Layer Cake, Dan Craig has effectively negotiated the dangerous London drug underworld to announce his retirement, even with the prospect of taking over staring him in the face. Unlike so many gangsters – both real and cinematic – “XXXX” decides he’s made enough and had enough, and he chooses to retire and drive off into the sunset (or the afternoon sun) with his new girlfriend. Unfortunately, he may have made one careless mistake too many… Continue reading
Layer Cake’s Dark Blue Pinstripe Jacket
Daniel Craig in Layer Cake (2004).
Vitals
Daniel Craig as an unnamed London drug dealer (but we can call him “XXXX”)
London, Summer 2004
Film: Layer Cake
Release Date: October 1, 2004
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
Background
As I mentioned in the last Layer Cake post, this British crime drama (some could call it a black comedy) was seen as Daniel Craig’s “audition tape” for the role of Bond. He was a sharply-dressed, sympathetically violent, and stoic Londoner who differed from Bond only by being a gangster instead of a secret agent. Continue reading
Layer Cake
Daniel Craig in Layer Cake (2004).
Seeing as the stoner holiday of 4/20 is coming up this weekend, it’s only appropriate that BAMF Style profiles a cinematic drug dealer. However, the classy “businessman” of Layer Cake is hardly the traditional dealer…
Vitals
Daniel Craig as an unnamed London drug dealer
London, Summer 2004
Film: Layer Cake
Release Date: October 1, 2004
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
Background
Layer Cake could almost be called Daniel Craig’s test drive as Bond. While more timid than the infamous spy (“I hate guns! Although that one is very pretty…”), he plays a cunning, manipulative, and cheeky anti-hero with a conflicting but specific set of morals. He also has a pretty sharp wardrobe without resorting to Bond’s dinner jacket and martini trope. Also, much like Bond, he gets to enjoy a steamy mid-day hotel room tryst with a femme fatale, until he is rudely interrupted of course.
However, there is one major difference glaring between Daniel Craig in Layer Cake and Daniel Craig as Bond. In Layer Cake, he plays a criminal. A drug dealer, to be exact. Now, he is a drug dealer with morals, but still, I think we can all agree that drug dealing is a profession Bond would look down upon. Although, as Dan himself tells us in the film’s narration…
I’m not a gangster, just a businessman. And my commodity happens to be cocaine.