The Oscar-winning costume designer who picked out Daniel Craig’s now-iconic electric blue Casino Royale swimming trunks has revealed she took a souvenir pair home.
Lindy Hemming, 75, who has fitted out characters from Batman to Lara Croft admitted to having a stash of props she has squirrelled away while reflecting on her illustrious behind-the-lens career.
Casino Royale was Hemming’s fourth Bond film, after she worked on all four Pierce Brosnan outings as 007, and she has recalled being the one to pick out the La Perla trunks sported by Craig for his crowd-pleasing sea scene in the 2006 film, after a fitting with the actor and 63-year-old Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, 63.
Hemming told The Daily Telegraph: “After much enjoyment with Barbara and him, we fixed on them. Nobody told him what he had to wear, but I think both of us were quite persuasive.”
As a thank you for immortalising the trunks in what is considered a classic Bond moment, La Perla gifted Hemming one of the pairs as a souvenir.Hemming has designed costumes for West End productions as well as Hollywood blockbusters, and began her career in the 1970s.In 1983, she began a collaboration with British filmmaker Mike Leigh that would lead her to the Oscars in 2000.
Daniel Craig’s ‘Ursula Andress moment’ in ‘Casino Royale’— (Eon Productions)
After costume designing Leigh’s TV movie Meantime, starring Marion Bailey, she reunited with the director a further four times, and earnt an Oscar for her work on Leigh’s Gilbert and Sullivan drama Topsy-Turvy (1999).
But it’s Hemmings’ work on Bond that might be considered her most enduring thanks to a scene showing what she calls his “Ursula Andress moment”.
Hemming’s latest work can be seen in Paul King’s Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet, 27, as a young version of the chocolate factory owner.
Chalamet stars in Wonka alongside Hugh Grant, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Lucas, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Olivia Colman.In The Independent‘s four-star review of the film, critic Clarisse Loughrey says Chalamaet “is a bit miscast” in the “otherwise magical” Roald Dahl prequel.
Hemming, whose previous credits include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Dark Knight, previously worked with King on the first two Paddington films – but has not returned for forthcoming sequel, Paddington in Peru, which is being released on 8 November 2024.
