Before the tuxedo, before the dinner jacket, before even the first shaken martini — there was the man who understood how it should all look.
Behind the scenes with Sean Connery and director Terence Young on location in the Bahamas during the filming of Thunderball (1965)
Credit: Terry Hine
Terence Young did not simply direct Bond. He defined him.
Much has been written of his influence on tailoring — how he introduced Sean Connery to the discipline of Savile Row through his personal tailor, Anthony Sinclair, aiding The Birth of the Conduit Cut.
Anthony Sinclair; Terence Young's personal tailor and creator of the Conduit Cut.
And of course, The Return of the Cocktail Cuff Shirt — an affectation lifted directly from Young’s own wardrobe and quietly immortalised on screen.
Terence Young and Sean Connery behind the camera. Thunderball (1965)
Photo: Album
But Bond was never confined to Mayfair.
In the heat of the Bahamas during the filming of Thunderball, Young appears not in a suit, but in something altogether more instructive: a gingham check Camp Collar Shirt, open at the neck, paired with Cool-Ray N135 Sunglasses.
Terence Young stylishly directs Martine Beswick, Sean Connery and Claudine Auger
Credit: Terry Hine
It is an off-duty look — but only in the loosest sense.
Where others might have surrendered to the climate, Young adapts to it. The structure remains, only softened. The collar rolls open rather than standing to attention; the cloth breathes; the pattern — gingham — retains a quiet order. Even here, there is intent.
This is not casualwear. It is controlled ease.
Sean Connery gets the look
The camp collar shirt — so often reduced to something louche or overly nostalgic — was, in Young’s hands, precise. Cut cleanly, worn simply, and never overworked.
There is a direct line from this moment on the beach to what would become a staple of Bond’s off-duty wardrobe: shirts that suggest relaxation, but never abandon discipline.
Then there are the sunglasses.
Auger, Connery and Young relax between takes
Credit: Terry Hine
The Cool Ray N135 — worn by both director and star — offer something more than protection from the Caribbean sun. They sharpen the face, impose a geometry, a clarity. Much like the Conduit Cut suit, they frame the man.
Young understood that accessories were not afterthoughts. They were architecture.
What emerges from these behind-the-scenes moments is something quietly radical: Bond as a complete proposition.
Sean Connery wearing Cool-Ray N135 sunglasses, Camp Collar shirt and Jantzen swim shorts in Thunderball (1965)
Credit: Collection Christophel
Not simply a man in a dinner jacket, but a man who dresses with consistency — whether in Mayfair, Nassau, or somewhere in between.
And at every stage, there is Young.
Teaching Connery how to walk, how to speak, how to wear a suit — and, just as importantly, how to remove it.