THE JOURNAL
It was a full six decades ago this year that the world’s most famous secret agent, James Bond, made his cinematic debut with 1962’s Dr No. But he isn’t the only one blowing out the candles this year. The German luxury sportswear brand BOGNER, which has long-established links with the Bond franchise, is passing an even bigger milestone with its 90th anniversary.
The convergence of these two major events, not to mention the shared history between the two brands, is being celebrated with BOGNER 007, a capsule collection of co-branded skiwear, ski hardware and accessories rendered in a sleek black-and-red colourway that 007 himself would surely approve of.
Highlights of the capsule include a down-filled quilted hoodie in black with a sharp red contrast stripe running along the spine and hood, a pair of multi-pocket ski trousers with bonded seams, and, our personal favourite, a full ski suit. We can see ourselves heli-dropping into Blofeld’s Alpine lair in that one.
It’s easy to be cynical about fashion-meets-movie collaborations, especially when they involve a franchise with such huge mainstream appeal. But BOGNER 007 is no cynical marketing tie-in. The two brands share a partnership that goes all the way back to 1969, just seven years after the very first Bond film, when the son of BOGNER’s founder, Mr Willy Bogner Jr, was hired by the Broccoli family to film the ski action sequences for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
A champion skier, Bogner Jr was also keen amateur filmmaker who, earlier that decade, had released the short ski movie Skifaszination. For which, he had mastered the art of skiing at high speed – and often backwards, using skis that were pointed at the front and back – while carrying an Arri film camera between his legs. It was a skill that would prove critical in capturing a particularly ambitious action sequence that took place on a downhill bobsled track.
Bogner Jr’s masterful work on the film was enough to justify him being hired on three further occasions by the Bond producers, most notably for the opening sequence of 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, which ended with the iconic shot of James Bond skiing off a mountainside and opening a Union Flag parachute – a moment that perfectly encapsulated the playful spirit of 1970s-era Bond movies.
“Playful” is a word that serves rather well to describe this new capsule collection, too, which launched in typically Bogner-esque fashion this month with a high-production ski action film shot on the Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland; you can watch it now on YouTube (and yes, there are parachutes).
In fact, the entire BOGNER brand is shot through with a generous dose of fun. Yes, it’s luxurious, and yes, it offers premium performance. But if you ask us, what really defines BOGNER – and this is something illustrated perfectly by this big, bold 007 collaboration – is the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
And we’ll be channelling that same energy on the slopes this winter, dressed head-to-toe in BOGNER 007, trying our hardest not to hum the Bond theme tune in our heads as we carve up the pistes. Dun-dududun-dun, dun-dun-dun, dun-dududun-dun, dun-dun-dun, DER-DER….DERDERDER!