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@talos7, I've personally never viewed it as a contradiction, and find the apartment of SP one of the better sets in the history of the films not aesthetically (who would?) but narratively. I think that space tells us much about Bond, if that is how his place looks all the time. I personally think that what we see of his home is him moving back into the place after the events of SF where, as we know, the flat was cleaned out and his stuff sold off when he was assumed to be dead. After reacquiring the location and some of his things, we then find Bond still in the process of getting everything back to normal, as I only place SP a few months after SF. That largely explains the cluttered nature of the place and lack of decoration.
But even if this doesn't hold, the location is distinctly Craig Bond in that it has no refinements. He's not the type of chap I see wasting money on decorations or other vanity items to dot his place, as it has no practical importance or worth and therefore must not be indulged. Adding to this is the assumption that he's likely seldom home and so has no reason to spruce anything up. Even if we see him getting things back from storage in SP and rebuilding his flat, he still wouldn't be the kind of man to put up a lot of decorative items and things of that nature.
I personally don't think Craig Bond's interior decorating style has much bearing on his fashion sense, and certainly don't view it as a contradiction. I think it's inherently human and/or natural for a man to be a decent dresser (and an individualist in that arena) but also have an unfurnished or even messy home. I think what we can pull from Craig Bond's home furnishings and outward style is a shared principle, that being simplicity. He's a man who dresses in very time-tested colors and doesn't go out of his way to stand out in variations of blue and grey most of the time. He wears what works, and he doesn't get crazy with color or styling (the only extreme is the expense of such items!). In the same token, his home captures that same simplicity of a man who has no need for more than what is necessary, leaving a very barren yet sensible four walls around him that is no more than what you'd expect from a man who has no need for impressing or dressing up his home.
And I would run a garage with classes on the history of Bond cars and instructions on how to turn your car into one.
THIS. Well said!
Exactly, @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
I was also reminded of George Clooney's apartment in Up in the Air. It was sparse and merely served as a place to sleep when not working. I liked that SP showed something quite different than in DN and LALD. DC's Bond doesn't exactly have a home...because he doesn't have much of a life, either.
Let's also not forget what Vesper said on the train (that seemed to ring true): the clothes are his way of covering up his own perceived inadequacies. He wouldn't need to do this with his flat: nobody's going to see it.
I do like that aspect of Bond's character, that the suits and the formality and everything else are things he does out of necessity, but not exactly out of like or familiarity. When he's in scenes with governmental suits, like the corrupt officials of QoS or even the inquiry board of SF, he doesn't fit in at all because he's nothing like them. He puts on the suit and blends in aesthetically, but he still feels somewhat like a workman dressing up to play with the elites, which is exactly how he should be. Bond's work gets him brushing shoulders with a lot of types, some upper crust or simply influential and powerful, and in contrast he should always feel like the man of the people, the agent on the ground who stands up for the regular Joe or Jane when those above him aren't concerned about their wellbeing.
Whenever I see Dan's Bond in scenes with the MI6 associates or those of foreign governments, he always feels like the odd man out and very much "one of us." I'd say that same thing goes for most if not all of the other Bonds as well, even Roger's who admittedly often dressed like a high level official or aristocrat.
This is a flat that he crashes in, perhaps taking another married woman back there to have fun with, then forgetting about her as he puts her on the first bus back home the following morning...
There are two wine glasses in his home, used and uncleaned... I can see his married mistress being his drinking companion the night before...
When he arrives in Morocco he is wearing the Matchless jacket, blue polo, chinos and desert boots. The only difference between the 1st outfit and the 2nd outfit he wears on the train is he changes his polo for a blue shirt (Train outfit: Matchless Jacket, blue shirt, chinos and desert boots) and the outfit he wears at the train station keeps the same trousers and boots and changes what he is wearing on top (Station outfit: Blazer, white shirt, tie, chinos and desert boots).
So in fact apart from the White Tuxedo, he mixes and matches 2 jackets, 3 shirts, a tie, one pair of chinos and one pair of boots. Perfectly reasonable packing I would think:-)