Daniel Craig debuts new fashion look as James Bond star features in Loewe campaign

It’s three years since his final James Bond film and Daniel Craig seems keen to show he has left his suave spy persona well and truly behind.

The 56-year-old British actor, is hard to recognise as he models for luxury fashion brand Loewe. Indeed the former 007 appears to have taken his cue from fashion villain, the Ken Done-inspired Kel Knight from Kath and Kim.

Instead of a clean-shaven look with short back and sides, he sports stubble and much longer hair which appears to have been dyed brown and then brushed over to one side with a parting.

Looking more like Iggy Pop than a MI6 agent, Craig’s attire, too, is a novelty compared to his familiar tuxedo.

Craig wears informal styles in bright colours for the fashion house’s autumn-winter season.

They include a jazzy green-and-brown sweater matched with a brown man bag and jeans with his wide belt undone while appearing to pull a funny face. In other shots, Craig stares at the camera in another patterned jumper and wears vivid trousers paired with a $1200 pale blue shirt and $1150 black trainers. Loewe’s plain wool jumpers start at about $1600.

“Craig brings to life the work of artist Richard Hawkins, who inspired the collection, through a collage of personalities,” the brand said in a statement. “He wears the knitted jumpers, the cargos, the leather blousons but also the boots, trainers and embroidered pants that are key, Americana-inflected pieces of the collection, with much bravado and a confrontational stance.”

“Hawkins’ work merges pop cultural and historical figures and emblems into a vibrant, distinctive aesthetic.

“With its crude directness, the campaign is a study on how characters and their clothes are intimately related.”

Melbourne Vintage fashion dealer James Nolen told the Sydney Morning Herald patterned knitwear was in high demand.

“People are now looking beyond the bright colours and at quality that lasts with these statement pieces,” he said.

Craig’s latest film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery also features the longer-haired look as he plays detective Benoit Blanc in the mystery franchise.