Short Sleeve Knitted Henley Shirt

In No Time to Die’s Matera prologue, James Bond wears the Anderson & Sheppard Short Sleeve Knitted Henley Shirt during the lovers’ walk after arriving in southern Italy with Madeleine Swann. Filmed in Matera, with additional nearby work in Gravina in Puglia and on the Basilicata coast, the sequence comes before Bond’s visit to Vesper Lynd’s grave detonates the story into violence. Editors Tom Cross and Elliot Graham have described the extended Matera opening as essential because the film is, at heart, a love story, and this stretch is its calmest expression: Bond and Madeleine moving through the old hill town as if retirement might actually hold.

The shirt helps define Bond as retired rather than operational. Costume coverage around the film repeatedly notes that Daniel Craig’s wardrobe was made more casual for that phase. Here the Henley’s open neck and abbreviated sleeves soften Craig’s usually armored silhouette, making Bond look less like an agent than a man trying on ordinary intimacy.

Product identification tied to the film also notes that the costume department adapted a long-sleeve Anderson & Sheppard linen Henley by cutting it down for screen use, which suits the improvised ease of this holiday look. Linus Sandgren shot the Italy material in 65mm and said he wanted Matera to feel hot, with each location carrying its own mood. That intention shows in the way the pale Henley catches the sun under the unzipped blue Connolly jacket.

The object

Anderson & Sheppard has been part of Savile Row since 1906, when Per Anderson established the house that would become one of the best-known exponents of the soft English drape. The firm traces that approach to Frederick Scholte’s freer, less militarized tailoring, and Anderson’s partnership with trouser cutter Sidney Horatio Sheppard helped define the house identity. That heritage later extended beyond bespoke suiting: Anderson & Sheppard opened its Mayfair Haberdashery in 2011 to offer understated casual clothing alongside its tailoring tradition. The Short Sleeve Knitted Henley Shirt translates that house preference for ease into warm-weather knitwear. In its current off-white form, it is a lightweight, fully fashioned 100% linen piece made in Italy, finished with a two-button collarless neck, mother-of-pearl buttons, and ribbed trims.

Anderson & Sheppard’s own linen Henley range also notes the relaxed fit and breathable knitted texture, details that explain why the shirt reads more polished than a jersey T-shirt while remaining unmistakably casual. For No Time to Die, Bond clothing researchers and specialist Bond style sites agree that the shirt seen on Daniel Craig in Matera was not originally a factory-made short-sleeve model but a long-sleeve Anderson & Sheppard linen Henley altered by the costume department, with the sleeves cut down for the scene.

On screen, it appears under Bond’s navy Connolly jacket during the hotel sequence with Madeleine Swann, giving the look a softer, holiday-weight counterpart to the film’s more structured tailoring. That production backstory has only sharpened collector interest. The retail short-sleeve version became the nearest official analogue to the modified film costume, and Anderson & Sheppard has continued to offer short-sleeve knitted linen Henleys in seasonal colors, including off-white. For Bond enthusiasts, that keeps the piece unusually attainable: not a replica, but a house-made continuation of the exact Henley line tied to the film.