So how do you push that Bond mystique into the 21st century when Savile Row bespoke is a mouse click away and GPS-enabled iPhones make Q's arsenal of gadgetry seem quaint by comparison? For "Quantum of Solace," the 22nd movie in the series and the first in 13 years with a new costume designer, part of the answer lies in the wardrobe -- which includes a collection of razor-sharp, made-to-measure suits by Tom Ford that turn out to be the perfect workaday uniform for Daniel Craig's dapper but deadly take on the Bond character.

Thus, one of Bond's coolest secret weapons this time around is a small button tab inside the cuff of each trouser leg that never has a second of screen time, and whose sole purpose is to keep 007's pant legs precisely where they should be. Another is the suit jacket sleeves with functioning buttonholes (another hardly noticeable detail that conveys a sense of sartorial high status). And then there are the suit fabrics themselves, which have a soft drape and almost imperceptible iridescence that took six months of fine-tuning to get just right.

Ford's sartorial genius is not merely abstract. To put it concretely, the suits must be cut so that sexy Daniel Craig can run, jump, and blow things up while still looking dashing. Ford's suits have a "roomy skirt" - the part of a suit jacket hanging below the waist - that enables such maneuvers.

That far exceeds the $60M which Hollywood expected. It's also blows away by 73% the $40.8M North American weekend debut of Daniel Craig's James Bond in MGM/Sony's Casino Royale (November 2006), and easily beats the $47.1M bow of Die Another Day (November 2002) that used to be the best ever. Quantum's success must be due to either pent-up demand for Hollywood's holiday season product or Daniel Craig's new-found popularity or both. Because the new Bond-as-Bourne's reviews were dismal (only 35% positive from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes as opposed to 95% for its predecessor). But it appears this 22nd Bond's delayed U.S. debut -- three weeks after its October 31st bow in the UK and two weeks after most of the world -- proved to be a savvy distribution and marketing move for the new pic. Even though U.S. Bond fans have been bitching and moaning all over the Internet that they didn't want to wait so long to see the film, which so far has made a staggering $251M internationally from 73 territories, or $322M worldwide. The pic is over halfway towards Casino Royale's global $599.2M after coming off a $126.5M weekend overseas. And it has yet to open in Japan, Australia and Spain.