Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002)

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of when The Bourne Identity was widely released, check out this comprehensive breakdown of how Matt Damon’s style as the amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne, née David Webb, evolved over the course of the original Bourne trilogy and was updated a decade later in Jason Bourne.

Unlike his fellow J.B.-named super-spy, Bourne never dressed to impress, instead favoring a more subdued and utilitarian wardrobe consistent with the “gray man” philosophy of blending in, specifically in urban environments like the European capitals where he evades his one-time CIA overlords.

If you’re interested in seeing a more ’80s take on Bourne, check out my posts about the 1988 miniseries The Bourne Identity, starring Richard Chamberlain in a two-part series that more closely adhered to Robert Ludlum’s source novel. The saga was also briefly spun off into The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner as Bourne’s fellow agent Aaron Cross.

The Bourne Identity

Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: June 14, 2002
Director: Doug Liman
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud

From Recovery at Sea to Switzerland

After the bullet-ridden Jason Bourne is pulled from the Mediterranean Sea and nursed back to the health by a group of Italian fishermen, he wears their borrowed clothing that doesn’t necessarily reflect how the character himself would choose to dress. The size dissonance between the hardy fisherman and the lean, athletic Bourne also results in their oversized puffer jacket and sea-eaten sweater generally enveloping him, presenting the image of a man out of his depth as he searches fo answers about his identity.

After two weeks at sea with the fishermen who pulled him from the water, Bourne arrives on the Italian coast and prepares to follow the trail of his mysterious identity to Switzerland.

Bourne doesn’t begin wearing anything of his own until he gets to Zurich and finds a stainless quartz-powered TAG Heuer chronograph in his safe deposit box… as well as a gun, cash, and passports for different identities. He bags all but the gun, straps on the watch, and gradually becomes he man he forgot he had been.

Bourne scales the U.S. Embassy in Zurich, stripped down to the torn sweater borrowed from the fishermen but now wearing his own TAG Heuer Link Chronograph.

The Clothes:

• Dark red polyester down jacket with red-zip front, slanted zip side pockets, elasticized cuffs, and black lining
• Ochre hand-knitted quarter-zip mock-neck sweater with brass-finished zip pull
• Dark brown zip-up/velcro-front rainproof jacket with zip-fastening hip pockets & hood
• Brown and navy Breton-striped cotton long-sleeve boat-neck T-shirt
• Slate-gray cotton flat-front work trousers with belt loops, on-seam side pockets, mitred back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather Timberland Euro Hiker boots with metal D-ring eyelets, black textured rubber rand, and lugged black rubber soles
• Olive green cotton sleeveless “A-shirt” undershirt
• White cotton underpants
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

Having enlisted the Bohemian drifter Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) into the dangerous search for his identity, Bourne returns to his Paris apartment and retains the foundation of his borrowed T and canvas work pants while adapting parts of his own wardrobe in the form of an olive-brown lightweight polyester hooded jacket.

Bourne returns “home” to Paris, where he adds more from his actual closet and gradually begins taking control of the situation.

Read more in my original blog post The Bourne Identity: From Zurich to Paris.

Paris Spycraft

As Bourne begins grasping the realities of his eponymous identity and why there seems to be a target on his back, he begins dressing like the nondescript and functional “gray man”, a philosophy of urban camouflage designed to blend in.

Given that it’s winter in Paris, this ensemble would need to be climatically appropriate, so Bourne layers a black woolen knee-length topcoat over comfortable sweaters and black jeans. When costume designer Pierre-Yves Gayraud joined my friend Pete Brooker on his podcast From Tailors With Love, Gayraud shared that the black coat was made by Paul Smith with seven duplicates used on screen.

The Clothes:

• Black wool knee-length single-breasted 3-button overcoat with notch lapels, straight flapped hip pockets, and plain cuffs
• Slate-blue ribbed mock-neck sweater
• Gray heathered crew-neck T-shirt
• Black Lee jeans
• Black leather hiking boots
• Black socks
• Olive green cotton sleeveless “A-shirt” undershirt
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

Though he wears the washed-out slate mock-neck for most of the action in France, for the first day that finds Bourne and Marie investigating his prior movements at the Hotel Regina, he wears a black crew-neck “woolly pully” commando sweater with military-style epaulettes.

The morning after he and Marie realize they’re on the run, Bourne shows that he’s ready for business in the classic tactical garment of a commando-style sweater.

Read more in my original blog post Jason Bourne in Paris.

Reunion in Mykonos

With his days of evasion seemingly—alas, hopefully—behind him, Bourne dresses for a romantic reunion with Marie on the warm Greek island of Mykonos, dressed in an icy-blue linen collarless shirt and khakis that comprises arguably his “softest” look of the entire franchise.

Cue the Moby.

The Clothes:

• Pale-blue linen long-sleeve shirt with neckband, plain front, and set-in breast pocket
• Khaki cotton flat front trousers
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

An alternate ending had been shot that dresses Bourne in a more utilitarian outfit of gray hoodie and windbreaker for a more romantic reunion with Marie, but Team Liman ultimately chose the more tongue-in-cheek ending that included this cooler-wearing wardrobe.

The Bourne Supremacy

Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin

Retired in Goa to Re-entering Europe

Long before the most recent 007 movie, No Time to Die, had depicted James Bond’s retirement, The Bourne Supremacy began with the once-amnesic agent living off the grid in the tropics, with an off-duty vehicle and a service pistol packed away for emergencies. Unlike Mr. Bond, though, Bourne benefits from the company of his girlfriend Marie… at least until an assassin’s bullet yanks him out of retirement.

Bourne dresses coolly for the hot and humid Indian climate, favoring T-shirts, cargo shorts, and sneakers for day-to-day life.

Bourne stops into town to rehydrate after running along the beach in his T-shirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers.

The Clothes:

• Slate-blue cotton crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Gray woolen crew-neck long-sleeve sweater
• Beige cotton cargo shorts
• Light stone-colored chino cotton flat front trousers with belt loops and rear buckle, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Brown leather hiking boots
• White ribbed cotton crew socks
• White ribbed athletic socks
• Olive green cotton sleeveless “A-shirt” undershirt
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

Following the “visit” from Kirill (Karl Urban), Bourne begins pulling together his familiar kit, swapping out the cargo shorts for long trousers—albeit light cotton ones, apropos the climate—and a torn gray sweater that provides a warmer outer layer as he makes the northwestern journey by sea to Naples.

Bourne arrives in Naples, dressed the same as we had last seen him in Goa albeit with the addition of a sweater.

Read more in my original blog post The Bourne Supremacy: From India to Italy.

Back to Berlin… then Moscow

As Bourne heads deeper into Europe—first Munich, then Berlin, and finally Moscow—his attire for these chillier cities resembles the template established in The Bourne Identity as he layers a trio of dark sweaters and black jeans under a black topcoat.

“Maybe leather,” the coat is erroneously described by a hotel clerk, but the knee-length coat is obviously an update of his woolen coat from the previous movie, albeit somewhat fuller-fitting without more traditionally notched lapels and none of the contrasting tan lining, presenting a lethally serious all-black silhouette as Bourne sneaks his way through Europe in an attempt to clear his name… and his conscience.

The Clothes:

• Black wool knee-length single-breasted 3-button overcoat with notch lapels, straight flapped hip pockets, and 3-button cuffs
• Dark gray knitted wool boat-neck sweater
• Gray ribbed cotton crew-neck long-sleeve T-shirt
• Blue ribbed cotton crew-neck long-sleeve T-shirt
• Black denim Levi’s 501 Original Fit button-fly jeans
• Black leather sneakers
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

Read more in my original blog post The Bourne Supremacy: Bourne in Europe.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Film: The Bourne Ultimatum
Release Date: August 3, 2007
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Shay Cunliffe

The final scene of The Bourne Supremacy teases the plot—and costume—of the final installment in the original trilogy, The Bourne Ultinatum, as Bourne calls CIA deputy director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) while across the street in New York, several months later. I don’t know if it had always been planned for the Supremacy epilogue to be recreated at the midpoint of Ultimatum, but costume designer Shay Cunliffe neatly picks up the template that Supremacy costume designer Dinah Collin had outlined, shortening Bourne’s long coat to a dark waist-length jacket over a blue T-shirt with his usual black jeans and shoes.

The Bourne Ultimatum thus becomes the first and only movie in the franchise where Bourne wears the exact same outfit throughout, aside from the additional sweater over his T-shirt during the early scenes in Paris and London before he strips down to just the T-shirt for the warmer climates of Madrid, Tangier, and New York City.

The Clothes:

• Black cotton twill waist-length jacket with zip front, short standing collar, slanted side pockets, and set-in sleeves with plain cuffs
• Black ribbed crew-neck sweater
• Dark blue wide-ribbed cotton crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Black denim Levi’s 501 Original Fit button-fly jeans
• Black leather Tommy Hilfiger all-terrain hiking boots
• Black crew socks
• TAG Heuer Link Chronograph (CT1111.BA0550) stainless steel quartz watch with stainless bezel, black dial with 3 sub-registers, and steel chevron-shaped link bracelet

Read more in my original blog post The Bourne Ultimatum.

Jason Bourne

Film: Jason Bourne
Release Date: July 11, 2016
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

Nearly a decade—and one Jeremy Renner-led offshoot—had transpired since Damon and director Paul Greengrass reteamed to bring Jason Bourne back to the big screen. Costume designer Mark Bridges paid homage to the character’s sartorial tradition for Jason Bourne, but he also softened the harsher charcoals of the original trilogy by dressing TAFKADW in brown leathers and blue cloths, all still dark and traditionally masculine while less stark.

Bourne resurfaces in Athens with a Heckler & Koch USP pistol taken from an agent.

The Clothes:

• Brown rugged leather moto-style jacket with standing collar, zip-up front, slanted zip hand pockets, and set-in sleeves with plain cuffs
• Navy blue cotton long-sleeved shirt, either 3-button thermal henley or crew-neck T-shirt
• Dark blue denim Levi’s jeans
• Black leather belt
• Dark brown leather lace-up ankle boots with lugged soles
• Black cotton lisle socks
• TAG Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph (CAU1114.FT6024) in black titanium carbide-finished steel with fixed bezel and black dial with 4:00 date window on black ridged rubber strap

Bourne wears a few other outfits at the beginning and toward the end, but his primary action gear follows the template in The Bourne Ultimatum of a single outfit worn across multiple settings, adapted for each with just the addition—or removal—of an intermediate layer, in this case a dark navy crew-neck or a lighter-wearing henley shirt of the same color under a brown leather jacket, all worn with dark indigo Levi’s jeans and a rotation of brown leather boots.

As Bourne pulls himself off the London pavement, his jeans show the distinctive Levi’s arcuate stitch across his back pockets.

Read more in my original blog post Matt Damon in Jason Bourne and check out the movie.

What’s your favorite element of Jason Bourne’s style?

The post Jason Bourne’s Style Across Four Movies appeared first on BAMF Style.