Science Fiction Costumes
by Philip Chien
If clothes make a man, costumes make a movie character. A decent or memorable costume can help enhance a movie’s experience. On the other hand, a bad decision by the costume designer can lead to a memorable costume for the wrong reasons.
The Experience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (EMP/SFM) in Seattle Washington has created a popular traveling exhibit of science fiction costumes - Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped start the museum and the 43 costumes and props in the exhibit come from his personal collection.
The oldest, and probably most iconic, costume in the exhibit is Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch hat from “The Wizard of Oz.” The most infamous costume is George Clooney’s Batman costume from “Batman & Robin.” The costume earned its reputation because of nipples molded into the chest.
Other famous costumes include Burt Ward’s Robin from the “Batman” TV series, Jim Carrey’s Riddler from “Batman Forever”, Luke Skywalker’s flight suit, Darth Vader and Stormtrooper helmets, 7 of 9’s “cat suit” from “Star Trek: Voyager”, jackets belonging to the Terminator and Indiana Jones, and a formal Klingon dress outfit from the early “Star Trek” movies.
Technically some of the items on display are not costumes, they’re props (like Luke Skywalker’s light saber) or makeup (like Louis Gossett’s headpiece from “Enemy Mine”). For most of us the differences are not important, but for Hollywood it’s an important distinction for which union person is responsible for the design, manufacture, and use on the set.
The Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando Florida is hosting the exhibit for three months. When you step off of the elevator there’s a whoosh of air and light effects, a simple version of “Star Trek”’s transporter. You’re greeted by a six foot tall Darth Vader in LEGOs. The costumes are in cylindrical plexiglass displays and the other items are in clear spheres. A variety of displays and video clips explain how important costumes are to movie characters.
Original movie costumes from popular movies can sell for thousands of dollars at auction. But they may not be as rare as the buyers are led to believe. In many cases multiple costumes are needed – a primary costume, a backup costume, a costume for the stunt double, additional specialized costumes for action sequences, etc. For example, the 1978 movie “Superman” had dozens of red capes – capes for walking, capes for flying, capes for posing in the breeze, etc. In other cases several costumes are needed for extras in the background. They may not have as much detail as the ones worn by the primary characters and when a costume is sold it’s often not clear which one is being sold.
The display is clear that the Darth Vader display includes the actual cape, helmet, and light saber from the early “Star Wars” movies, but the remaining parts of the costume are replicas.
For a Hollywood costume designer a science fiction or fantasy movie is the opportunity to let your imagination run wild. The director may give the costume designer an idea for what the costume should look like and then the costume designer will prepare a set of sketches for approval before the final costume is manufactured. With contemporary movies the costume designer just has to select ordinary off-the-rack clothing appropriate for the character. With a period piece the costumes must match what actual clothing looked like, within reasonable allowances, and fans will certainly point out anachronisms and other mistakes. But with a science fiction or fantasy costume nobody can claim that a costume is “wrong.”
In many cases a costume is based on an iconic character from another medium, in particular comic books. How a two-dimensional drawn character with a skin-tight costume converts into real life can be a challenge for the costume designer. The 1960s camp “Batman” television series had Batman wearing a light gray cloth tunic. In contrast the various movie versions, starting with Michael Keaton’s “Batman” in 1989, have featured midnight black uniforms which look like armor. Each costume designer can decide which features to use from previous versions of the characters, and what new features to include. You’ve got to wonder what was in costume designers Ingrid Ferrin and Robert Turturice mind when they decided to include distinctive nipples on the Batman costume in “Batman and Robin.”
Cloth is just a starting material for science fiction costumes. Add leather, rubber, molded plastic, and whatever other materials are handy to create costumes which look like they came from another world. Often the physical characteristics of the actor and stunt double have to be taken into account. Rarely is long term durability a concern – a costume needs to last as long as it’s needed to make the film. As a consequence many movie costumes are easily damaged and in many cases need to be repaired or replicated if they’re on constant display.
Movies have far larger budgets than television series and that makes designing costumes for television more challenging. The costumes for the regular cast only need minor maintenance between episodes, but scores of costumes for guest characters have to be produced each year. William Ward Thesis was the costume designer for the original “Star Trek” series and created an amazing variety of costumes in the three years it was on the air. Three of his creations are in the exhibit – Sarek’s formal outfit from “Journey to Babel”, the Gorn from “Arena”, and Kirk-2’s tunic from “Mirror: Mirror.”
Admission to the Orange County Regional History Center is $12 for adults. The exhibit runs in Orlando through May 16th. Several special events including a fashion show and comic book day are scheduled. Future tour stops for Out of this World include - Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Kalamazoo, MI, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, CA, and the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL.
Links
Out of this World at the Orange County Regional History Center.
Orange County Regional History Center
The Science Fiction Museum's details on the exhibit.
Order Batman & Robin (Two-Disc Special Edition)
from Amazon.com.
Order The Wizard of Oz (70th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition)
from Amazon.com.
Order Indiana Jones
movies from Amazon.com.
Order Star Wars movies from Amazon.com.
Order Star Trek movies from Amazon.com.
About the author
Philip Chien has been a science fiction fan most of his life.
© 2010 neatinformation.com. All Rights Reserved.
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