What is your choice for the best film costume ever worn?

What would you consider to be the best film costume ever worn? I am thinking of one of those scene or, better, film-stealing pieces that creates its own visual dimension in the film -- a costume or outfit that once worn, changes our sense of the character and his/her fate forever.

My choices:

1. Keira Knightley's green silk backless 1930s-era gown in Atonement
2. Ilsa's white suit in Casablanca
3. Scarlett's "curtain dress" in Gone with the Wind
4. Darth Vader's entire all-black ensemble, worn when we first behold him on screen in the original Star Wars (very GenX of me)

My top choice is Keira Knightley's green dress in Atonement. That dress just had this perfect quality -- the vibrant shade of brilliant green, worn by a beautiful actress at precisely the right moment in the film -- a crucial turning point when love and tragedy meet and merge (ah, James McAvoy as the tragic Robbie Turner...when he first catches sight of Keira (as Cecilia) in that gorgeous frock...).



Apologies -- I am too illiterate technologically to post a pic, so here is a link to a good image of Knightley in the dress, without her smoking. If anyone else can post the pic, I would greatly appreciate it!Thanks to everyone for your ideas.

I think the dress looks better in this image. She is standing in front of the family's palatial home, waiting for her lover Robbie (the son of a servant on the estate played by the marvelous James McAvoy) to return to her. Of course when he does a tragic event takes place so it's a poignant moment...

It's very unsexy.

It's faithful to the time and material. Not everyone is so sqeamish about it.

Do we have to allow PC police censor everything they find objectionable?

...and not at all objectionable IMO. :patriot:

It's just as PC to accuse anyone's contrary opinion of being censorship.

but I think Tim Curry as Darkness from Legend

David Bowie as Jereth the Goblin King from Labyrinth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1A9s6WTiw

the same -- who doesn't want to be the Queen of a magical land if David Bowie is your King?? And indeed, the fantastic attire made the role. I love the Edwardian (maybe Victorian?) cut of his jacket.

that the land of the Labyrinth really isn't a magical fantasy land. At least not in a good way. It's a place of deception and danger. A place where the only appealing fantasy was the result of a drug-induced delusion (the hallucinatory ball that appears when she eats the peach.) And the Goblin King isn't magnificent and awe-inspiring at all. He's a lonely and slightly pathetic conjuror who can't even win the love and respect of a self-absorbed junior high school girl.

While we're on the subject, I nominate Jennifer Connelly and her ball gown.

are what attracted me to Bowie's Goblin King. And I found his loneliness and isolation appealing. Of course I was also a fan of Tim Curry as Darkness in Legend, so I was clearly drawn to the troubled types!

When I first saw Labyrinth, I believe I was in junior high -- and I thought Connelly's dress was the most perfect thing I had ever seen, a perfect prom gown (!). Those puffy sleeves!

I had the most awful, heart-rending schoolboy crush on Jennifer Connelly back then. (I was only 17) Her face haunted me every night after lights out during Basic Training. That first scene ("Give me the child...") and the ballroom scene. I was a little obsessed... B-)

And I also 17 at the time. I still think she's very attractive but a little too thin now.

Of course, I happened to like Bowie in that film, but I remember those teenage crushes. I had a desperate crush on Sting, wallpaperd my room with The Police posters, etc.

and of Bowie's music so when this came out I thought the whole thing was very cool.

That's what Bowie wore when he showed up on the set the first day of the shoot, I think it was the first thing he grabbed out of his closet.

I don't know which one I would say is the absolute best, but this one is definitely in the running.

really stayed with me. It was an excellent re envisioning of such a classic design.

as the Joker from Batman: The Dark Knight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMT2t00GO0

Heath was such a gifted actor. Sigh.

When Lawrence starts wearing the robes of a Bedouin sheik, he's no longer just another hoo-hum luftenant, but becomes someone out of legend.

Yes, it IS a great moment:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qzd9HIsRWeA/SFjC-gDCgpI/AAAAAAAAJWw/XLjCG22jdZo/s400/Lawrence+of+Arabia.jpg

Mad mag taught us first wave baby boomers how to snark.

Not only because of the amazing costumes, but the way the actors/mimes used them. The Fawn was played by a master mime/puppeteer. The "costume" is part costume, part puppet which the actor manipulated while is the front of the costume. The rest of his body was blackout out in post production. That allowed the Fawn to have an otherworldy, unbalanced gait, and made him one of the most eerie creatures ever created for cinema, only outdone by the monster with eyes in his hands in the same film:

We thought Pan's Labyrinth was one of the best fantasy films ever made and the imagination that went into those costumes -- very impressive work by a very talented team, lead by a gifted director.

other than Satyricon.

The Campbell's soup can around his neck is brill.

I think the movie was called "First Strike".

My mind was standing next to the curb looking at a '55 DeVille and dreaming of Dagmar. You know what I mean, Vern?

eol.

:9

He's so predictable.

of course :thumbsup:

Rita Hayworth, Gilda

brought to life --

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

on weekends. :rofl: NOT

Which of course only underscores the "iconic" bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bOpJ5elW8

I love movie costume--and this is the creme de la creme.

"Thank you. I saw it in the window and couldn't resist it."

...the trench coat getup from The Matrix.

Edith Head could make a fire plug look elegant.

With Kelly to work with, drop dead 50's glam.

:thumbsup:

She moved like a swan in that dress

I love Rear Window, great film. And her clothing and jewelry are so amazing it's like an entire subplot.

:wow:

as she is extremely thin. I would have loved to see this dress on say Kate Winslet -- or another actress with some serious curves -- as I think it would have been gorgeous.

of the beautiful lines of that time period.

:bounce:

A local theater was doing "Hay Fever", and the director had already designed an amazing black dress for Myra (which is a really nice juicy part), and was casting based on who was going to look good in the dress!

Another girl read MUCH better for Myra than I did, but she was 5' and I am 5'11", so he cast me. First and ONLY time my height HELPED me get a part (usually lost out to shorter girls).

The dress was modest in the front, bt cut in the back all the way down to just above my tailbone, and I have never gotten more positive attention for a piece of clothing in my life. Men in the audience actually whistled at me!

I tried to steal it, but the director was waiting for me to hend it over immediately after the last curtain call. Damn!

and now in my mid thirties I don't think I'd be brave enough to try -- but they can be such scene stealers, as you discovered! WOLF WHISTLES from the audience! Clothing always looks its best on tall women, like models. The dresses cut low in the back are an imaginative way to reveal one of a woman's best features, particularly the curve of her lower back.

Congrats on landing the part! I love seeing plays at our local theaters. If you want to, you should post a pic for us of you in full dress for the performance as I would love to see the dress. But don't worry about not posting it (I know it's the internet and all that! I'm not really comfortable posting pics of myself)

It was an amazing dress, but one of the other actors in the show broke up with me shortly afterward, and so I probably pitched all the cast photos I had.

You're right about backless revealing features that are attractive, but not over-exposed, like the curve of the lower back.

I was also younger and thinner back then - it was about 20 years ago.....

If you ever get a chance to see Hay Fever, it's very cute if you like Noel Coward.

I know I got sick of people saying that to me when I was skinny. Ironically some of the same people who used to call me fat when I was heavier, but I digress....

It's apparently her body type, but regardless it's none of our business and downright rude to make snarky comments about people's weight either way.

I do think it's sad when people who look completely healthy get überskinny, such as Amy Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, Christina Ricci, etc. Granted, two of those three examples may have more to do with drugs than societal pressure, but I do wish our society had a more positive and realistic view of the human body in all of its variety.

That said, we also have a rather unhealthy culture in other ways, from our obsession with fast food and driving everywhere. Ugh. It's such a complicated issue: I think we need to be more accepting of our own and others' alleged 'flaws' but I also believe in trying to at least be active and eat well, but not just so that we look like so-called super models.

Have you seen this?
http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/08/on-the-cl-the-picture-you-cant.html

For obvious reasons (drugs more than EDs, but the wasting effects can be similar), but the weight isn't the most obvious visual marker - look at their SKIN. Scary! Even healthy 60-year-old women's skin doesn't look lifeless like that!

Keira Knightly, no. It's her body type. I know lots of women built like that. My mother, for one. KK (like my mom) has good skin, bright eyes, healthy hair, energy and athleticism. I don't think there's anything wrong with her. Ectomorphs exist. I'm one - not as skinny as my mom, but still in the general category--small-boned, long-limbed, high metabolism. I don't "have" anything to make me this way except skinny parents!

whichever stuntman put it on, the costume was pretty realistic.

I can't think of any better than the Tim Curry/Legend costume mentioned up thread.

beautiful dresses, and the heels worn by Dunaway in the movie are beautiful, pretty clothing in that era.

Another favorite are the gowns worn by Ava Gardner (kate beckinsale) in The Aviator

She was a brilliant actress and especially wonderful in the Thin Man series (such witty repartee!). She wore a series of iconic ensembles, but here is a lovely image of her in a 1930s backless silk gown not unlike Knightley's:

It doesn't get better than his entrance scene in Rocky Horror, "annnnnnntici -- say it, say it! -- Pation!"

That delicate, satin-draped frame? As it clung to her thigh, how I started to cry, 'cause I wanted to be dressed just the same...

She died in 2004; she was a good friend of a good friend of mine... lovely, tiny woman. Dressed to the nines. Her birthday was a day after my friend's; they always went someplace lovely for a birthday lunch.

Oscar liked them too. :D



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_uv2NTdTlw&feature=related

when they sing "I Will Survive" in the desert too.

:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DJC-ECU8IE

:7

INCREDIBLE!!!!

I've always thought that material lent itself to the stage so naturally. Who wrote the book and the score?

:evilgrin:

optional...

:hide:

I can't tolerate his films and his sheer doofusness (a term that should be officially coined) for more than five minutes. Very shallow, I realize...

What a SEXGOD!!

The bondage straps, the long leather dress, and lets not forget, the pins!

I've got one of those red windbreakers just because Dean wore it in "Rebel":

Fräulein Maria made for the von Trapp children out of her curtains?
I'd love to have some clothes made out of draperies.
Heavy, dank, drab draperies. That would be the epitome of fashion.

Lovely tunes about the national flower of Austria and kittens' whiskers?

Scarlett O'Hara had a dress made from curtains as well -- so it was popular back in those halcyon days of yore.

hand/eyes in Pan's Labyrinth would get my vote.

The Flash Gordon costume itself was a work of shit, but all the back up actors looked disco-awesome.

Hes one cool mother f**ker.

Indy:



The Beast from La Belle et la Bete



Brigitte Helm in Metropolis:



Maggie Hamilton:

:yoiks:

Not that I'd know about such perversions.....

Had a bit of badass to it.

I'm casting my vote for Darth Vader, because I turned 8 in the summer of '77, and HOLEEE FUCKING SHIT I've never seen anything that impacted me like that before or since.

But here are a few I can't believe no one's nominated yet.

...The Lion in Winter, though unfortunately this still is not in color!



More Hepburn, different year and different male co-star (That's Cary Grant with her in Bringing Up Baby, Kinder.



And of course this thread needs more Alan Rickman. Here he is with Kate Winslet in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility.



And I know you said movies, but the very thought of men in top boots and period garb brings me to Philip Glenister in the BBC series Cranford. Here he is with Imelda Staunton, who has worn her own share of period clothing.

And this is a pretty splendid and iconic costume --talk about the essence of a character, and one who will definitely be remembered decades from now:

But what about this?

That is, indeed, iconic and unforgettable. :scared:

Seriously.

This suit worn by Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday" (best picture of it I could find)



Also: Barbra Streisand's fab 60s duds in "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (Also not a good picture).


On edit: Joseph Fiennes blue leather jacket in "Shakespeare In Love"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XVFcfEhAk

I love the whole Egyptian motif......

And he sure could carry it off. :)

When the Wicked Witch of the West shows up for the first time right after Dorothy lands in Oz...the contrast of the smoke, her black flowing robes and green skin to the technicolor scenery - what an impact. Even thought it terrified me as a child I couldn't wait until she appeared on screen. Still love it.

The costumes were great in this movie