They say the clothes make the man, but in Hollywood they often tell his story,
or hers.
These are the top 10 movie wardrobes of all time.
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Kicking us off at number ten, we've always loved marveling at the wild, creative and
often bizarre takes on the future that costume designers have given us in sci-fi.
Consider Star Wars's pseudo-Japanese Western military chic, Blade Runner's
neo-noir cultural potpourri, and the Matrix's iconic leather fest.
Or Metropolis's beautiful android, Tron's glowing jumpers, and
Barbarella's sexy space suit.
And who could forget the bizarro fashion scapes of Dune in The Clockwork Orange?
However, for our first pick we're giving it to The Fifth Element.
(Sound) >> Unbelievable.
>> Designed by the legendary Jean Paul Gaultier,
is there a sci-fi character with better wardrobe than Ruby Rhod?
But it's not just that, there's Leeloo's iconic white straps, Gary Oldman's
frigid turtlenecks, and that blue opera alien's awesome whatever that is.
Gaultier personally designed over 900 costumes for the film,
from the stars to the extras,
with an eye towards playing with and against notions of sexuality and gender.
It's one of the coolest, kookiest, most comicontable sci-fi wardrobes out there,
which is why it starts off our list.
(Sound) Now, here at CineFix we watch a lot of
movies, and sure most of them are English-language films, but
we like to make an effort to keep it global too.
So for our number nine, we want to give our appreciation to some of
the excellent films that came from beyond our American borders.
And from France that might be the costuming from The Cook, The thief,
His Wife and Her Lover, from Japan it might be from Ran, from Hong Kong it might
be In the Mood for Love, or from China it might be Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
But for our pick we're pretty torn between Yimou Zheng's Hero and
House of Flying Daggers.
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Call it obvious or over the top, but
to our eye the use of color costuming in these two films is absolutely poetic.
With Hero dividing up its vignettes into primary colors,
and House of Flying Daggers weaving them fluidly into the story.
Both were based on Wu Xing color theory, both were designed by Emi Wada,
and both are pretty much equally incredible.
Do we have to pick just one?
Fine, we'll go with hero by the width of a nipple hair, but we're not happy about it.
(Sound) There's one thing Hollywood's always been the best at, it's being cool.
So for our number eight we want to single out the films that made us all want to
burn our closets and deck out like a goddamn badass.
We're talking about Shaft, Kill Bill, Fight Club, The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly, talking about James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause,
we're talking about Brando in The Wild One.
But if you really want to talk Brando and
cool, look no further than A Streetcar Named Desire.
>> Are you Stella's sister?
>> Yes.
>> Hi, where's little woman?
>> That's right, it's pretty much just a sweaty t-shirt here,
but no one had ever worn one like this before.
Thanks to designer Lucinda Ballard, Brando took an afterthought and
turned it into the definitive bad boy look.
Goddamn, was he cool.
(Sound) Next up at number seven, we're going from cool to hip.
We're looking at the offbeat take on trends and
maybe that's Big Lebowski's slacker chic or Annie Hall's androgynous digs.
But if we're thinking hip, we've got to tip our pastel colored hats to the king,
Wes Anderson, and that could be this Ravnica fashion from Grand Budapest Hotel
or the miniature tweed of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
But instead, our pick goes to the immense character captured by the costumes in
The Royal Tenenbaums.
>> You've made a cuckold of me.
>> I know.
>> All custom made and brilliantly detailed.
Take Margot's look for example, it's sloppy yet precisely chosen,
the same thing she's always worn, wealthy yet dated, stuck in the era of her
family's heyday with a little sportiness to tie her into the rest of the family.
Were the Tenenbaums the original hipsters?
Probably not, but they came up just on the cusp and
they're our favorite hipster family yet.
(Sound) At number six we were bound to get here eventually,
if we're ranking movie fashion we can't ignore the period piece.
That's right, as far as the Academy Awards are concerned the only good costumes
are period costumes, the Baroque big bustled hoop dresses of the Victorian era.
Don't get us wrong, we love the wardrobes from Shakespeare in Love,
Titanic, Gigi, Amadeus, Anna Karenina, and Marie Antoinette.
Hell, even the outfits from Cleopatra will knock your socks off if
you want to look a bit farther back.
And we know we're missing a ton of mentions, it's really hard for
us not to pick Gone with the Wind.
But for our number six, there's nothing quite so lavish as the bajillion and
one massive gowns from Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
>> Tell Philip I fear neither him, nor his priest, nor his armies.
>> And to those we say, holy shit talk about excess,
if costumes were special effects these would be the Transformers of dresses.
Designed by Alexandra Byrne, the costumes took a more haute couture look at
the Elizabethan garb than any other period films, playing with the performative
aspects of the clothes, their sexiness and their emotionality.
(Sound) Course not all period pieces come from an era where men rode horses and
women came with a dowry, the 20th century is rife with opportunities for
an incredible wardrobe.
The 20s, both Great Gatsbyss, the 30s, Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and
the Godfather, the snazzy cross century progression of Malcolm X.
The different sides of the 70s from Dazed and Confused, American Hustle, and
Saturday Night Fever, even the 90s valley girl look from Clueless.
But for our number five pick,
it's gotta be the 50s, Albert Wolsky's black leather and hot pink from Grease.
>> Hey, Zuko, I've got a surprise for you.
>> Yeah?
>> Yeah.
(Laugh) >> For a movie about being hip and cool,
Grease certainly nails it.
From Danny's slicked back leather and a t-shirt,
thank you Marlon Brando, to Sandy's virginal white and pastel skirts and
dresses, to every Rizzo and Kenickie in between.
And Olivia Newton-John's final transformation?
Yes, please.
(Sound) But what of the beautiful women in stunning dresses we haven't mentioned yet?
We saved them for our number four.
There's Moulin Rouge, La Dolce Vita, and Pretty Women.
There's the breathtaking green dress from Atonement, and the beautiful yellow one
from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, because sometimes it only takes one to turn heads.
But if there's a single dress that stands out in Hollywood fashion history more than
any other, it's Marilyn Monroe's from The Seven Year Itch.
>> Do you feel the breeze from the subway?
Isn't it delicious?
>> The light ivory cocktail dress has been carved into the fashion history books.
It was designed by William Travilla, or was it just bought off the rack?
Did the immodesty of the scene lead to Marilyn's divorce?
Was she having an affair with the designer?
Rumors of Marilyn and the dress abound, but regardless of what's fact or fiction,
the truth remains it was one hell of a dress.
(Sound) Of course, men get to dress up too, and
if you've noticed a serious lack of haberdashery on this list, well,
that's because we've been saving it for our number three.
And with so many choices, there's a lot to love.
A Hard Day's Night, North by Northwest, Reservoir Dogs, A Single Man, Top Hat,
Kingsman, and don't forget pretty much every Bond film ever.
And we've gotta give an honorable shout out to Gold Rush for
Charlie Chaplin's debut of the sloppy besuited tramp.
However, for our number three there's nothing quite like the Vegas
excess from Martin Scorsese's Casino.
>> Before I ever ran a casino,
I got myself blown up, Ace Rothstein was a hell of a handicapper.
>> That's right, and while designer Rita Ryack deserves lots of credit for
her 30 plus lavish looks for Sharon Stone's Ginger, she really clinches this
spot with her 70 costumes for De Niro, all handmade, including 45 custom suits.
Her bespoke vintage sartorial digs perfectly track his rise, heyday, and
eventual fall.
Sure they're gaudy and excessive and pretty hideous by today's standards,
but this was suiting for the 70s, and for that it was perfect.
(Sound) Now, there's style and then there's fashion.
And that's where our number two comes in,
because there are some films that have perfectly captured the look a la mode,
either because they were about it, like The Devil Wears Prada and
Coco Before Chanel, or because they pretty much built it, like Breathless.
But if there's any film that was on the bleeding edge of fashion,
it's Breakfast at Tiffany's,
and that's thanks to the dynamic duo made of Givenchy and Edith Head.
>> Don't you just love it?
>> Love what?
>> Tiffany's.
>> Now maybe you've heard of Givenchy, but who's Edith Head you ask naively.
Only the most bad ass costume designer ever, nominee for 35 Academy Awards,
winner of eight.
Pretty much a fashion legend, and also does she not look a little familiar.
>> This is a horrible suit, darling.
You can't be seen in this, I won't allow it.
>> The look of Breakfast at Tiffany's is unforgettable, and
it's largely thanks to Givenchy and Edith's marvelous fashion.
(Sound) Now, we've seen the past, the future, and everything in between, but for
our number one we've saved ourselves for fashion's wildest landscape.
Fantasy, so what have we got?
Well, there is the entire Peter Jackson slash Tolkien universe, and
then there's Enchanted, Alice in Wonderland, and Edward Scissorhands too.
We really loved the uber stylized imagination of the costumes from
Tarsem Singh's The Fall, as well as his freshman effort, The Cell.
Along with pretty much everything Terry Gilliam has ever designed,
and what about superhero movies?
Those are fantasy too, and as far as they go we love the latest incarnations of
Spider Man, Iron Man, and especially circa the Dark Knight's Batman.
He can finally turn his head, but
if we're talking fantasy there's nothing more memorable, more quintessential,
more perfectly designed than the wardrobes from The Wizard of Oz.
>> Todo, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
>> Even the ruby red slippers on their own deserve a spot on this list.
Is there one piece of Hollywood clothing more iconic?
The entire wardrobe was designed by Adrian, that's right,
he just goes by Adrian, one of the golden age of Hollywood's most famous designers.
And what could possibly be better than the Cowardly Lion's fur,
the Tin Man's silver funnel, the Scarecrow's burlap sack,
the Wicked Witch's pointy hat, and Dorothy's blue pinafore?
We can't think of anything,
which is why we think this is the best movie wardrobe of all time.
So what do you think, did we leave out one of your favorite movie wardrobes?
Do you disagree with one of our picks?
Do you have any ideas for future top ten lists?
Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe for
more CineFix movie lists.
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