Tuesday 22 December 2020

Labyrinth (1986)

Costume Design by:

- Ellis Flyte ( this was Flyte's only film costume designer role, but she had worked in television, theatre and even designed a Dark Crystal-themed fashion line! )

A sort of follow up to the puppet fantasy classic The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson's Labyrinth again utilized Brian Froud's designs as basis for all its goblin puppets, though unlike The Dark Crystal this film would actually have real actors present, with one of these being none other than David Bowie (many other musicians were considered for the role, such as Prince and Mick Jagger), who of course sports the majority of the film's very flamboyant costumes in his role as Jareth, the Goblin King, who had stolen the young brother of Sarah (Jennifer Connelly). The various outfits designed for Jareth aren't obviously 'regal' but are indeed very 80s (the wigs, of course!) as well as large collars used plenty.
Jareth first appears in this extravagant leather armor and collared cape, which has a shiny blue material on its underside, and the leather armor piece is itself a very ornate design - the costume design process of the film consisted of Brian Froud (one of the main designers of Henson's fantasy films) submitting designs to Ellis Flyte, who in turn designed them to be able to be realized on the screen.







The outfit Jareth wears when he's regularly heckling the dwarf Hoggle, consists of an asymmetrical leather jacket fixed with a cape, with one shoulder having an armor pad, and the other side's lapel having shiny stones stuck on it, this jacket being worn with blue pants and black boots.





For other sequences of the film Jareth instead is in a simple frilly shirt and leather waistcoat that he sometimes wears a rough fabric cape over, with its underside being a shiny blue fabric.





During the rather surreal masquerade ball sequence, Jareth dons a blue and black frock coat, with the top collars fixed with shining stone-like pieces, and of course shiny finishes to the cuffs and underside. Jareth's ball mask is of course a horned demen visage.







This sequence also has Sarah don a very pretty white dress with golden trim; the outfits of the other dancers are hard to make out, and their masks were presumably more the work of the prop department.




The outfit Jareth sports in the next musical interlude is another one utilizing mostly ornate leather parts, in this case a red velvet tunic with a black leather front and piping on the arms, worn with black pants and boots.






Jareth's very last outfit is an almost ethereal looking white feather cloak worn over white pants and boots, with the collar of the cloak being a large bone piece - a reference to how the character can transform into an owl.




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