The Fifth Element (1997)

Costume Design by Jean Paul Gaultier

Fashion's own 'enfant terrible', Jean Paul Gaultier was the perfect choice to design the larger-than-life space opera. His costumes were constructed from uncommon materials and bold colours, such as the outfit worn by Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis). Dallas' vest is made of ribbed orange rubber with straps on the back, and his jacket is short with piping on one shoulder and rectangular packs on the other.

Also utilizing similar materials and colours is the outfit worn by 'supreme being' Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), who wears a ribbed white crop top worn with tight black-lined tan pants and with orange rubber braces, pierced with holes and complementing her red hair.

Leeloo is first seen in perhaps the most infamous costume of the film; a bondage-like white strap fit cut to show as much skin as possible around the sides, with a large strap going down the middle.

There are other examples of very lurid future fashions such as the outfits worn by the two disguised Mangalore aliens, with one in a rough purple furred coat (that ends in a green plastic) with string vest, and the other in a white fur top with red feathers around the collar and a see-through plastic green skirt. Also of note is the mugger wearing a brown vinyl vest and baggy pants, as well as the Zorg Industries secretary wearing a short crop top with fur trim.

When asked in interviews about how he approached designing The Fifth Element, Jean-Paul Gaultier felt there could be returns to 'retro' fashions (in a similar fashion to Blade Runner's costume designs), and this motif of 'fashion of the past' is seen in the outfits worn by the priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and his assistant David (Charlie Creed-Miles), both in stiff collared buttonless shirts and woolen striped waistcoats made of rough fabric. David also wears a conical hat in some scenes as well.

A ceremonial version of the robe is seen briefly, which is made of a more velvet-like material with high collars and a large tabard-like garment (designed to resemble the mystical stones that Vito and David's religion was founded to protect) over it.

The corporate tycoon Zorg (Gary Oldman) wears an outfit also made with synthetic materials, consisting of a green shiny shirt with high collars (always a mark of villainy in science-fiction & fantasy costume design) with pinstriped trousers and boots. Zorg wears two waistcoats in his scenes, the first being also pinstriped, the second being made of shiny orange rubber, with both having no buttons, and worn with a flowing pinstriped coat with red under fabric. The plastic scalp piece and hairdo are the finishing touches.

Zorg's guards are all in nothing but tight black shirts, black leather shorts and clear plastic skullcaps - considering this film was partially inspired by The Incal comic series, it should be worth noting that the evil 'Technopriests' in it were also all clad in black plastic skullcaps like Zorg and his goons.

Zorg's lackey, 'Right Hand' (Tricky) wears a more schlubby outfit, consisting of a buttonless leather jacket and bolo tie worn over no vest, with a hooded green and black coat worn over it.

Some of the film's other notable costumes are worn by the future DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), the first being a tight leopard skin suit with a large wide neck going down to the chest and fixed with large lapels, finished with that bleached perm. Incidentally, the character was originally going to be played by none other than Prince, who was to wear an even more revealing costume consisting of almost nothing but fishnets, but a rather embarrassing meeting with Gaultier led him to reject the role.

Rhod is always surrounded by a trio of assistants who are clad in similarly coloured outfits to what he is wearing, and so in his introduction scene they are all in suits cut with leopard or cheetah skin prints on various parts of them.

Ruby Rhod's second outfit is also very outlandish, again with the deep revealing chest neck, but the main suit being a double breasted black one with roses fixed on the collar, and the hair adorned in a different hairstyle this time. Also of note is the female companion with him in a black jumper and blue powdery dress with a long thing stretched out hairdo.

Rhod's entourage are again in suits cut with fabric evoking the same colour scheme of his outfit, in this case the suits being cut with red patterned fabrics and roses.

The stones that form the the other four elements are guarded by the alien singer Diva (Maïwenn Le Besco) who is first seen covered up in a blue sparking gown resembling a burkha.

She is flanked by a variety of servants, with the two head servants being a woman and man wearing a ridged black dress, and a ridged black coat respectively, that are barely seen on-screen.

The rest of her entourage wear a variety of detailed golden masks and black gowns, and once again it is especially a a crying shame for the masked outfits to especially not get more screentime, really.

There was roughly almost a thousand costumes 'designed' for The Fifth Element, but they were for the most part just off-the-rack contemporary clothing which makes that fact *a little* less impressive, as much hard work as it was regardless. However, some of the bit-parts did have some striking outfits designed for them as well; notable ones include the white lace outfit worn by Baby Ray (Ian Beckett), the futuristic regal uniforms sported by Emperor Kodar Japhet (Sonny Caldinez), Princess Achen (Zeta Graff) and their aides, the opera goer in a large shoulderd green dress and crown, and Zorg's messenger Left Arm (Ivan Heng) who wears an embroidered tunic and vinyl collar.

Other pastiches of current day uniforms are seen in the form of the McDonalds workers and air hostesses. The McDonalds workers are briefly seen but are in red dresses with a yellow McDonalds 'M' logo around the top, and worn with bright red banged wigs with a plastic 'M' logo on a bob piece on it.

Meanwhile the air hostesses are in two types of uniform, both of them consisting of very revealing blue crop tops and miniskirts and worn with large hats with plastic wings on each side.

The crew in the hotel space liner are again in uniforms that are more a pastiche of historical and present uniforms, in this case sailor uniforms - the officers are in obvious pastiches of naval officers (with a more stiff cut to the top of the tunic) and the crewman are in striped jumpers, blue tops, shorts and sailor hats. The crew's guards wear futuristic straps and helmets over their uniforms.

The pilots of the holiday shuttle never have any shots showing their uniforms in full, but from their scenes appear to be in black jumpers with short blue tunics worn at the top, and with a futuristic version of an aviator hat, with wiring connecting it to the shoulders.

The shuttle's ground crew are in yellow or red rubber overalls worn with futuristic protective armor consisting of customeized helmets and transparent shoulder pads.

Overseeing the characters mission from a distance is President Lindberg (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) of the Federated Territories, who is clad in a simple uniform of a long blue coat with red lining around the v-collar, and worn over a black jumper, with his aide in a uniform of a stiff tunic and skirt in the same colour scheme.

The Federated Territories' military personnel are seen assisting the President, with most of them being its commanding officers who are all clad in long two-tone tan coats worn over buttonless black coats over shirts and ties, and worn with an either red or black beret.

Junior officers are in simple two-tone tan jackets worn with the berets and ties.

When the Mondoshawan craft carrying the titular fifth element is destroyed, the remains are examined by a team of medics in futuristic doctors scrubes, with the head scientist Mactilburgh (Christopher Fairbank) and his aid having translucent panels on their tunics' sleeves.

Orderlies are in similar uniforms that are cut more like overalls with numbers on the side and worn with caps.

There are also several medics in the presidential headquarters, wearing futuristic vinyl versions of a doctor's Howie coat with silvery lining; some of them have tubing and patches stuck on the back of the jackets.

Several military crewman are present in the same sequences, wearing red tunics with wraparound collars, worn over lined blue jumpsuits; the spacecraft crews wear similar uniforms but in a different colourscheme, with the same mechanical headpiece fitted on.

There is also the heavy armoured uniforms of the police troopers on Earth, who were more the work of Moebius (one of the main concept artists for the film) rather than Gaultier's, and realized by special prop makers. The police armor design is intimidating but still very ornate, with a sleek concealing mask, padded suits and rounded body armour fixed with a large light, and even a metallic spiked 'cape' that acts as a back shield - it sticks out compared to the legions of cheap knockoffs of Aliens' already bland marines that most scifi films of the 90s loved doing.

Another armored costume design, that was based more on the concept artists and specialist prop makers rather than Gaultier and his tailors, were the jumpsuits worn by the Mangalore aliens that act as the villain's grunts; the Mangalore jumpsuits are made up of ribbed panelling, with large metallic collars and wires sticking out on several parts.