Return to Oz (1985)

Costume Design by:

- Raymond Hughes ( notable efforts: Countess Dracula (1971), The Pallisers (1974), The Merchant of Venice (1980), Othello (1981), The Far Pavilions (1984), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Space Precinct (1994) )

Costume Design Genre: Fantastical, Period (Nineteenth Century - 1890s)

A more faithful adaptation of Frank L Baum's Oz books compared to the more famous 1930s film, Return to Oz had several aspects that have let it remain as well, not least its reputation for scaring a lot of children - like a lot of 80s childrens fantasy films! Most of the film is set in the magical land of Oz, the first costumed residents of which we see are the infamous 'Wheelers', infamous partly for their cackling demeanor but also their amazingly 1980s fashion sense, with make-up on their faces and clad in garish suits, made with glossy materials and threaded piping, which also connects to the rather demonic helmets they wear - designed like bike helmets but molded to have nightmarish expressions on them, with the thin wiring coming out of them like hair.

The Wheelers are under the control of the evil head-swapping witch Mombi (Jean Marsh - in most scenes), who sports the most ornate outfit of the movie, and an absolutely stunning one at that - a complex, patterned dress consisting of several different parts, each all beautifully threaded with coloured fabrics, with golden metallic pieces around the collar and wrists, and that 'plume' going around the collar - also of not is just how large the gown part of the dress is!

Mombi does have another outfit, a more simple pink nightdress what still has some embroidered coloured pieces around one side of the chest, and in one scene she is wearing a long red gown with it.

The majority of the film's 'fantasy' costumes are sadly only glimpsed mostly in the background in the film's epilogue in Emerald City, where we see a variety of colourful dresses, suits and uniforms worn by the denizens of the cheering crowds, with a lot of very large and colourful headwear on display.

Lastly is the dress and crown worn by Princess Ozma (Emma Ridley), with the dress coloured a light green (fitting in with the theme of emeralds) and with feathery pieces around the neck line, and worn with a crown consisting of green flowers on each side and the 'Oz' symbol in gold.

Man in Outer Space (1962)

Costume Design by:

- Ester Krumbachová ( notable efforts: Ikarie XB-1 (1963), Ta nase písnicka ceská (1967), Martyrs of Love (1967), Pension pro svobodné pány (1968), Fruit of Paradise (1970), The Secret of a Great Narrator (1972), The Straw Hat (1972) )

Costume Design Genre: Futuristic

Good natured science-fiction comedy from the former Czechoslovakia, Man in Outer Space (Muž z prvního století) was about the exploits of Josef (Milos Kopecký), an upholsterer from the 20th century accidentally ending up five hundred years in the future, via a convoluted journey involving accidentally hitching a ride on a rocker launch, and encountering an alien visitor, who he names 'Adam' (Radovan Lukavský), on the way. The fashions of the future in this film are very indebted to the time period, such as the silvery top and dark leggings worn by Eve (Anita Kajlichova), who is the object of affections of Adam, and as such is invited to a fake date by Josef in order to teach Adam about that human thing we call 'love' - during the date, Eve wears a patterned dress with a shiny strip worn at the front, but with the same leggings.

In her very last appearance, Eve wears a different outfit, this being a patterned dress fixed with a flowing part that slightly makes it resemble a cape - also with her is Petr (Vít Olmer), who is just in a top with a slight speckle pattern.

Petr actually sports the most outfits of the film, with one of his first being a white jacket that has been cut in a sweeping curved way, a sort of design flourish that was common with 'futuristic' jackets since even the 1930s (the suits worn by the denizens of '1980' in the 1930 film Just Imagine, had similar cuts to their suit jackets).

Petr's second outfit is a much more outright futuristic design, being a patterned jumper (that seems to be lighter on one side than the other) with shiny cuffs and collar, with a large piece fixed on the collar - the bottom of the jumper is also fixed with a metallic strip as well.

The man in charge of watching over Josef's exploits is 'the academic' (Otomar Krejca) who is in a patterned v-neck jacket worn over a jumper, with the jacket's pattern consisting of black lines arranged towards the bottom of it - the costumes in this film are very 'designy', something which a fair few science-fiction films of the era dabbled in.

Josef is first seen just in his 'first century' (the twentieth century, to be specific) gear, but then sports a suit of the time period, this being one of the film's most striking designs - it is a suit, but the design is asymmetrical, with the lapels crossing each other, and worn with a large plastic piece that is a sort of mockery of a bow tie. Adding to this is the diagonal sliding cut of the jackets bottom, and pinstripe and dots pattern - one wonders what this suit looked like in colour!

There's a few other fashions seen worn by the future denizens of the film - there is a futuristic hazmat suit, though its only really futuristic feature is the headpiece; there are workers in rather Flash Gordon-esque uniforms, with shiny collar pieces; and there are of course other citizens in casual futuristic gear that are fairly similar to the garb worn by Eve and Petr throughout the film, as well as the other suit choices given to Josef at the start - some of these look like they could pass for high fashion now, even!

Lastly is the outfit worn by the alien 'Adam', who is clad in another one of the film's design highlights - a patterned shiny jumpsuit which itself is an inspired design thanks to the pattern, but is finished by being worn with a large feathery collar piece - this costume is perhaps the largest indicator of the film's decade of origin!