Return to Oz (1985)

Costume Design by: Raymond Hughes

The opening and ending sequences of Return to Oz were set in the early 1900s; a pinstriped dress with velvet trim was made for Fairuza Balk to wear as the young Dorothy Gale. According to the Recycled Movie Costumes blog, this costume would end up reused in 2019's Anne With An E.

While it can be assumed that the bulk of the 1900s' casts costumes were wardrobe stock from costume houses such as Angels and Bermans & Nathans, almost certainly Jean Marsh's high-shouldered black dress as Nurse Wilson was custom-made for her. With its dark colour and sharp cut, it already gives a sense of Wilson's callous nature - slightly evoking the 1939' Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West.

The first costumes seen in the fantasy world of Oz are the garish tailcoats and ghoulish masks of the Wheelers. Each Wheeler costume was unique, coated in patchwork fabrics and tubing, giving them a contemporary punk, even futuristic fashion sensibility. Each performer wore wheeled limb-extensions, which I feel must have been a collaboration between the costume and special effects departments.

Hughes' most ambitious design had to have been the first dress worn by Princess Mombi, played in the film by multiple actresses (thanks to the character's ability to swap heads), but primarily by Jean Marsh. Judging by Hughes' original costume sketches, the inspiration may have came from Gustav Klimt's artwork.

The dress itself is coated in golden lining in asymmetrical patternss, and worn with a large cape also with patterned lining; the look is complated with a collar of metallic pieces evoking feathers, with another trailing cloak.

Marsh also wears a puffy-sleeved pink nightgown with patterning on the collar, which is sometimes worn with a burgundy cloak with golden lining, evoking the cape on her first dress.

Another dress was designed and made an elaborate dress for Emma Ridley as Princess Ozma. Ozma's dress has a green and white colourscheme, evoking the Emerald City and giving her an ethereal quality. In a similar manner to Mombi's dress, Ozma's has a collar of metallic segments.

Judging by this promotional photo however, it seems another dress was made for Ridley, this one of a golden colour scheme. Sadly I cannot find any other images of this dress at all; was this a rejected design, or for a cut sequences?

Hughes followed the original Oz books' illustrations when it came to the Scarecrow, with a buttoned tunic and plaid pants; the costumes were made to look patchwork, as after all it's a scarecrow. The second image comes from the Hollywood Movie Costumes & Props blog.

Many other costumes were made for the film's parade sequence towards the end, many of the costumes made to represent assorted characters of the Oz books - it would take a bit too long to name them all, but Scraps the Patchwork Girl and Polychrome, Daughter of the Rainbow especially are highlights.

Several fantastical Emerald City uniforms, in shades of green or red, were also made by Hughes' costume department. Again, the first three images come from the Hollywood Movie Costumes & Props blog.

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!