Batman Forever (1995)

Costume Design by:

- Bob Ringwood ( notable efforts: Excalibur (1981), Solarbabies (1986), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Demolition Man (1993), The Shadow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) )

- Ingrid Ferrin ( notable efforts: Batman & Robin (1997) )

The first of Joel Schumacher's very camp Batman films, which were intended as a tribute to the knowing cheesiness and garishness of the 1960s Batman series to the big screen - whilst tonally more over the top than Burton's previous entries, it wasn't as if these ones weren't goofy and humorous either! Returning from Burton's efforts was Bob Ringwood as costume designer, albeit with Ingrid Ferrin, so I'm not sure who designed what. However, Ringwood was tasked with redesigning the Batsuit once more, giving us the infamous 'Bat nipples' on, as he called it, 'the panther suit'. In his own words; “Over several films,” he says, “we perfected these rubber body suits until we got to Val Kilmer’s [Batman Forever, 1993] with the famous nipples on it. I found a wonderful sculptor, José Fernandez, who supplied much of it – I wanted it to be sleek and sexy like a panther, and it’s known as the Panther Suit. I put nipples on it not to be provocative, but because if you’re sculpting a body it would seem bizarre not to have nipples – they’re like punctuation.” (I mean - he's right, and I'm not just saying that because I'm gay. Okay, maybe I am, but nerds who whinge about it are weak.)

This particular film would have far more garish costumes than the previous two, with some of the most wild being worn by Tommy Lee Jones in his turn as Two-Face, who wears a series of neatly asymmetrical suits that have absolutely insane patterns on the side corresponding to the deformed half of his face.

Two-Face wears a variety of other suits following on this theme, with the most striking being this double breasted suit where the 'evil' half is a bright red patterned material - apparently this was Ringwood's favorite of the various costumes he designed for this particular film! Sadly, it was never used at all in the film...

...as it was replaced by this suit which was almost the same in design, except it was magenta instead of red! It seems it was worn with two different shirts as well, judging by the auction site photos.

Next, Two-Face wears this grungy spin on a ringmaster's outfit which has the 'weird' side coated in spraypaint, with a skull badge and epaulette. Sadly this outfit barely gets any good shots in the film itself, and seems to have no auction site pics or publicity photos of it available at all online...

Another Two-Face outfit that doesn't get much screentime is this particular suit which has the 'weird' side in a shiny purple tiger print fabric, with a large tassled shoulder pad that makes me think a little bit of matador clothing.

Two-Face is flanked at all times by his assistants 'Sugar and Spice', the latter of which wears a rather fantastical BDSM-inspired corset (with skull markings over the front!) as opposed to the former's more bland white lingerie and furred gown, meaning only Spice is truly worth noting here.

The other main villain of the film is the Riddler, played here by Jim Carrey, whose first notable outfit is a green nehru jacket and bowler hat worn over his classic spandex unitard - I feel the nehru suit is the only main diversion from the original comics (and 1960s series) designs for the character, and definitely better than the one from that recent Robert Pattinson Batman film where Riddler just looks like a terrorist. No, I'm not linking it even in text.

Towards the end of the film he wears this dark green jacket with question mark shaped lights coated all over it! Definitely one of the more, uh, 90s design choices!

Later on during the film's finale, Riddler then sports this sparkly spandex jumpsuit encrusted with rhinestones, gold decals and green question marks all over - I wonder a bit if this wasn't a little bit inspired by some of David Bowie's outfits, at least.

It's a bit of a recurring motif in the 90s Batman films to have clowns in them it seems, as once again several colourful circus costumes are made for the sequence where Two-Face attempts to flush out Batman - and of course there are some revealing and tight costumes worn on the men! I really love the colourful jumpsuits with ping-pong balls stuck on them.

This movie also introduces Robin (played by Chris O'Donnell), who before shacking up with Batman - yes, a double entendre on my part - is part of a group of trapeze artists who wear tight spandex bodysuits that are homages to the original comics design for Batman's boyfriend. Oh come on, he is THE gay superhero, it's why Joel Schumacher made his Batman films, and it's why I'm covering them on my blog!

There is also a brief appearance from this music band who are also clad in a variety of colourful and shiny coats - again makes me wonder if this wasn't a homage to glam rock fashions?

Lastly is this extremely 90s outfit worn by the leader of the aptly named 'Neon Gang' - most of the others are just in trampy garb with neon spraypaint, but their leader has them stitched onto his trousers in a manner similar to fringe pants.