Costume Design by Joseph Porro
By the time costume designer Joseph Porro was working on
Super Mario Bros, the production had eschewed the original game's vibrant whimsy for a dystopian,
Blade Runner-influenced look.
Porro's costumes for Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi were still colourful, and used the original game designs as reference, though Porro ditched the dungarees!
Instead, Porro came up with a one-piece jumpsuit with blue highlights. The only difference past the colour was the headwear; Leguizamo wore a baseball cap, while Hoskins wore an old-fashioned flat cap.
The 'thwomp stomper' boots were custom-made by the prop department rather than the costume department, and were constructed using real ski boots as a basis.
Dennis Hopper starred as Koopa, reimaginined as a corporate dictator. Hopper spends most of the film wearing a shiny black suit made of a snakeskin-like fabric, worn with a synthetic reptile-skin shirt, evoking the character's origins as a reptilian monster.
The tie was made up of plastic segments to resemble scales; being a 'hard part', Koopa's plastic ties were not made by the costume department, but instead by Allan Apone and Paul Elliot's Makeup & Effects Laboratory, who handled much of the puppets and costume 'hard parts' in Super Mario Bros.
In a deleted scene, Hopper wears a futuristic uniform as dictator Koopa; it is only seen better in a publicity photograph. Hopper's suit as 'Larry Lazard', meanwhile, was presumably just bought clothes.
Porro designed an array of glamorous costumes for Fiona Shaw as Koopa's wife, Lena. Her first dress is a blue design with a 'hard' chestplate; the breasts are sculpted to resemble broken eggs, fitting the reptile motif.
Shaw's second dress is silver, with jagged edges around the shoulders. It is only seen very briefly in the film, obscured by the mud Lena's bathing in.
Shaw's third dress is a blue and silver stroped design, worn with a blue bolero jacket that itself has silver rings around the cuffs.
Shaw's fourth dress echoes 1980s power dressing, with black vinyl panelling on the chest giving a kinky touch. Unfortunately this is another costume never seen in its entirety in the film.
Lena's fifth (and final) outfit is a blue gown with layers of fabric around the chest, and is cut to expose almost all of the back. Towards the end of the film, it is worn with a bright red cloak with ribbed sleeves and back.
A silk dress was designed and made for Samantha Mathis as Daisy. The Daisy dress is dyed so that the purple fades to white, and it is ornamented with crystals around the sleeves and neckline.
No doubt all the costumes in the Earth scenes, including those of the main players, were bought clothes. However, I feel Porro designed and built the suit worn by Fisher Stevens as Iggy Koopa in the earlier scenes, judging by the pattern evoking scales, as well as the character intended to be larger than life.
While the costume worn by Richard Edson as Spike Koopa in the early scenes consisted mostly of bought clothes, I do feel Porro made the deep plum suit jacket he wears over the contemporary clothing!
Iggy and Spike wear more flashy costumes for the Boom Boom Bar sequence. Iggy sports a grey pinstriped suit with light grey panelling and metallic ornamentation around the shoulders. Spike wears a futuristic 'dandy'-style costume, consisting of a zip-up red waistcoat and futuristic blue frock coat.
The 'Boom Boom Bar' scene also required Leguizamo and Hoskins to ditch their contemporary garb for futuristic disco suits. An orange jacket with pink sleeves and no lapels was made for Leguizamo.
Meanwhile a yellow jacket with jagged lapels and metallic ornamentation was made for Hoskins, the look completed with a zip-up sweater and (bought?) yellow gloves.
A spiked red dress and jacket were both made for Francesca Roberts as Big Bertha, with spiked red gloves completing the look.
While the costumes worn by the extras in the 'Dinohattan' scenes, including the Boom Boom Bar, were bought, I feel the costume worn by Terry Finn as the 'Hatcheck Girl' was designed and custom-made for her!
Several risque metallic outfits were made for the
'Boom Boom Bar Rap' sequence, that also ended up cut from the final film. While the costumes were designed by Porro, they were constructed by Makeup & Effects Laboratory rather than the standard costume department, due to all the 'hard parts'.
A set of futuristic (and slightly fetishistic!) hazard suits were designed and made for the 'Snifits', consisting of chainmail vests and custom-made leather gas masks.
Porro also designed and made another set of futuristic hazmat suits for the 'Shyguys', who wear striped smocks fitted with custom gas masks.
(Interestingly, futuristic hazmat suits feature regularly in Porro's costume design career, in particular 1988's The Blob, 1992's Universal Soldier, and 2006's Ultraviolet).
A set of custom leather police jackets with spiked sleeves were made for extras playing Dinohattan's police. Meanwhile the ties and helmets, again being 'hard parts', were fabricated by Makeup & Effects Laboratory. The shirts, trousers and boots however were most likely bought items.
(The uniform worn by Don Lake as Sgt Simon was presumably an off-the-rack police uniform with the shirt minimally altered to have vinyl cuffs and pockets. The uniforms worn by the 'Devo chamber' technicians were presumably also just bought overalls altered with vinyl pockets).
A set of uniforms were made for the extras playing the Goombas. These were a collaboration between the costume and special effects departments, in particular Makeup & Effects Laboratory.
Porro designed a uniform that was custom-made with a very wide chest and shoulders to fit the puppet harness worn underneath the costume, that would operated the creature head. At least one uniform was custom-made at a 'normal' size to fit Mojo Nixon before he is transformed into a Goomba.
The uniform was designed as a brown overcoat, worn over a leatherette vest and mesh fabric undershirt; the vest and undershirt give the uniform a futuristic feeling, with the overcoat bringing a militaristic flair.
Several of the images on this article are from Larry McQueen's Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design. Much of the information is also derived from the Super Mario Bros: The Movie Archive fansite, as well as this Nintendo Player article of props saved from the film.
