Costume Design by: Anthony Powell ( notable efforts: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), Travels with My Aunt (1972), Papillon (1973), Sorcerer (1977), Death on the Nile (1978), Tess (1979), Evil Under the Sun (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Pirates (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Hook (1991) )
Another case of a kids movie that I fairly enjoyed when younger but am far too old for by now, especially now I can see that in some ways it really wants to be
Home Alone with dogs - and I'm too old for
Home Alone by now as is! The absolute highlight of the film though has to be its parodying of the fashion world with some of the most wonderfully crazy costume designs seen in film at that point - this was definitely something that could only have been made when the fashion world was rife with extravagant, almost camp costumes thanks to the likes of Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier, theough Powell's designs do feel a bit indebted to older styles of high fashion as well. In fact, the fashion world repaid the favor by
showcasing Anthony Powell's costume designs in New York Fashion Week! Cruella's first outfit is this pointy shouldered suit with glittery pinstripes and a bold asymmetrical white lapel, worn with a hat and birdcage veil.
Cruella's second dress is this black dress with amazingly long trailing sleeves that have been adorned with black and white feathers, with the collar also being adorned with black and white feathers. Most of Cruella's outfits would follow a white and black colour sceheme mostly in line with her hairstyle.
Cruella's third outfit is this zebra patterned coat worn with a white and black furred hat and red gloves, the chest of the coat being fitted with cylindrical pouches as well.
Next is this tiger print corset and black skirt, worn with a tiger fur cape as well - this outfit is seen better in promotional images as opposed to the film itself.
Another dress that is only briefly seen in the final movie is this wonderful snakeskin dress fitted with a furred collar and feather stitched around the bottom of it - again, thankfully there is a good deal of promotional photos of Glenn Close wearing this costume!
Here is another wonderful dress that just doesn't get enough good screentime, being an asymmetrically patterned white and black dress with jagged edges where the white and black meet, as well as similarly jagged white cuffs and a studded collar.
The last on-screen costume that Cruella wears is this red and black fur coat, worn with a round hat as well - it's barely seen full on-screen, not helped when its covered in muck in the final confrontation!
A deleted scene would have had Cruella sport this leopard print nightgown with a large furred collar and a bow on the chest - sadly the scene featuring this costume was cut, and the only production photos just show Glenn Close wearing it in the bed during filming, I have no idea if there's any publicity photos of it around at all.
There was also this rather slinky shiny black dress with a low-cut collar, that was seemingly more made for publicity shoots and never made it into the final film except as a photo on a magazine cover...that one of the dogs pisses on. Well, it had to find some sort of use I guess.
Lastly for the first film are the various 'background' costumes that are seen in Cruella's fashion house headquarters - I'm especially fascinated by the bold triangular dress. I wonder if these costumes also still exist or have photos of them anywhere about?
Lastly for the first film are some of the costume sketches by Powell for the Cruella character.
The sequel,
102 Dalmatians, was made a few years later, and I've opted to include it here mostly because of it sharing the same design sense, especially thanks to Anthony Powell returning as costume designer! If anything the sequel has even more wild outfits for Glenn Close to wear, with her first being a black and white striped buttoned jacket, stockings and round cap in a parody of a cliched prison uniform having supposedly been reformed.
When leaving prison, the reformed Cruella then sports this buttoned white dress with holes cut around the shoulders and worn with a black bow as well. This is also worn with a large brimmed hat and robe that bring to mind a nun's uniform almost.
Cruella then sports this rather formal suit and skirt that is still very sharply cut, briefly seen being worn with a hat that isn't seen properly on-screen sadly.
Then Cruella sports this rather bizarre but definitely creative jacket made out of what seems to be entirely plastic, and plastic reused from industrial materials at that, with a paper 'scarf' with her name printed on it too.
Next, Cruella sports this rather prim dress that feels slightly inspired in design by Chinese cheongsam dresses, especially with the cut of the collar and lapel.
Coming after is this lovely jacket covered in flowers all over the sleeves, shoulders and bottom, with mostly white flowers until the bottom ends which are pink ones instead.
Cruella's is then wwearing this rather formal houndstooth pattern (ironic choice, ain't it?) jacket and skirt, that has the fancy touch of black-lined white beads for lining.
Of course, Cruella ends up returning back to her wicked ways thanks to her 'reformed' conditioning failing, and as such she endures a transformation which includes her jacket sprouting pointed shoulders, the beaded lining changing, and the houndstooth pattern becoming more silvery and shiny.
After returning to her old ways, Cruella visits a fashion show of her competitor Jean-Pierre LePelt (who we'll get to in a moment), dresses in the memorable 'dragon suit' that is covered in a beautiful Chinese-style dragon print over the back, shoulders and sleeves, with a tasselled dragon print garment over her arms as well.
After this Cruella wears this beautiful shiny tiger print dress with feathers fitted around the collar and bottom of the dress, though sadly it is barely seen in the actual film itself.
Getting more screentime is this black and white alternating patterned dress that is worn with a similarly designed cape that has spots on the outside, zebra stripes on the inside, as well as a raised collar.
Cruella cooks up a plan to catch the puppies again involving a dinner party, and for the occassion dons the amazing 'flame dress' - seriously, words cannot do justice to how pretty this dress truly is, with its sculpted flame collar, shiny trim all down the front, or the massive trailing feather skirt.
Lastly for Cruella's outfits is this black dress with pointed shoulders, a shiny sash and deep collar, worn over an red and black patterned fur coat with several trailing segments that resemble tails as well - this coat is also not seen fully in the film itself thanks to being mostly in the action sequences of the finale, and it gets coated with muck just like the red coat at the end of the first film!
In the sequel Cruella is assisted by the equally volatile French fashion designer Jean-Pierre LePelt, played by Gerard Depardieu who is trying his best to out-ham Glenn Close in all their scenes together for sure! LePelt, who is more than likely a mean parody of Jean Paul Gaultier, is first seen wearing this fairly hilarious outfit consisting of a pair of leopard skin shorts (with a leopard head codpiece!), furred shoulders, and a large tiger skin coat with heavy furred lining.
LePelt is next seen wearing this jaguar skin print buttonless jacket with a jaguar-shaped brooch under the neck - sadly, this outfit isn't really seen fully on-screen at all.
When going to kidnap the puppies, LePelt wears a leopard print double breasted coat, with a tiger skin print neckerchief as well.
LePelt's last outfit is perhaps the most complex since his initial fashion show outfit, consisting of a tiger print shirt that has golden jaguar print suspenders over it, worn under a leopard print jacket or white furred apron when going at his dirty work. And then, as if it wasn't loud enough, he wears a massive tiger print fur coat over it!
Cruella encounters LePelt at his own fashion show, which is an excuse to have even more wild and wacky costumes by Powell, who perfectly paid tribute to whilst skewering high fashion in the form of these wonderfully ridiculous catwalk getups! Like most of LePelt's costumes, they have patterns themed on big cats fur patterns, but there's some exceptions such as the iridescent blue-ish dress, and the large dress made with what resembles plastic trim!
There is also the tiger-print trimmed suit worn by Le Pelt's assistant, as well as the as the dalmatian print suit worn by Cruella's own servant during the surreal sequence where her conditioning breaks and she goes back to bad habits.
Lastly are the various footmen in Cruella's mansion, who wear black uniforms with white lining that itself has black tiles stitched on it.
I suppose now would be a bitter note to remember how the abominable 2021 stinker
Cruella tried so hard to mimic Powell's amazing costume designs, but instead churned out some of the most unpleasant costume designs seen on the screen - though, that describes the costume design in pretty much every Disney property, from Marvel Cinematic Universe to the rebooted
Star Wars to all their live-action remakes.
