Solarbabies (1986)

Costume Design by Bob Ringwood

While heavily inspired by Mad Max, Bob Ringwood's costumes for Solarbabies were of a more futuristic flair. The titular 'Solarbabies' sports team of the title wear a set of futuristic padded sports armor covered in blue, red and pink spraypaint in different patterns.

Their enemies the Scorpions wear more intimidating, gunmetal-coloured armor with masked helmets.

The Mad Max influence is seen clearly with the denizens of Tyretown, clad in the usual tattered leathers. Tyretown's guards are interesting in that they feel like a precedent for Ringwood's cut-up tire armor designs for Demolition Man a few years later, as they sport armor that is similarly made up of torn up rubber tyres!

One aspect that aged badly is the Native American tribe all played by white actors. The tribe's outfits seem to be made up of cut-up patterned fabrics arranged into either very revealing tops, such as the fit sported by Ivor (Terence Mann), or cloaks.

By contrast the 'Eco Warriors', another group of wasteland nomads, wear costumes inspired by Bedouin garb, though with baggy sleeves, deep collars and patterned lining and large panels over the waist.

The Eco Warrior costumes feel a bit similar in design to the Fremen outfits Ringwood had designed for David Lynch's Dune a few years earlier

More outfight 'futuristic' are the uniforms worn by the prison orphanage's staff, such as a briefly seen teacher wearing a prim beige dress. The orphanage's guards wear odd looking jumpsuits with lighter yellow mesh patches, worn with caps.

A futuristic suit was made for Sarah Douglas as the scientist Shandray. This also feels similar to one of Ringwood's Dune designs, namely the dress made for Lady Jessica.

The uniforms of the 'E-Police' wear predominatly blue leather, with the commander Grock (Richard Jordan) wearing a blue leather uniform with ribbed panelling over the shoulders and cuffs.

The soldiers under him wear motorcycle outfits that have been altered with extra panelling, though I don't know if the leather pants and jackets were off the rack or custom-made. You can see the greeblies stuck on what are obviously bought motorbike helmets!

Demolition Man (1993)

Costume Design by Bob Ringwood

The supposed Utopia 'San Angeles' is protected by a police force sporting fascistic and slightly camp uniforms. These uniforms have slight futuristic touches like mandarin collars and a little fax machine on the belt instead of a weapon.

Bob Ringwood wasn't too impressed with the final result as he felt they chose actors who looked too tough and made the uniforms less an ironic contrast. The police chief's uniform also looks militaristic, with his tunics mandarin collar fitted with patches resembling German officer collar tabs.

San Angeles is ruled by Dr. Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) who wears many kimono-like garments with raised collars similar to Edwardian men's suits. The intention according to Ringwood was how, according to the script, people would cover themselves from the sun.

Another reason according to Ringwood was to imply that Asian countries now had more cultural dominance, and historical Asian fashions now were more widespread. India is another one of the nations mentioned as having became more powerful, which is seen especially with how Cocteau's white outfit is worn with a Gandhi cap, possibly as a way of trying to show himself as a man of peace.

His associate, who is aptly named Associate Bob (Glenn Shadix) wears a patterned peach kimono, with a similr belt as to his superior.

The various other citizens of San Angeles also sport fashions that seem to be a mix of Japanese and Indian traditional garments, with some high fashion influences.

The staff of the cryoprison wear smocks that also seem to be in a slightly kimono-like design, made of a shiny blue-green material as well, with ribbed strips down the sleeves and collars.

Even Stallone is made to wear similar garments for when he has dinner at Taco Bell (or, Pizza Hut, if its the European cut), sporting this wide-shoulded shirt made of a patterned dark grey material.

The aforementioned Taco Bell/Pizza Hut dinner scene also has us see the most standout dress of the film; a jewelled short dress worn by Huxley (Sandra Bullock) which is also briefly worn with a grey jacket covered in greyish imitation fur.

Other dresses in this scene include the one worn by Bob's partner, which is black with cream and white lining over the chest, and Cocteau's associate wearing a shiny metallic vest over her grey dress.

The staff at Taco Bell wear dresses and suits, the dresses having a floral material over the back and shoulders, the suits having it over the sleeves with similarly coloured sashes over the waist.

Ringwood opted for a different approach entirely when designing the uniforms of the 'Scraps', the underground dwellers opposed to San Angeles' reign, and who Wesley Snipes' villain Simon Pheonix must inftrate

The Scraps had a look Ringwood described as 'Mad Max but not punky'. Phoenix's Scrap armor in fact seems to be constructed out of what seems to be cut up tyres, arranged to have a raised collar. Edgar Friendly, the leader of the Scraps, wears a makeshift armored jumpsuit, itself worn under a grubby overcoat.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Costume Design by Bob Ringwood

Spielberg's foray in the 'machine gets self-aware' subgenre is by and large a plainclothes affair, which was sadly quite against Ringwood's wishes - his own idea according to the 'Dressing A.I.' featurette was to make it more 'fashionable and catwalky' but Spielberg pushed back, not wishing for it to 'date' or whatever. According to the same interview, Ringwood said he tried out outfits on the character of Monica (Ashley Scott), which I assume include this rather nice patterned shirt. I assume the same applied to the rest of the cast and extras, meaning that Ringwood's design talents were mostly relegated to Jude Law in his turn as the 'Gigolo Joe' prostitute android, who wears a shiny black coat made of fishing line woven as satin that looked like 'liquid metal', to make the character look like a 'romantic hero'. He actually has two shirts (made of a synthetic material), one in white, the other in a shiny purple.

Also very briefly seen is the 'Gigolo Jane' counterpart, who wears a shiny purple catsuit with lining over the chest - this is only seen in the film for maybe less than ten seconds.

The only other notable costumes in the film are seen in the 'Flesh Fair' segment, with the first being the 'Biker Hounds' motorcyclist outfits that are fitted with demonic looking helmets and lights - though infuriatingly hard to make out thanks to being shot at night! It seems only the helmets and armor was made, with the rest of the costume presumably being off-the-rack motorbike jumpsuits.

The Flesh Fair segment also has a cameo from the band Ministry, whose lead singer wears this chrome skeleton outfit that again, is barely seen on-screen, as is the outfit worn by the announcer - judging by this music video (that is in absolutely horrendous picture quality), the announcers outfit was made of a reflective material that would allow parts of it to 'glow' in the studio lights!