Dune (2000)

Costume Design by:

- Theodor Pistek ( notable efforts: I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen (1970), The Girl on the Broomstick (1972), Salt & Gold (1983), Amadeus (1984), Rumburak (1985), Valmont (1989), Children of Dune (2003) )

The second adaptation of Frank Herbert's book, intended to be more faithful to it than David Lynch's ill-received 1984 film. This version of the story was produced and broadcast on the SciFi Channel (long before it had renamed itself to 'SyFy' and devolved into the awful CGI monster joke it is today), and was split up into a three part miniseries in order to follow the books plot closer. This particular version would have a very different style with its costumes, designed by Theodor Pistek. Pistek's designs were worlds apart from Bob Ringwood's costumes for the 1984 version, with far more colours, ornate trappings and a more diverse range of influences. However, there is a trickle of influence from Moebius's designs for the ill-fated Jodorowsky adaptation, in particular the conical hats of the Guild Navigators and the uniforms of the Harkonnen soldiers (admittedly, these were cribbing Japanese medieval garb in the first place) with this being much more apparent in Pistek's original costume sketches on the DuneInfo website.

Pistek's design approach contrasting with Ringwood's can be seen perfectly in the designs of the uniforms worn by Duke Leto (William Hurt) and his troops, as not only are they entirely far removed from any existing uniform (ironic, considering Pistek actually did design military uniforms, in this case for the Prague Castle Guard), but each are totally individual depending on the character. All the uniforms seem to be made out of brown leather, with Leto's being a rather stiff tunic with no buttons or zips, and ridged shoulders. During some dream sequences, he sports a gold lined cape over it.

During the dinner scene in the first episode, Leto sports an ornate dress uniform consisting of a long black coat with a strip of metallic golden material in the center, with pads on the shoulders, worn with a golden belt.

Paul (Alec Newman) also sports a brown uniform of a different material and cut, fixed with golden triangle buttons, as well as two large leather shoulder pads, worn with a belt and over a lined jumper.

When out of uniform, Paul just wears a simple brown leather tunic, cut in a way to resemble a gi, but with no sleeves.

During the dinner party, Paul sports a stiff white dress tunic that again has large padded shoulders fixed with golden pieces, and cut in a way where the tunic doesn't go over the front of his black trousers.

At the very end of his journey, whereupon he is now known as Muad'dib to the Fremen, Paul is crowned the new Emperor, during which he a long white gown worn with a short cloak with the royal symbols on them, accompanied with a headband also with the royal emblem on the front.

Leto's wife, the Lady Jessica (Saskia Reeves) is first seen in a simple black dress fixed with metallic silver material on the chest and waist, worn with a short cape made of a white pattern.

During the dinner party, Jessica wears a pastel blue and pink dress with a silver choker, worn with a blue cloak over it - a shame this one in particular isn't seen in more detail.

During Muad'dub's crowning, Jessica sports the most complex dress, a black and gold patterned dress fixed with a striped large open collar, finished with a metallic golden headpiece, the most outright futuristic of all of her outfits.

The Atreides' personal 'mentat' Thufir Hawat (Jan Vlasak) sports a colourful outfit that is far removed from the more reserved fur-lined coat that the character wore in the Lynch version, this one being a purple gown worn over green shirt, with a golden piece fixed on the shoulder, and finished off with a cylindrical purple hat. This, along with many other outfits in the miniseries, seem to reflect Pistek's work of primarily historical/period productions (such as Amadeus), with a good deal of the outfits having some form of historical precedent in design.

This historical-influenced design sense is also evident in the design for the costume of Dr. Yueh (Robert Russell), who sports a yellow cloak with blue internal lining and trousers (a visual gag of the character being a turncoat?) worn with a leather collar and shoulder pads, and a leather hat with a yellow tripe and a red top.

Dr Keynes (Karel Dobry) is the Emperor's agent sent to study the Fremen, and is clad in a uniform consisting of a dark olive green tunic, with the flap having a triangular golden clasp, and a purple pauldron on his left shoulder.

Gurney Halleck (P H Moriarty) and the Atreides soldiers under his command are dressed in similar uniforms to Duke Leto and Paul, though all different cuts. Gurney's uniform is made entirely of a brown leather-like material, with a metallic piece going around his collar.

Meanwhile Duncan Idaho (James Watson) is clad in a uniform with a ridged leather piece going over the front (implied to be a standard officers uniform, as other Atreides officers are briefly seen in the background wearing caps).

The rank and file Atreides soldiers however, have brown uniforms again with leather patches around the shoulders, worn with rounded caps that resemble a cross between a peaked cap and a pith helmet.

During the dinner scene at the Atreides' Arrakis palace, there are several guests all with a variety of wonderfully ornate dresses, all worn with a variety of outlandish headwear, all of them looking like they have just walked out of a fashion show! Most of the guests are only briefly seen, but special mention has to go to the one seen discussing with Thufir, in his blue and red gown and hat fixed with golden thread. Also briefly seen are footmen in dark blue tunics with the royal emblem on the front.

During his time with the Fremen, Paul elopes with Chani (Barbora Kodetova), a Fremen who for most of the miniseries is clad in the Fremen's various dreary tunics (but we'll get to that in a but) except for during his crowning as the Emperor, where she sports an ornate white dress with a large curved headdress with it, designed in a way that resembles a fan almost.

The Fremen however, have some of the most uninteresting outfits in the miniseries, mostly clad all in dull tunics and cloaks. Stilgar (Uwe Ochsenknecht) is mostly dressed in such garb, though at Paul's crowning he wears a large green cloak and hat that resembles a phrygian cap. Jessica mostly wears drab gowns, though at one point wears a conical veil, as well as a green and red patterned shirt. Paul wears a dark blackish tunic that has the collars popped up, and one Fremen wears a similar hooded headpiece designed like Stilgar's green headgear.

The Fremen have their own Reverend Mother priestess, Ramallo (Drahomíra Fialkova) who is in a brown gown cut at the shoulders and worn over a white jumper, worn with a headpiece that almost resembles horns, with a white piece in the top middle and worn with beaded necklaces from each side.

Jessica replaces Ramallo as the Fremen's Reverend Mother, whereupon she dresses similar, her 'horned' headpiece lacking the ornateness or threaded beads, though she has two bone-like pieces fixed on her chest.

Of course, the Fremen have their 'stillsuits' in this adaptation as well, and these designs truly reflect how different Pistek's approach was to Ringwood's when it came to designing the 'look' of Dune's worlds. The stillsuits in this take are much less ornate or or sexy than Ringwood's stillsuits, but look much more formal and technical, with wire patches fixed on the front, and worn with breathing masks and hoods. The stillsuits differ greatly with their colour schemes too, in this case being eithe dull green or tan, to better camouflage in the desert.

Paul's sister Alia (Laura Burton) meanwhile is in something that resembles a nun's habit with a yellow emblem (designed like a sun) on the front, worn with either a black or yellow veil.

The events around Arrakis have partly been orchestrated by the Emperor Shaddam IV (Giancarlo Giannini), who in this adaptation sports many often very colourful outfits, the first of which being a black gown worn over white shirt, with purple shoulders and a plastic open collar - this is completed with a stylized purple headpiece.

For most of his scenes however, the Emperor wears a very garish sparkly blue and purple gown, that is even worn with a shiny purple sash! When journeying to Paul's crowning, the outfit is completed with an immediately eye-catching golden shoulder board fixed with two starched white 'wings', fixed with a golden and purple patterned cape.

The last of the Emperor's outfits is perhaps his most formal one, being a white uniform consisting of a white tunic and trousers, fixed with gold and purple lining around the arms, shoulders and tunic flap. This uniform is worn with a purple cape.

The Emperor's daughter, Princess Irulan (Julie Cox) also sports several outlandish outfits, with her most memorable one being her dinner dress, a mostly typical white and silver deal were it not for the plastic butterflies stuck around the shoulders, worn with an elaborate winged headpiece also fixed with butterflies!

Irulan's main dress however is a more simple purple dress with golden cuffs and patterns on the shoulders, sometimes worn with a large golden collar piece.

When investigating the Harkonnens on Geidi Prime, Iruland sports blue dress worn with golden jewellery, and again with oversized headwear, in this case a large golden helmet fixed with an upside-down crescent piece.

In some scenes in the Emperor's palace, Irulan sports her most restrained outfit, this being a white dress (designed a bit like the purple dress worn more usually) but fixed with lace patterns on the front and cuffs, and worn with a headband also coated in lace patterns.

Irulan's last dress however is very striking, being a shiny golden dress worn with a black cloak, and of course another large headpiece, this one itself designed in a way almost looking like a butterfly's wings.

Irulan's personal maid is in a variety of outfits, with first of them being what seems to be a reuse of Jessica's black dress, just fixed with a plastic collar and worn with a lace piece on the forehead. This same maid wears nothing but a necklace and forehead jewel during a more sexual scene, and also habit and shiny skirt dress, with a triangular jewellery piece on the forehead. Another servant, seen at earlier in the second episode, wears a black dress that again has a plastic collar.

The Emperor's advisor Fenring (Miroslav Taborsky) sports a rather striking outfit (that slightly resembles Yueh's) consisting of a purple gown and leather piece around the collar and shoulders, with red sleeves and a hat made of a metallic piece around the scape with purple fabric over it, slightly resembling a futuristic phrygian cap.

The Emperor always maintains an entourage of officers, scribes and door guards, with the officers in simple white tunics, and the scribes being in grey cassock-like gowns with purple strips down the front. Several door guards are scene usually at a distance, these being clad in uniforms consisting of  purple baggy sleeved tunics, worn with golden armor and around the head, a purple headcloth fixed with orange 'ponytails' on each side, finished with a purple tricorn hat. Some other servants are seen in similar uniforms to the scribes except its only a single wide purple patch, and various guests are seen, though the most ornate outfits are sadly never seen properly.

The Emperors bodyguards are in purple and gold uniforms, sporting large conical hats (that may or may just make people think of Moebius - but really, these hats were originally Japanese feudal headgear) these hats have golden trim and visors, and are worn with golden armor and purple baggy gowns.

The Emperor's Sardaukar stormtroopers meanwhile, are clad in imposing, black uniforms consisting of leather chest armor with belt, spiked shoulder armor pieces, and over a cloth collar, worn with a large beret - this is a marked contrast to their uniforms in the Lynch film, which made them entirely anonymous. In keeping with the Emperor's colour being purple, even the Sardaukar have purple sashes around their waist.

The Bene Gesserit are arguably one of the guiding forces of the story, led by their Reverend Mother Gaius (Zuzana Geislerova), who again sports a dress consisting of a massive hat designed in a way to resemble wings, fixed to a golden skullcap (which lets her hair exit, with is braided to end in metallic pieces), and worn with a blue habit coated in golden patterns - this uniform makes them resemble nuns far more than they did in the Lynch film.

The general Bene Gesserit witches wear similar blue habits, except that instead of golden patterns its white, and the hats worn are more akin to futuristic riffs on both a nun's cornet and Edwardian women's hats - like Gaius, their hair is braided with metallic pieces on the ends.

The Guild Navigators are clad in a uniform that is again totally a contrast to the Lynch film's version, and is also deeply inspired by Moebius' work, with again the conical hat being a giveaway - the rest of the uniform is made of a blue velvet, with flaps around the top and the gown opening to show the blue trousers and boots.

There is a sort of colour coordination of sorts with the various factions of Dune - the Atreides and Fremen mostly are clad in Earth tones, the Emperor and his associates are clad in outfits that incorporate purple, the Bene Gesserit and Guild Navigators are both in blue, and of course the evil Harkonnens all wear red. The scheming Baron Harkonnen (Ian McNeice) is first seen in a a red and black outfit that resembles an oversized gi, with an asymetrical collar, with is often obscured by a large cloth collar fixed with a metallic piece.

The last of the Baron's outfits is a rather more simplistic red robe that is curved around the shoulders, and has black fur lining around it, with a more shiny material on the sides, as well as a circular medallion-like piece on the front.

The Baron's nephew Feyd (Matt Keeslar) sports two main outfits, his first (and most ornate) being a polka-dot patterned red and black dress that resembles a kimono, with the black arms being cut to be be streaming, and the dress fixed with a stiff triangular white piece on the back of the outfit - underneath this outfit, Feyd wears bright red trousers with golden buckles.

In his other scenes, Feyd sports a more typical red padded uniform with large shoulders, with this and his brother's uniform (seen further down) being very inspired by one of Moebius' concept designs for the Sardaukar in the Jodorowsky attempt - one version was bright red with silver armor pieces, and this was the influence for a lot of the Harkonnen uniforms in this version.

The Baron's other son, the Beast Rabban (Laszlo I. Kish) is first seen in a darker red tunic with golden trim and a golden should armor piece, worn with black combat armor trousers - most likely spares from the Sardaukar uniforms seen earlier!

For the rest of his scenes, Rabban sports a similar red uniform to Feyd, with this having silver armor pieces on the legs and arms, and also has a silver chest armor plate worn underneath, very transparently inspired by Moebius' one piece of the scarlet armored Sardaukar.

The Harkonnen's mentat, Piter De Vries (Jan Unger), sports a dark red coat with rectangular buttons (a design trait on all the uniforms seen in the miniseries) with bright red leather gloves, and a cylindrical dark red hat with orange lining.

Lastly are the Harkonnen's soldiers, who are all clad in red and black uniforms with metallic silver armor around the shoulders and collars, with two main types of headwear - the first headwear is a red hat that resembles a 'budenovka', the hat worn by the Red Army during the Russian Civil War (incidentally, the Harkonnens were based on the Soviet Union to a degree), with the second being a black helmet and grimacing mask that somewhat resembles the design of a samurai helmet, and was most likely inspired by Moebius' concepts for the Jodorowsky version as well.