Stargate (1994)

Costume Design by:

- Joseph Porro ( notable efforts: Fright Night Part 2 (1988), Tombstone (1993), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), The Thirteenth Floor (1999) )

Costume Design Genre: Futuristic, Period-Influenced

The film that would eventually be adapted into several long-running TV series, Roland Emmerich's Stargate played with the concept of 'ancient astronauts' being responsible for ancient cultures, in particular Ancient Egypt - in terms of costumes this made for some appealing designs inspired by the fashions of the time period with a scifi flair, with Joseph Porro assigned as the film's costume designer.

The film is mostly set on an unnamed desert world in 'the Kalium galaxy' whose residents are dressed in a pastiche of Middle Eastern garb, in beige and tan gowns and scarves with threaded pieces worn around their necks, all very drab and not worth covering. The most complex costumes to be worn by the tribe are the gowns of the tribal elders, in particular the one worn by Kasuf (Erick Avari), who is in a flowing purple gown with a threaded piece around the chest and shoulders, and worn with a detailed rounded hat fixed with flowing trails of fabric - noticeable, the collar piece has two diagonal lined pieces at each side, the one aspect of the film's futuristic design sense present on the tribe.

The design highlights of the film however, are the various robes and detailed headpieces worn by the evil alien Ra (Jaye Davidson) and his various servants, with their costume inspiration being deeply influence by these of the royalty of Ancient Egypt. Ra's first outfit is a magnificent robe of blue and purple, worn with a metallic corset-like piece on the chest, and of course the the large mask based on the designs of the death masks found on deceased phoroahs, in particular the Mask of Tutankhamun - the mask in particular is an especially impressive bit of design work - whilst the costumes were designed by Porro, the various ornate masks were designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, who was assigned them in the costume & wardrobe department.

Ra's second outfit is not seen for long, but is a white robe with ridged golden lining worn with a similar corset and dress, with this robe having much large space for the shoulders.

Ra's third outfit is designed very similar to his first one, with the robes here a different colour scheme of lilac and blue with golden zig-zag lining, and worn with a rounded collar piece as well as the pharoah death mask again.

Ra's last outfit is perhaps the most splendid yet, a flowing shiny black robe, adorned with silver linings and a collar piece with orange jewel-like pieces (in the shape of scarabs) embedded on it, attached with a horned sun disk fixture on the back. This robe is mostly only seen in close-ups, which doesn't really show just how large and detailed it actually was.

Ra's servants are all in a variety of collar pieces, loinclothes, dresses and headpieces, all in a variety of coloured patterns, noticeably blue, orange, purple and even rainbow patterns, with the collars and headpieces in particular having golden fixtures embedded on them.

The film's most famous design is the uniform of Anubis (Carlos Lauchu), the commander of Ra's personal guard, and is the most futuristic design of the film. The headpiece is a metallic fixture designed to Tatopoulos to resemble the jackal head of the Egyptian god, but is also a mechanical fixture which had an animatronic version built for it in the various close-up shots, with the animatronic mask having blue light-up eyes. The rest of the costume is a metallic collar piece worn over a ridged cyan top and purple skirt, as well as a metallic skullcap with cyan and purple fixed on the sides. Noticeable, the gloves worn by Anubis are also very detailed, with a blue 'jewel' piece as well as clawed finger pieces.

Under Anubis' command is his lieutenant Horus (Djimon Hounsou) who along with the other guards is dressed almost identically to Anubis, with the exception being the shirts are plain white instead, and also instead of metallic jackal masks it is a metallic hawk mask, this one also having animatronic versions built for the close-ups (and the hawk mask 'eyes' having red lights). Like Anubis, Horus' skullcap has ribbons hanging from the sides, to show his rank compared to the rest of the guards.