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), 101 Dalmatians (1996), 102 Dalmatians (2000) )
The famous 90s update on Peter Pan that sadly I'm a bit too old and jaded to truly enjoy by now, though compared to whatever kids movies come out now this feels like a cinematic classic, thanks to its fun sets and especially lovely costumes provided by the indomitable Anthony Powell. The various pirates and their costumes were in a way a repeat of Powell's work for Roman Polanski's 1986 clunker
Pirates, with Captain Hook's (Dustin Hoffman) uniform having a lot of gold trim like the various captains in that film, and Smee (Bob Hoskins) wearing a patterned vest as well.
The various prostitutes, who mostly are barely seen in the final film, are in colourful dresses that feel a bit similar to the 17th century dresses Powell had also designed for
Pirates. Especially love the blue dress with yellow, green and purple striped sleeves.
Peter Pan (Robin Williams) and Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) are just in tatty tunics, but apparently
Tinker Bell was intended to wear a much more striking dress that is made with a plant-patterned shiny fabric, with little beads fitted on it too and worn with a choker. Quite a shame this dress never made it to the final film.
Tinker Bell does however wear this lovely dress when she confesses her love for Peter, being a powdery bloe deal with exposed shoulders in a classic fairytale princess look.
Naturally being a Peter Pan adaptation, the Lost Boys make an appearance. Here, the Lost Boys are led by the rogueish Rufio (Dante Bascio) who has remained one of the film's most iconic aspects especially thanks to his outfit that looks both 'tribal' and punk-inspired, especially with the fringed leather top and trousers with holes cut in them - and of course the red and black striped hairdo!
For the final battle against Hook and his pirates, Rufio sports this tribal looking armor covered in bones, with a collar made up of bamboo canes, and with red thread hanging from the sleeves and waist.
There is also the endearingly makeshift armor worn by the Lost Boys in their final battle, made up of wood and bamboo canes, adorned with feathered plumes and painted in a variety of colours - it's a shame that a lot of the armor doesn't have behind the scenes images of them, as most of them are seen in motion anyway! Some of these outfits have been sold on various prop auctions, such as
the helmet or the
roll-up armor.
As for more examples of a slightly anachronistic take on the fairtale setting, the pirates briefly have a baseball match where they sport primitive versions of baseball uniforms (in both burgundy and white) worn with belts and red sashes - the highlights for me have to be the caps!
