Costume Design by: Ann Bruice Aling (Note: Aling's career was mostly in theatre costume design)
The space opera series that is mostly rememebered for being the first series to focus on having story arcs (which for better or worse, shaped a lot of genre television in the years to come...), Babylon 5 was in the spirit of similar space opera fare such as Star Wars, as well as it's contemporary rival Star Trek. In fact, it has been the source of a long debate as to whether or not Babylon 5 was ripped off by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - but if there had to be something the two shows shared between their basic premises, it would have to be the costume design's sensibilities being entirely rooted in their decade! The costmes in both DS9 and B5 utilized a lot of colourful patterned fabrics, often with such colours and purple, blue and brown, though it would be in the construction that both differed - Bob Blackman's costumes for DS9 tended to be full of asymmetrical patterns and sharp cuts, whilst Ann Bruice's costumes for B5, whilst doing some of these design traits (on the human characters' costumes, anyway, typically had a more theatrical, slightly more typical look to them, especially for the various aliens such as the spiritualistic Minbari, the pompous Centauri and fearsome Narn. Babylon 5, unlike other space opera shows such as the various Star Trek series or Blake's 7, seemed to have a more restricted costume budget, which meant the cast often appeared in the same sort of costume through multiple seasons.
The most striking costume of the entire show, to me personally is the armored deal sported by G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas), the ambassador of the Narn, which consists of an armored chestplat worn over a leather tunic with studded sleeves, gauntlets and boots - the chestplate in particular is covered in so shining metallic segments, as well as little crystal-like pieces and threaded lining. There is also a 'dress' version of this main costume that consists of having a metallic collar worn over the armor, as well as a cape. Again, this is probably the costume design highlight of not just the series but perhaps 90s scifi television in general, feeling both alien and yet very familiar.
In the later seasons, G'Kar would stop wearing the armored chestplate, allowing us to see the padded shoulders and deep collar underneath it - instead of the armor, he would wear a trailing coat consisting of various shades of brown leather, criss-crossed with studded black lining.
In some episodes, G'Kar would be assisted by his diplomatic attache Na'Toth (Caitlin Brown) who wore a smaller armorec chestplate similar in design to the one sported by G'Kar, albeit with one shoulder larger than the other, and worn with a short skirt of patterned leather strips.
Various other members of the Narn species are seen throughout the show, always sporting bulky padded armor made out of similar brown leather material as the outfits of G'Kar and Na'Toth, though often being a bit more simplistic - like NaToth's costume, they tend to be worn over plain black jumpsuits, with the generic soldiers wearing the most simplistic outfits of all. More complex are the armored outfits worn by Na'Far (Stephen Macht) and his bodyguard, with NaFar's outfit being of a similarly asymmetrical design as G'Kar's and Na'Toth's.
G'Kar's nemesis and constant verbal sparring partner, which fueled a lot of the more humorous scenes of the series, was the Centauri's ambassador Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik), an arrogant figure always dressed very loudly (though anything would have to be, to compete with that hairdo...) in the first two seasons in his ceremonial garb inspired by Napoleonic military uniforms. The archaic influence is very obvious in the purple coat adorned in medals and golden strips, as well as the design of the waistcoat, but there are some then-relevant design touches in the form of the fabric that the waistcoat is made out of - the most notable to me being this multicoloured red, orange and blue deal, which sadly doesn't get seen without the coat over it.
Other waistcoats Londo wore in the series tended to be of slightly more subdued fabrics, with him wearing a slightly different waistcoat in the later seasons, distinguished by having a longer, more angular cut to it - the waistcoats are worn over frilly sleeved shirts.
In later seasons, Londo's character would be revealed as a darker figure, which the costume department signalled rather obviously in the form of his coat being made out of a dark blue fabric adorned with silver trim, as well as being of a slightly more severe cut in its design - still with that ruby-encrusted collar badge though!
Most striking of all of Mollari's outfits however, is his ceremonial uniform worn in some episodes, which is worn with an entirely different waistcoat, as well as an angular piece worn over it but still under the jacket - this look is completed by being worn with a sash, as well as a short cape over the jacket. And yet still that ruby collar is still being worn!
Londo is always flanked by his assistant Vir Kotto (Stephen Furst), who dresses a bit more formally, in a grey jacket with blue and yellow panelling around the shoulders and cuffs, and worn over a blue shirt - and like Londo, Vir also has a bizarre 'peacock' hairstyle, as do all the male members of Centauri society.
Vir's second costume is much more obvious of what decade the show was made in, being a multicoloured patterned shirt with purple striped lining around the lapels and cuffs - extremely a product of the 1990s, for sure!
The costumes of the other Centauri men seen in the series aren't as interesting to me, mostly on account of them being just tweaked Goergian or Napoleonic garb by and large - of all the other Centauri men of the series, the only notable outfit is this white and golden tailcoat worn by the emperor of the Centauri Republic, who wears it over a gold and white vest and frilly shirt as well.
The women of the Centauri meanwhile dress ina sort of style that is both intentionally archaic but also made of rather more modern (at the time, anyway) materials - usually following the same basic design of being a fairly typical dress with a shiny panel on the front of it, as well as being worn over tights, a large collar and with a headband. The first example of this is seen in the episode 'Born to the Purple', worn by Londo's old flame Adira (Fabiana Udenio), whose dress is made of a red, gold and white striped material.
Another example is seen in the episode 'Signs and Portents', with the Centauri seer Ladira (Fredi Olster) wearing a dress made out of a shiny golden material with black frilled lace, as well as being worn with a choker itself fixed with a black lace ruff as well.
Rather more simple designs are seen in the episode 'Soul Mates', worn by two of Londo's three wives, Timov (Jane Carr) and Mariel (Blair Valk), who both wear rather more stripped down dresses in comparison to the previous Centauri women seen in the show - Timov's is worn with a red veil and has a longer skirt piece, whilst Mariel's has barely any skirt segment and specially cut sleeves.
The most notable dress worn in this episode however is worn by the third of Londo's wives, Daggair (Lois Nettleton), whose dress has a blocky diamond panel fitted in the middle, itself over a large triangular panel, both of which are of a shiny blue patterned material contrasting against the dark purple of the rest of the dress - this is then cut to expose the chest, with pointed shoulders and a ruffed choker collar as well.
The last of the notable Centauri women in the series is Morella (Majel Barrett) whose dress follows a similar design to the previous examples, and is again made of a colourful material - albeit this one seems a bit rougher and more subdued than the other dresses worn by the Centauri women so far.
We also briefly see a Centauri jester in the episode 'The Long Night', dressed a bit less loud than the average Earth jester, as well as with a hat that only has one dangling sleeve fitted with a bell, as well as being made of a more muted material - also of note are the imperial guards who wear shiny golden tynics emblazoned with some sort of symbol, though the rest of the uniforms worn by the Centauri military are just reused Napoleonic uniforms.
The third of the most notable alien characters in the series was Delenn (Mira Furlan), who throughout the series would sport a variety of colourful gowns very much inspired by the Japanese kimono in design, with top gown being cut to have larger shoulders. Out of all the gowns she wore in the series, I decided to only really screenshot the shiny lilac deal she sported in the first season of the show.
Delenn did however sport a rather unique cream and brown variant in the first season, that had much thicker lining around the sides of the top gown, as well as being cut at the sleeves to show the puffy shirt worn underneath.
Assisting Delenn is her diplomatic aide Lennier (Bill Mumy), who sports a rather oddly designed gown with a bulky shoulderboard, itself fitted with a panel under the chest that honestly makes me think of a bib...the material of the panel, being white with golden lining or brown with red and blue lining, only helps that mental connection.
Lennier' second season outfit is a bit less stiff in design, feeling more consistent with the kimono-inspired gowns of the other Minbari, as well as having a triangular design motif around the chest part too, with golden lining dividing the gown's different panels of fabric.
Lennier's third outfit is almost identical in design to the previous one, but is made up of a lesser variety of fabrics, with more muted colours used as well - gone is the golden-lined white material seen on the previous two gowns.
Lennier's last outfit, worn throughout the remaining seasons, is just a red gown with mottled brown strips of fabric adorning it in an asymmetrical pattern, and I feel this is a good place to highlight the gowns worn by the Minbari telepaths that are seen very briefly in the episode 'Dust to Dust', which also had Vir sporting a brown gown when going to the Minbari's home planet.
The other Minbari character's costumes are not really notable to me with the exception of padded armor worn by their 'warrior cast', who all sport green and blakc lined gowns with thin red strips going over the black, and worn with large rectangular studded armor pads that, in keeping with the Japanese fashion inspiration, sort of make me think of samurai armor.
Another faction that would have prominance in the series would be the 'Rangers', whose most notable member was Marcus (Jason Carter) - and having been founded by the Minbari warriors, naturally their uniform is similar, being worn over a wraparound tunic as well no less, with the cloak having metallic pieces adorning the sides. A more interesting design than
Star Wars' Jedi robes, in my opinion!
The show had several one-off characters during its run, one of the most notable being the 'technomage' Elric (Michael Ansara) in the episode 'The Geometry of Shadows', who sports a futuristic riff on a stereotypical wizard's outfit, his shiny gown being covered in thread that makes it resemble a circuit board!
There was several other minor alien species who made recurring appearances as residents of the titular Babylon 5 spacestation, with one of the most infamous (
mostly thanks to being a vehicle to comment on the then-ongoing genocides going on in Bosnia and Rwanda! I almost want to praise it as ballsy, despite being thoroughly tonedeaf) aliens being the Drazi, who always sport patterned beige gowns lined with golden and silver metallic lining around the sides and collar.
Another alien species on the Babylon 5 spacestation are the fish-like Abbai, who sport a 'watercolour' dress fitted with leather panels around the collar and waist.
Another one-off alien character was the ambassador of the Lumati, Correlilmurzon (Ian Abercrombie) and his translator Taq (Paul Williams), with the former sporting a purple and bronze threaded robe, and the latter in a grey spotted tunic with large puffy sleeves.
The latter seasons, when edging more into outright fantasy territory about a great big mystical conflict against the ancient evil 'Shadows', introduced the ancient being Lorien (Wayne Alexander), who sports a red and grey robe worn with an armor chestplate, as well as a large open collar and shoulder pads.
The Shadows have their own messenger, a 'Drakh', who appears in the episode 'Shadows of Communication' and is clad in a sort of evil version of Lorien's armored robe - whilst barely seen properly in the episode itself thanks to being shown in a weird filter, this robe's armored segments look almost organic in design, and makes me wonder if this was more the special effects and creature designer's work rather than Ann Bruice's - but with these sort of productions, it is always hard to really know who did what.
Another alien species whose costumes blurred the line of special effects and costume departments were the Gaim, whose most striking aspect of their costumes was the bug-like gas masks, as well as the metallic collars that attached the masks to their jumpsuits.
This entry has mostly fixated on the alien costumes of
Babylon 5 for a reason - as the bulk of the humans costumes are fairly uninteresting, usually being uniforms or plainclothes, with some attempts to make 'future' suits by cutting lapels and removing buttons, and so on. One of the most notable examples of any future human fashion in the series was sported by the cyborg Abbut (Cosie Costa) in the episode 'Deathwalker', whose pinstriped grey suit is covered in coloured beads, and wears a fantastic wide-brimmed hat with a band of colourful patterned material.
Most of the other notable examples of future human fashion are worn by the telepath Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson), a 'Psi Corps' member who, as the title indicates, is devoted to acting as a sort of secret police - as such, most of Talia's outfits are very stern and austere in design, usually having a block of black material somewhere on it, such as this first suit having a black strip on one side of the collar - the other most notable aspect of the suit is it having a sort of wraparound cut to it.
Much more infamous is this yellow and black suit sported by Talia in various episodes, with the black strip at the collar putting a stop to this otherwise symmetrical design, that has black panels on the insides of the arms.
Another suit worn by Talia is this light grey and black deal, that has had its lapels turned inwards in to help make it appear more 'futuristic' than it would otherwise appear to be.
Talia's last suit is this asymmetrical dark brown and black deal, with the black strip going over the side of the front.
One other example of this asymmetrical design sense in action in
Babylon 5's future human fashion was this labcoat worn by the secret police official Daniel (Eric Pierpoint) in the episode 'The Deconstruction of Falling Stars', with one sleeve of the suit being dark grey and in a diagonal cut when it joins up with the rest of it - shame that this suit has to have the bloody SS logo on it...
...though on the note of fascist fashion choices, there are the suits worn by the 'Psi Corps' secret police, with their most notable agent being the callous Alfred Bester (Walter Koenig) who is always clad in a suit that has been cut to have only one side resembling a typical suit, with the other half having leather bands going over the side. You see Harlan Ellison cameo in this show as one of these telepathic secret policemen; the role he was born to play frankly.
I honestly neglected to cover the typical 'Earthforce' uniforms seen in so many episodes of the series mostly on account of them being in almost every single promotional photo of the series - about as redundant to cover as the latter era Starfleet uniforms of
Star Trek. However, more interesting in design are the 'Army of Light' uniforms, which not only do the asymmetrical design (cos, admittedly so do the typical Earthforce uniforms), but also are worn with a stiff coat adorned with a heavy leather-like material.
Lastly, are the spacesuits worn by the fighter pilots of Earthforce, which again get on here due to being much more interesting to be in design than the typical scifi pilot uniform (ie the sort you usually get in
Star Wars) - again, like a lot of the future human costume designs, this has an asymmetrical design, with curved lining going down the front, as well as on one of the legs.
