Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Costume Design by: Joanna Johnston ( notable efforts: Hellraiser (1987), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Far and Away (1992), Death Becomes Her (1992), Love Actually (2003), The Boat That Rocked (2009) )

The sequel film famous for its rather tongue-in-cheek depiction of the then-future of 2015, one of the most striking things in Back to the Future Part II's, well, future, are of course the fashion sense of 2015 Hill Valley's denizens. Joanna Johnston's various costume designs were designed in close collaboration with the art department, especially some of the more technical costumes such as the jacket worn by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), which needed to have a duplicate made for a certain special effects sequence where it appears to inflate and dry itself out. The jacket was apparently made out of grey rubber (according to Johnston, this was due to Zemeckis wanting it to look like it did't need to be taken to the dry cleaners!) with orange panelling, briefly worn with pale grey trousers with similar cuffs as the jacket. The most colourful thing here however is the cap that Marty wears, being made out of an iridescent synthetic material.

Also in this film is Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), whose futuristic garb here consists of a padded red shirt, patterned with kanji (I think? I'm not sure) lettering, worn with a see-through plastic tie and a large yellowish coat.

There is also Marty's future descendants, all of which are dressed loudly - Marty's aged with wears an orange gown with thick green lining, sometimes worn with a shawl made of a synthetic material, whilst the aged Marty himself wears a plain suit distinguished by wearing a pair of twin ties of garish patterns (a common theme with the suits in this film, intended as a humorous choice - possibly a rebuttal to all the futuristic works before that had people just wearing nehru jackets). Meanwhile Marty's father wears a pair of patterned trousers, and he has a daughter (played by Michael J. Fox in drag) wearing a frilly blue shirt and large, plastic pants.

A similar twin-tied deal is sported by the local mechanic Terry (Charles Fleischer), the difference being that his ties have also been designed to be a sort of waistcoat or belt around the waist, worn with spotted trousers as well - this costunme, like a lot of the more minor characters, is sadly only seen properly in publicity photos. The other citizens costumes tend to all consist of bright colours, often pastels or shiny materials, and a lot of them tend to be rather skin-tight deals too!

There are a good deal of extras seen in the film. and again like Terry their costumes are barely seen on screen - I apologize for the crummy quality of a lot of these images, as they were taken from a pretty poor quality upload of the various behind the scenes documentaries made about the film - when I find a better quality version, I will change them. I also wish I could find any sort of behind the scenes of publicity image of the flying taxicab driver and his costume, as he seems to be wearing some sort of yellow plastic helmet!

However, the most striking of the other future Hill Valley denizens is its local bully Griff (Thomas F. Wilson), dressed in what seems to be a black mesh vest, a ridged shiny green jacket, and black trousers fitted with a codpiece that has had the radioactivity symbol spraypainted over it - completing the look is a metallic helmet. In a way this design feels pretty much in line with what the stereotypical view of 'cyberpunk' characters dress like, even though the bulk of media involving such themes was pretty much plain clothes!

Griff is flanked by a trio of lackeys, with the most notable among their number being Spike (Darlene Vogel) who wears a black and white patterned top and black skirt, with necklaces and bracelets made out of bullet cartridges no less! The other two members, Data (Ricky Dean Logan) and Whitey (Jason Scott Lee) are dressed a bit less flash, with Data wearing an armor chestplate covered in electronic buttons whilst Whitey has metallic segments over his zip-up jacket, as well as his hair poking through his helmet.

Lastly, whilst not a 'futuristic' design but still notable enough to include here, is the shiny purple dress worn by Marty's mother in an alternate present-day timeline created due to a mishap involving a sports almanac and some lucky bets - definitely one of the most risque costumes of the film thanks to its deep collar, this feels like a sort of precursor to the dresses that Johnston would design for Death Becomes Her a few years later!

Message from Space (1978)

The Japanese attempt to get in on the Star Wars craze, Message from Space unfortunately did not have any costume designer credit at all, so I can't give any name to the various costumes of the film.. The bulk of the human characters in the film just wear off-the-rack contemporary clothing, but it can be safe to assume the main cast all had most of their costumes bespoke made, rather than bought. The two main leads Aaron (Phillip Casnoff) and Shiro (Hiroyuki Sanada) both wear white racing jumpsuits of different designs; Aaron's is buttoned up and has chevrons of yellow, red and dark blue, while Shiro's consists of a biker-style jacket and flares with brown stripes and panels.

Meia's (Peggy Lee Brennan) wears two lovely dresses that are similar in design, and thus designed for the picture; the first one she wears is black with silver trim, and worn over an orange shirt, that noticeably has asymmetrical sleeves with one being shorter than the other.

Meia's second outfit is a glittery green top with a downwards pointing black triangular panel, worn with a headscarf of a similar material, and worn over dark green leggings.

Jack (Masazumi Okabe), being a sleazy huckster, dresses in an overcompensating fashion, wearing a jacket and straw hat of silvery patterning; his flat cap and windbreaker jacket are made of the same material, indicating the jackets and hats were bespoke made for Okabe.

Jack is introduced in a bar, whose patrons are entertained by dancers wearing these golden headdresses and chest pieces.

Slightly More restrained are the various uniforms worn by Garuda (Vic Morrow), who is introduced wearing a light blue uniform with large white lapels and buckles instead of buttons; considering the other military characters' uniforms are all rented or bought from uniform suppliers, this must have been bespoke made for Morrow to wear.

Garuda's dress uniform is again bespoke-made and is much more archaic in design, being a double-breasted red jacket with golden trim all over, worn with white trousers.

When going into combat, Garuda wears a silver zip-up jackets and trousers that slightly resembles racing gear, but I feel was also specially made for Morrow in the film.

The film's plot involves the leader of the people of Jillucia, Emeralida (Etsuko Shihomi), trying to enlist warriors to help her fight off the aggressive 'Gavanas Empire' - and Emeralida is always dressed in a white gown, worn with silver necklaces, and the gown itself adorned with shiny dotted pieces all over. It's more striking than Leia's plain dress in the original Star Wars, honestly.

Of course, the design highlight of the film are the Gavanas themselves, in particular their leader Rockseia (Mikio Narita) who is clad in an orante armored suit, covered in golden trim - in particular it is the helmet that is the most striking aspect, sculpted with three pairs of horns and a skull motif over the forehead. The rest of the Gavanas' outfits follow the same general design, except having dark green vinyl vests (with what look like ammo rounds attached) over their armor, and only one pair of horns. Some of the Gavanas soldiers wear gas masks designed to look like they are glaring, in a manner similar to the skull-like helmets of the Star Wars films. Rockseia and his officers wear patterned capes.

Hans (Sonny Chiba), the rightful heir of the Gavanas throne, is dressed in a less obviously 'evil' armor design, this one being more grey in colour but still with detailing around the chest and waist - his helmet also is slightly different, having a crest on its top in addition to the horns.

Lastly is Rocksia's mother, played by Hideyo Amamoto, who wears a plain red gown but with a ornately designed crown.