Travels with My Aunt (1972)

Costume Design by: Anthony Powell ( notable efforts: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), 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), Hook (1991), 101 Dalmatians (1996), 102 Dalmatians (2000) )

This fairly inoffensive comedy film involved Maggie Smith as the amorous Augusta Bertram, the titular 'aunt', whose globe-trotting misadventure has her wearing an array of stunning costumes designed by the late great Anthony Powell who won his first of three Oscars for 'Best Costume Design' thanks to his efforts on the picture. The first we see of Augusta is at her sister's funeral, where she's wearing this rather smart black jacket with an asymmetrical jagged lapel, worn with a feathered wide brim hat and furs.

Augusta's second outfit is this lovely golden print shirt worn over a black fringe skirt and the same wide-brimmed feathered hat - a good deal of the costumes worn by Augusta in the film have a rather 1920s or 1930s feeling to them, which fits given the character is a bit out of touch and still living in her glory days.

This can be seen with this red and black fur lined red coat Augusta is seen wearing afterwards, with a black tricorn hat that also has feathers fixed to it as well.

The tricorn hat is worn again with this rather more stiff black dress with white bands around the cuffs and collar, worn over the same black tights and shoes as well it seems.

When travelling by rail to Turkey, Augusta then wears this black and grey coat that resembles the sort associated with highwaymen of yore, especially thanks to the tricorn hat being worn over it once again, as well as white furs under it.

A flashback sequence to the 1930s involves Augusta wearing this lovely sequined black dress, worn with a silver top as well.

One of the film's most iconic outfits is ironically enough never seen much in it at all, this being Augusta's purple nightgown, only briefly seen when recounting one of her many lovers, that is fitted with a translucent top over it covered in black fur lining, with black fur cuffs as well.

The black fur cuffs appear again on this asymmetrically designed black and white dress, worn in the same flashback sequence as the purple dress above - this particular dress feels like a slight precursor of sorts to the various dresses that Powell would design for Glenn Close in her turn as Cruell in 101 Dalmatians, doesn't it? Also of note is the blue coat worn by another fling of Augusta's lover, with curved lining around the lower half.

Augusta then wears this lovely pink gown with a lilac scarf, fastened at the neck with three crescent brooches.

Towards the end of the film where Augusta finally finds her supposedly captive husband, she wears this patterned black top with a large pointed straw hat.

Later on the same outfit is worn minus the top and hat, and with a wonderfully colourful floral-patterned robe over it instead - I seriously can't do justive to this robe by describing it in words, so I'll just like the screenshots do the talking for me.

Augusta isn't the only flashy dresser in the film, as her assistant Wordsworth (Louis Gossett Jr.) wears this stunning lilac, white and yellow robe covered in various magical symbols due to the character being a mystic of sorts - and then there's that glittery shirt it is worn over too! This outfit was eye-catching enough that it even turned up in the Oscars ceremony when winning its award for 'Best Costume Design'!

Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924)

Costume Design by: Aleksandra Ekster ( A member of the Russian Futurist art movement who, in addition to painting, was a costume designer for several theatre productions - the linked Wikiart gallery shows her lovely abstract costume paintings )

It's been getting to the end of this phase of the blog's journey - almost all productions that could be labeled as properly 'futuristic', as well as the bulk of notable 'fantasy' productions have been covered, meaning that if this was still 'SciFi & Fantasy Costumes Gallery' the entire blog would be packing it in - but that was before I decided to expand the focus to be costume design in general. Still, as a sort of eulogy to having to do any more 'futuristic' productions, I thought it would be really fitting to do the earliest science-fiction film - one whose scale of visual imagination hasn't been matched since, honestly.

Aelita, rumored to have been an inspiration on Fritz Lang's Metropolis, mostly takes place in the then-contemporary Soviet Union, with only a small fraction of the runtime taking place on the strange and beautiful world of Mars. The sets and costumes are delightful, with the costumes having been designed by Russian avant-garde painter Aleksanda Ekster. The alien costumes of Aelita are in line with Ekster's general style, consisting of geometrical shapes often made out of synthetic materials - it's a shame almost that the film is in black and white, as the costume paintings show that they were intended to be very colourful. Firstly there is this dress worn by the titular Aelita's maidservant, cut with bold lining down the waist and legs and worn with a wire headdress.

Another dress worn in this film is this striped deal, which has been fastened with spindly metallic rods around the legs, as if it was a Victorian dress' bustle that had the fabric removed, exposing the underside - and again worn with a curved, metallic headdress.

The titular Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva) meanwhile sports this stunning dress, fitted with panelling that extends over one side of the dress, as well as three circular shapes on the chest - completing this is another extravagant, abstract headdress with rods extending in all directions, like a parody of a wide-brimmed hat almost.

The men of Martian aristocracy are dressed no less strange, with this particular character wearing transparent panelling over his robe, worn with a hat that is made out of a similar material - it seems like the costumes really are a essentially the fashion of 'ancient' cultures (mythologized in early silent films such as Cabiria) seen through the vision of modernist art.

This design sense is seen clearly in the regal garb sported by the Martian's ruler, whose outfit has a more asymmetrical cut to it, and is worn with what seems to be a bulky pad on one of his arms.

Some other notable members of the Martian aristocracy include the astronomer who wears a false beard (like these worn by the nobility of ancient Egypt, perhaps?) made of a geometrical shard of material(!), as well as various nobles wearing angular helmets and gowns with a circular motif on the chest and a squiggly line going downwards.

The soldiers of the Martian society are in revealing uniforms worn with fantastically bizarre helmets, with circular pieces over the shoulders that makes them almost look more like mechanical objects more than human beings, and with the helmet having a sweeping crest of sorts on the top. Apologies for the use of the watermarked stock image, but it was the best one I could find.

The various slavedrivers of Martian society are dressed similarly revealing as the guards, but this time wear more cube-shaped helmets instead, that appear to be a little translucent as well - the various oppressed workers also wear such helmets, but with rags.

Just Imagine (1930)

Costume Design by: Alice O'Neill and Dolly Tree

Most early science-fiction films up to the 1950s were actually pretty shy of imagining how the future denizens would dress. Metropolis, that classic of science-fiction cinema, does have two gorgeous dresses worn by Brigitte Helm, but they are both in a dream sequence and are historical pastiches at that anyway. High Treason and L'inhumaine, two other notable futuristic films from the 20s, did have some stylish 1920s looks, didn't really intend to be that 'futuristic' with their fashions either. And the various Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials of the 1930s were honestly very, very cheap with their ideas of 'futuristic' fashion too.

One of the exceptions to this barring 1924's Aelita: Queen of Mars and 1936's Things to Come, is Just Imagine, a light-hearted musical comedy, whose most futuristic outfits were seen when the cast travel to Mars (always a fixture in very early science-fiction) - the costumes for the Martians here almost rival these of Aelita in just how out-there they are, with special mention going to the Martian queen's silvery, jagged dress! Again, when I find a better quality copy, I will update this section, but really what can I say that these images don't so far?