Monday, 8 January 2024

Ferat Vampire (1982)

Costume Design by Theodor Pistek

A gloomy, paranoid thriller focusing on the machinatons of an evil automobile corporation; said corporation's minions play with the film's vampirism themes by wearing blood red and black clothing. The corporation's owner, Madame Ferat (Zdenka Procházková), is introduced wearing a ruffled black top with large cuffs, and a black and blood red scarf. I feel Ferat's other costumes in the film were all bought, so have neglected to cover them.
Ferat's flanked at all times by a squad of leather-clad women; the lesser minions wear simple vinyl jumpsuits with deep necklines held together by a badge of the company logo, but their head henchwoman sports a very space age and kinky jumpsuit with large shoulders and a deep v-neck.
The last of the film's bespoke costumes (everything else appears to be off the rack contemporary clothing, or workwear modified to have the Ferat logo stuck on) are the racing jumpsuits worn by the vampire car's drivers; notice the red pinstripe pattern. It's also worth noting that costume designer Theodor Pistek also designed the paintjob of the modified Skoda Super Sport used in the film, as well as the accompanying lorry and Land Rover the company also have; in a way, Pistek was the vehicles' own costume designer too!

Saturday, 6 January 2024

Genesis II (1973)

Costume Design by William Ware Theiss

A pilot film for a prospective Gene Rodenberry series that never came to fruition; Gene Rodenberry would rework the concept into Planet Earth a year later. Set in the far future, where protagonist Dylan Hunt (Alex Cord) is awakened by members of PAX, whose members wear futuristic jumpsuits with baggy sleeves and buttons on the shoulders and come in a variety of colours.
The military forces of PAX wear the same overalls but with futuristic combat jackets worn over them; they are constructed from a burlap and died in a painted camouflage pattern, with large flaps on the back, acting as built-in backpacks.
The elders of PAX wear wraparound gowns, with the women wearing wearing a variant with raised shoulders.
The civilians residing in PAX's underground base wear gowns made out of a dyed material; possibly shower curtains I imagine.
Opposing PAX are the Tyranians, whose dress sense is partly informed by Greco-Roman fashions, fitting in with their authoritarian society; the males of Tyranian society wear a v-shaped tabard-like garment going down from the shoulders, with a mosaic pattern belt and cape. This is completed with a fur-lined cape.
The Tyranian guards dress less glam, thought despite appearing to be rags their uniforms are designed; the shirt goes down as v-shape, with the sleeves and leggings strategically cut around the back, showing the wearer's legs and arms.
The Tyranian we see the most of in the film is Lyra-a (Mariette Hartley) who wears the most costumes in the film - her original costume (ie not one of the PAX jumpsuits) is a blue gown with threading around the collar. Underneath this she is wearing a geometrically patterned colourful of underwear.
The next costume she dons is a futuristic pantsuit with the top being a similar design to the Tyranian guards; worn under this is a bra made of the same material. Worn over it is a fur-lined beige and tan cloak.
When encouraging Hunt to join the Tyranians, Lyra-a sports this purple patterned gown; this would be reused by costume designer William Ware Theiss in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically the episode 'Angel One'.
And when these attempts fail, she sports this lovely pink dress with gold trim on the bottom.
Lyra-a's last outfit of note follows on the 'diamond top' design seen with the other Tyranian's dress sense; the dress itself is made of a colourful mosaic pattern, with little strings at the shoulders. Worn over this is fur-lined cloak.

Wednesday, 6 September 2023

A bit of a hiatus and a shakeup

Hey anyone who's been checking out this blog still; life's been a little hectic these last few months, so I've not been updating this as much; combined with social media turning out to be even more of a crock thanks to Boer billionaires, even Blogger's starting to feel uncertain as a platform.

Though I'd hope that Google isn't run by quite as insane people, the net already feels like in such a bad state - NFTs, AI ''art'' (disgusting pictures), dead-end spammy directories, so on. It's hard to feel optimistic about how things are going.

I also decided to delete the 'costume designer retrospectives' and will no longer do these; partly, they make the project feel like a chore rather than a fun and free-wheeling hobby, and also so many costume designers, especially in the Golden Age of Hollywood, have such long careers! Never mind that costume design is a group effort as is, especially in later decades. I will just keep to the old method from now on, whenever I feel like doing more blog posts again, and I hope that will be soon.