Costume Design by:
- Bob Ringwood ( notable efforts: Excalibur (1981), Solarbabies (1986), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Demolition Man (1993), The Shadow (1994), Batman Forever (1995), A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) )
- Mary E. Vogt ( notable efforts: Hocus Pocus (1993), Theodore Rex (1995), Men in Black (1997) )
Note: Ringwood was costume designer on both films, but was assisted by Vogt on Batman Returns, in particular on the Catwoman costume.
From back when superhero movies were a novelty rather than swamping the entirety of Hollywood, Tim Burton's Batman films still remain slick and stylish efforts that partly act to showcase his love for Expressionism in the form of the moody, almost fantastical take on Gotham City. One aspect of the film that has aged very well was the costume design, for which designer Bob Ringwood here was partly motivated by his hatred for the 'spandex' look (something he despised in both science-fiction and superhero media) in completely changing Batman's look;
"I had decided from the beginning that this ‘Batman’ was not going to be in blue knickers,” (...) “I hated those. Bats are black, of course – not blue – and black is much more sinister and sexy. After talking to Batman creator Bob Kane, we found out that he had always thought of ‘Batman’ as being in black, but that it was very difficult to draw a black-on-black drawing for the comic strip. So he had drawn it in blue so that he could use different tones of the color for effect. In his mind, the blue was just a symbolic version of black. Our black costume was really nearer the original concept."
Ringwood was assisted by fellow costume designer Vin Burnham in the actual realization of the rubber suit, which had faux musculature sculpted on it in order to compensate for Michael Keaton's less than bodybuilder physique. This was the start of, as Ringwood jokingly called it, his 'rubber goods career' though really, that was probably started by his work on Dune.
Of course, Batman's nemesis the Joker, played hammily by Jack Nicholson, also had to be reimagined for the big screen, and in finding the right balance on how to do it...well, I'll let this entertaining aside from Bob Ringwood speak for itself;
'His costume had to reflect the original comic strip, so it had to be purple and green. (...) Jack said that I could do whatever I liked as long as he didn’t look silly. Luckily it turned out that aubergine, the colour of his overcoat, is one of the colours of the Lakers, the basketball team he supported.' It should be worth noting that there's two main suits for the Joker in the film, with the first being a classic pinstriped suit but purple with the pinstripes being green and orange - Nicholson actually wears
a more subdued version of the suit when on the gang mission which leads to his fateful confrontation and transformation into the grinnging green-haired git.
His second suit, which is a bit of a spin on the classic zoot suit look, with the tailcoat being a little bit on the 'dandy' side as well, remains much more iconic - I mean, he spends most of the movie wearing it, even if with a beret sometimes. As you can see from the screenshot,
his goons are just in purple leather jackets, which aren't really interesting past the colour.
The rest of the film's costumes aren't too noteworthy, with even Vicki Vale's (Kim Basinger) dresses being fairly so-so in my opinion. It should be worth noting that Vale's dresses were not the work of Ringwood according to the credits, but rather Linda Henrikson's, who doesn't seem to have any other film credits -
according to this costume auction link, the white dress that Vale sports was made by Chelsea Design Company, which I suspect means it was fashion lines that provided Vale's wardrobe rather than designed for the film.
Ringwood would return as costume designer for the sequel, with help from Mary E. Vogt this time around. Whilst Burton's take on Penguin (played, again very hammily, by Danny DeVito) was more a special effects job than a costume design job (the grotesque visage and fatsuit were Stan Winston's work, and all he wore over the fatsuit was a typical gentleman's suit based on the original comic's design), this meant that Ringwood and Vogt were assigned both to tweaking Batman's suit (which was similar enough to the first film's that it is redundant to mention here) as well as coming up with the costume for Catwoman, here played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Based on Tim Burton's own sketches, this version of Catwoman would have stitches on her vinyl catsuit, which naturally was a nightmare for Pfeiffer to wear!
As Selina Kyle, who Catwoman is the altar-ego of, Pfeiffer wears a variety of very drab and non-descript coats, a good deal of which I suspect were bought -
this particular coat definitely was, as the auction site lists the fashion brand that made it, Lilli Ann. Out of Selina's various outfits, the most notable has to be this sequined dark blue dress she wears in the masquerade ball sequence.
Another sparkly dress is worn by the unlucky 'Ice Princess' beauty queen, her sparkly silvery dress being patterned in a way that brings to mind icicles and snowflakes, lined with white imitation fur as well for the Christmas kitsch factor too.
Carrying out the Penguin's dirty deeds here are the former members of the 'Red Triangle Circus' who sport some of the film's more elaborate costumes - sadly the frenetic and moody direction means we don't get a glimpse of these costumes properly, which is a shame. Firstly are the various clowns and acrobats who make up the grunts of Penguin's armor, a lot of their outfits consisting of grey and black, with the clowns on motorcycles wearing large bulbous skull masks too. Similar skull masks are worn by the stilt walkers, whose outfits are mostly notable for the star spangled banner patterned trousers.
There's a plethora of more 'individual' members of the circus troupe, all of which sport lovely ornate outfits...that do not get any real screen-time at all. First to name are the various male members and their attire, such as the red doublet and devil horned hood sported by the 'Firebreather' (John Strong), the patterned black tunic worn by the 'Sword Swallower' (John Strong, again), the colourful shirt worn by the 'Organ Grinder' (Vincent Schiavelli) and the golden vest worn by the 'Tatooed Strongman' (Rick Zumwalt).
The female members of the troupe are dressed no less whimsical, with the 'Snake Woman' (Flame...no, that was indeed the actress' stage name) in a leather corset with silver lining and cuffs, the 'Knifethrower Dame' (Erika Andersch) in a cut up shawl covered in dangling tassles, and the 'Poodle Lady' (Anna Katarina) in a lovely pink and gold bodice with a jewel in the center of the chest, worn over a pink robe.
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