Roundtable: Speculative Chic

In honor of the long-standing tradition that is the Vogue September Issue, we’re doing our own take for this month’s Roundtable! We’re talking the memorable fashions from science fiction, fantasy, and horror that truly wowed us. The speculative genre’s key question is “what if?” and costume designers ask the same question when it comes to bringing a world or character to life through clothing. From the iconic uniforms of Star Trek to the ethereal elves in The Lord of the Rings; from Blade Runner‘s retro-futuristic replicants to the famous ace-bandage “suit” in The Fifth Element…there’s a wide variety of styles out there, and all of them iconic. Come explore our favorites!

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Kelly McCarty: Fashion in a speculative work is a difficult topic for me, as I don’t follow very many speculative TV shows or movies. However, one character whose costumes have captured my imagination for going on twenty-eight years is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. When I was a little girl, the Disney princess phenomenon was not the juggernaut that it is today. Honestly, my favorite Disney movie was (and is to this day) The Lion King. I was ten years old when the cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast came out, and Belle was the first Disney heroine I could relate to. I was a nerdy, socially awkward child who preferred reading to socializing, which is still true in 2019. My favorite day of the week was Wednesday because it was the day we got to go to the library instead of gym or music class. When Belle is twirling around in excitement over visiting the book shop, I understood. The townspeople ostracize Belle; the other kids excluded me. I would probably agree to marry a man, no matter how hairy he was, if he gifted me an amazing, humongous library. It is entirely possible that I chose Belle as my favorite princess solely because she was a brown-eyed brunette and so am I — this did happen when I was a fifth grader.

I had a Belle Barbie doll with both of her iconic dresses — the blue peasant dress with the white apron and the gold ballgown. I thought the gold dress, designed by Mark Henn, James Baxter, Don Hahn, and other crew members, was the most beautiful dress in the world. To me, it was the dress of being loved for who you truly are inside. I kept that Belle doll until I was far too old for it. The 2017 live action remake of Beauty and the Beast disappointed me because the gold dress was understated and not as large and spectacular as I imagined. I feel bad for little girls because even though Emma Watson is beautiful, her doll was hideous. I have to agree with the Internet, the doll looks like Justin Bieber in drag.

Since Disney princesses were not so heavily marketed when I was a kid, I did get cheated out of being Belle for Halloween. A quick trip to Etsy shows that I can now purchase versions of the gold dress to fit a baby, to wear as a wedding dress, or a sexy version by LipGloss Costume that is basically just a gold bra and panties. I am utterly in love with the Beauty and the Beast wedding dress by KMK Designs. Now this is the grand dress of my childhood dreams. It is exactly what I thought the dress would look like in real life, with its corset top, enormous ball gown skirt, and vibrant golden color. I’m not even in a relationship, but if anyone wants to buy me an almost $10,000 wedding dress, I will wear it to the grocery store.

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Kristina Elyse Butke: To say I like costumes is an understatement. It’s a huge reason why I love Halloween, did theater for so long, and currently cosplay as a hobby. As someone who’s performed for a long time, I have to admit I never really felt like my characters came to life until I stepped into their clothes. I’ve always been amazed at how an outfit can communicate so much about a character’s personality, and I deeply respect designers, artists, and authors who have this creative superpower.

First, I want to mention Ruth E. Carter‘s excellent, creative costume design for Black Panther. While there are numerous character looks worth discussing from the film, I have to admit that M’Baku stood out to me above the others. A lot of it has to do with Winston Duke’s performance, but I also think his costume is one of the best in the movie because it conveys a lot of power, strength, and nobility through the structure of the pieces and the fabric choices Carter made. The silver-white fur; the leather; the grass skirt — these are a perfect homage both to the Jabari’s homeland and also the white gorilla mythos surrounding M’Baku’s story in the comics.

I’m going to geek out for a second here about how Carter’s costume design plays with the gorilla influences. When you think of the anatomy of an animal like a silverback gorilla, it’s hard not to think of the chest, arms, and shoulders as important sources of strength. Carter carried that over into the design — the strips of leather built up on the breastplate, the fabric cutouts near the shoulders, and the fur capelet and gauntlets — these all draw attention to the same areas.

M’baku is one of the most powerful men in all of Wakanda, second only to the Black Panther himself, and he’s essentially a king among his own men, so of course, he’s going to look regal AF. Carter did a fantastic job with him.

Of course, movies aren’t the only source of amazing costumes. While it’s often placed under the umbrella of character design, games give just as much care to clothes as any other visual, storytelling medium. There’s a game franchise popular here in Japan called Touken Ranbu, created by developers Nitroplus and DMM Games. Making its start as a free in-browser card game (and only available in Japan), the story focuses on the spirits of famous swords (who materialize as men called touken danshi). These swords belonged to renowned historical figures, and are called upon to fight against evil creatures who journey to the past to change the outcome of history. The game was so popular that it ballooned to an enormous franchise, with two anime series (one is serious and one is sort of a spoof; you can watch them on Crunchyroll!), a stage drama, musical, live-action film, and manga.

The costumes that each of the “swordmen” wear are gorgeous. They come from a variety of eras in Japanese history, and their clothing reflects both the time period, the elements of the weapon, traits that link them to the weapon’s owner (like kamon, a family crest), and then it’s all tied together with color and spectacle. I’ll admit, I haven’t played the game and I’m only partway through one of the anime series, but Touken Ranbu caught my eye just because everyone has fabulous clothes!

My favorite character in terms of design is Mikazuki Munechika. He is the spirit of one of the real great swords of Japan (called tenka-goken, or the “five great swords under heaven”) dating from the 10-12th century, although in the series he refers to himself as coming from the 11th. His full character name comes from “Mikazuki,” the name of the sword itself  (which means “crescent moon,” because the tachi-type sword bears a similar shape), plus “Munechika,” which is the name of the smith who made the sword. It is  is officially considered a national treasure of Japan and is reputedly one of the most beautiful swords ever made.

Likewise, Mikazuki Munechika’s danshi form is designed to be beautiful, and his costume is reflective of both the historical era from the sword, and also plays with the moon motif from his (and the real sword’s) namesake. The colors of his clothing are reminiscent of a blue nighttime sky, his white hakama are like clouds, and the gold detailing and gold crescent greatly enrich the outfit on the whole. Mikazuki’s character designer, Sata, did an incredible job with him.

Since I’m on a historical kick, I’m going to wrap this with Guillermo del Toro’s gothic romance ghost story, Crimson Peak. Set in the late Victorian era, the clothing certainly reflects the time period, but as with many costume designs, they also serve double-duty to communicate information about the characters and help build the world in which they live. I tend to like darker, frilly clothing and fabrics like rich velvet (yes, I am pretty much a walking vampire stereotype), and this is very much the look Jessica Chastain is carrying through the film. Even Tom Hiddleston’s clothes rock some of that vampire energy. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I loved Mia Wasikowska’s outfits the most!

Wasikowska’s character is a hopeful, imaginative, and sometimes innocent young woman, and the heroine of the story. So, her costumes reflect that with their light colors (most often in shimmery golds, peaches, and pinks), while Hiddleston and Chastain are the brooding, tragic and mysterious figures whose colors and fabrics are bold, dramatic, and dark. This style dichotomy is a bit on-the-nose, but that doesn’t mean the costumes suffer for it in any way. They are beautifully constructed, well-styled, and well-worn throughout the film. I can only thank Kate Hawley for designing such lovely pieces.

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Lane Robins: One of the unsung pleasures of being an SF/Fantasy fan is watching the characters parade around in costumes. Everything from superhero spandex to a dozen types of armored suits to historical looks from a time that never really existed.

When I think about SF fashion, a lot of images jump out at me from the practical: all those immortals wearing long coats to disguise their sword blades; the vampires wearing leather (the better to shed blood), the really good neutral colors of Luke Skywalker’s desert planet gear. But weirdly, one that really sticks with me as both appropriate for the world and visually distinct? The Chronicles of Riddick. That crazy delusional movie from the team that brought you Pitch Black.

It’s armor, it’s fashion, it’s religion, it’s fetish. It’s all of those things and it’s super striking. Up until the point that the necromongers invade (spoiler!), the clothes are more regular — neat futuristic versions of day wear for the average person. A lot of Middle-Eastern influences which fit the world they’re on — sand and sun and heat.

But then the necromongers arrive in their seamed, black, faceless armor with giant spiky shoulders. It’s a tribute to the movie’s tone (and the sheer determination of the actors that this is Serious Business!) that we don’t immediately laugh. But the crazy costuming by designers Ellen Mirojnick and Michael Dennison works though; it makes internal sense.  An army that worships death and absorbs cultures whether they want it or not, they need a distinctive look to strike terror into their enemies, and they need a look that says “we are a monolith.”

So that’s fun!

And then there’s Dame Vaako, played by Thandie Newton. Lady MacBeth in a series of scaled gowns complete with vertebral snake-like jewelry. Just in case you don’t know for sure that she’s a whispering villain. She’s awesome. One of her most distinctive gowns is head-to-toe to fingers — only the very tips of her fingers peek out.  It’s as much armor as any of the fighters wear.

I have seen that movie way more often than I care to admit, and just talking about the fashion makes me want to watch it all over again.

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Nancy O’Toole Meservier: When it comes to speculative fashion, my inner girly-girl comes out. I love beautiful dresses, from big and fluffy, to sleek and modern, to the truly avant-garde, even though my own personal tastes tend to be a little more minimal. And while I could easily go off about Arwen’s gowns from Lord of the Rings, or Danielle’s secret stash of dresses in the Cinderella retelling, Ever After, for this column, I’d thought I’d go for something a little more recent.

Sarah Vaughn’s Sleepless is a series of graphic novels put out by Image Comics and illustrated by Leila Del Duca. The focus is on Poppy, the bastard daughter of a king who, in the wake of her father’s death, finds herself a target for assassination. And the sharp young woman handles this all in the most excellent of court fashions.

One look I’m particularly fond of is in the first issue. Here Poppy wears a gorgeous red and gold gown, trimmed in turquoise, with a high empire waist. One thing I really like about this gown, beyond its beautiful design, is the unique color palette. The bright colors look particularly striking against Poppy’s dark skin, but the black in the full sleeves reminds us that this is a woman in mourning. I love how the look is complimented by Poppy’s elaborate jewelry and hair accessories, which are all in similar shades of gold/turquoise/red.

Another benefit of the unique color palette is it how it establishes our heroine among her peers. Later in this chapter, she encounters other court ladies who dress in more conventional shades (blue, green, yellow, etc.), and Poppy’s bold choices really make her stand apart, much like she already does, given her unique position in court.

Much praise should be heaped on Leila Del Duca, who does the artwork for the entire series, as Poppy’s court gowns and accessories are always worth lingering over.

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Nicole Taft: In 2012 a movie by the name of Snow White and the Huntsman came to theaters.

It was pretty awful.

But I’m not here to talk about bad movies. I’m here to talk about amazing costumes. And the only redeeming qualities for that movie (and its sort-of sequel, The Huntsman: Winter’s War) are Charlize Theron as the evil Queen Ravenna and literally every outfit she wore.

The costume designer for both movies was Colleen Atwood and her list of credits is quite the impressive one. From the less fantastical (in terms of costuming, that is) The Silence of the Lambs to the upcoming Little Mermaid live-action film, Colleen has been in the business for a very long time. And she’s good at what she does. For Academy Awards alone she’s been nominated 12 times and won 4 of them. She’s been nominated almost every other year since 1999 — sometimes a few years in a row.

Frankly, I think she should have won her nomination in 2013 for Snow White and the Huntsman because those outfits were simply so utterly fantastical and impressive in their scope and design. She lost to Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina. I’m out of my league when it comes to arguing the intricacies of costume design for big-budget movies, but when your costumes require hand-cut rooster feathers, thousands of iridescent beetle wings, chain mail, horse hair, and rolled leather, I’m kind of in your corner for thinking you deserve the win.

Almost every time you see Ravenna she’s in a different outfit. From a cream and gold-threaded wedding dress to her raven-feathered cloak, every time you see her she is stunning and imposing and everything an evil queen should be. Even her accessories, such as crown, are the kind that make you think twice before approaching — even if she does look absolutely fantastic in them. A lot of these outfits kept going when the second movie came out, and Emily Blunt’s character Queen Freya got to step into some of Colleen’s amazing creations. Any time either of these movies appears on TV, I’ll watch. Not for the story, not for characters, and no, not even for Chris Hemsworth. I’m there because I want to see Charlize in those costumes because they are just so. Damn. Cool.

And I personally think Charlize Theron is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a fun interview with Colleen Atwood and her creation of the costumes for the movie!

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Great fashion comes from everywhere — film, TV, games, comics — and with the speculative genre, the opportunity to use the imagination is limitless. We’re happy to have featured a wide variety of creative costume designs, but as always with lists like these, we’ve left some things out! What costumes or character looks speak to you? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll see you next month for another Roundtable!