Clothing comes to TV SF

POSTED BY: Zicsoft
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 01:22
VIEWED: 37706
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ZICSOFT

Friday, May 31, 2002 8:43 PM

The online images give me another reason to think I'm going to like Firefly: the characters are wearing *real* clothes. No silly body suits, no Star Trek pajamas, no B5 wool armor. In short, no silly attempts to make the costumes look "futuristic" by eliminating buttons, pockets, and belts. No weird styles that make you wonder how people get dressed.

I guess that goes with the ban on latex aliens.

JONWES

Friday, May 31, 2002 10:29 PM

Hmmm... yeah, a lot of sci-fi shows can end up looking ridiculous *cough*Andromeda 1st season *cough* but the Star Trek costumes never bothered me... and I think Enterprise is a good step in the right direction. Farscape has some of the best costuming, in my opinion. Especially for Crichton. I want one of those long coats like he wears. Futuristic but very cool... I'd just need his body to go with it.

ZICSOFT

Friday, May 31, 2002 11:49 PM

I'm sorry, but the clothes are the one thing I never liked about Star Trek. I mean, unless Kirk and Picard and all the rest stick their wallets in hyperspace when they're not using them, they still need pockets!

I liked the first-season Farscape costumes, but mainly because it fit in with all the pop-culture references. I guess his NASA (excuse me IASA) T-shirts wore out, so he had to start wearing Peacekeeper uniforms. But this reminds me of something odd about Farscape....

The first episode in which Crichton wears the uniform, he does so in order to pose as a Peacekeeper. He also talks like one -- which means putting on an Aussie accent.

In fact that's the biggest distinction between the aliens and the humans on this show. Aliens talk Australian, humans talk American. Subtext?

MOJOECA

Saturday, June 1, 2002 12:19 AM

I loved it when Crichton switched over to the PK wardrobe. It gave the show a darker feel, somehow.

Anyway, Firefly costumes look pretty cool (judging from cast photos on the T.U.R.). Being a fashion non-afficionado, I can't analyze with any depth the inspiration, but it seems o be an electic mix: some old west styles--formal (Simon) and utilitarian (Mal, Zoe); modern-day (Jayne--kinda outta place in his camo) and more exotic (River,Inara).

--- Joe

SHAMUS

Saturday, June 1, 2002 12:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mojoeca:
Anyway, Firefly costumes look pretty cool (judging from cast photos on the T.U.R.). Being a fashion non-afficionado, I can't analyze with any depth the inspiration, but it seems o be an electic mix: some old west styles--formal (Simon) and utilitarian (Mal, Zoe); modern-day (Jayne--kinda outta place in his camo) and more exotic (River,Inara).
--- Joe

I hadn't really picked up on it until you guys mentioned it, but yeah, real clothes! With pockets. It is bound to help with characterization, not to have them standing there in something that says "Look at me! I'm wearing a costume!"

The Alliance uniforms are a little heavy-handed, though. Peaked-caps and and all that ultra-neo-fascist stuff. Let me guess, they're the Bad Guys, right? I guess having a clear evil easily identified simplifies story telling, but -- from Joss -- you might have hoped for something in the way of the Alliance people doing what they sincerely think is the proper thing ... Ah, what do I know. Goose-stepping Bad Guys. Bring 'em on, mow 'em down in rows.

JORGASNAROVA

Saturday, June 1, 2002 1:05 AM

Star Trek costumes are infamous for being wildly impractical. I had an actress friend who worked as an extra in a few episodes of Star Trek Voyager; she described the experience of wearing her starfleet uniform as trying to maneuver around a stage for ten hours wearing a head-to-toe tourniquet. Yeesh. Makes me wonder how Jeri Ryan must have suffered. In a recent interview in Maxim magazine, Jeri quips she wished she could have burned all of her catsuits when the show ended.

JORGASNAROVA

Saturday, June 1, 2002 1:11 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by shamus:
Quote:
Originally posted by mojoeca:
Anyway, Firefly costumes look pretty cool (judging from cast photos on the T.U.R.). Being a fashion non-afficionado, I can't analyze with any depth the inspiration, but it seems o be an electic mix: some old west styles--formal (Simon) and utilitarian (Mal, Zoe); modern-day (Jayne--kinda outta place in his camo) and more exotic (River,Inara).
--- Joe

I hadn't really picked up on it until you guys mentioned it, but yeah, real clothes! With pockets. It is bound to help with characterization, not to have them standing there in something that says "Look at me! I'm wearing a costume!"

The Alliance uniforms are a little heavy-handed, though. Peaked-caps and and all that ultra-neo-fascist stuff. Let me guess, they're the Bad Guys, right? I guess having a clear evil easily identified simplifies story telling, but -- from Joss -- you might have hoped for something in the way of the Alliance people doing what they sincerely think is the proper thing ... Ah, what do I know. Goose-stepping Bad Guys. Bring 'em on, mow 'em down in rows.

I love Ben Browder's comment on the audio commentary track of the Region One DVD of the "Premiere" episode of "Farscape;" "Now these are the Peacekeepers...they're the bad guys...you can tell they're the bad guys cuz they're wearing black..."

JORGASNAROVA

Saturday, June 1, 2002 1:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
The online images give me another reason to think I'm going to like Firefly: the characters are wearing *real* clothes. No silly body suits, no Star Trek pajamas, no B5 wool armor. In short, no silly attempts to make the costumes look "futuristic" by eliminating buttons, pockets, and belts. No weird styles that make you wonder how people get dressed.

I guess that goes with the ban on latex aliens.

In the ten centuries since their invention, it is hard to imagine a clothes-fastening device more convenient and versatile than the good old fashioned button. Of course buttons will be around four or five centuries from now...why not?

ZICSOFT

Saturday, June 1, 2002 2:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by shamus:
The Alliance uniforms are a little heavy-handed, though. Peaked-caps and and all that ultra-neo-fascist stuff. Let me guess, they're the Bad Guys, right? I guess having a clear evil easily identified simplifies story telling, but -- from Joss -- you might have hoped for something in the way of the Alliance people doing what they sincerely think is the proper thing ... Ah, what do I know. Goose-stepping Bad Guys. Bring 'em on, mow 'em down in rows.

I think it's gonna be better than that -- that is, more complicated. This isn't about the intrepid rebels overthrowing the fascistic empire. (Been there. Done That.) The rebellion is already over, and the "good guys" have lost.

There are supposed to be parallels with the American civil war. Not too many, I hope, but I assume it means that not all Alliance people will be evil and not all anti-Alliance people with be virtuous.

So all the uniforms mean is that the people who wear them are in charge.

ZICSOFT

Saturday, June 1, 2002 2:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jorgasnarova:
In a recent interview in Maxim magazine, Jeri quips she wished she could have burned all of her catsuits when the show ended.

Yeah, the whole 7of9 thing began my final disgust with Voyager. Nothing against JR, who's a pretty good actress. But she wasn't hired for her acting skills. She was hired for certain very un-Borgish anatomical features.

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