Costume Review, Remix and Rendering #7: 12 MONKEYS (1995)
REVIEW
This sci-fi extravaganza includes all the things you might expect in a sci-fi film. There’s a plague that kills most of the world, time travel, a post-apocalyptic subterranean dystopia, lots of scrap metal, plastic, wire and dirt. Oh, and there’s Brad Pitt with a wonky eye to make him look crazy and not hot. Spoiler alert: He still looks hot.
I won’t even call what I’m about to write a summary or synopsis. Because the story is a little too involved for me to try to explain it. But here goes…
Cole (Bruce Willis) was a kid when a deadly plague is unleashed on humanity. It has been the believe that a group called the 12 Monkeys, led by Jeffrey Goins (Brad Pitt)-a spoiled little rich loon, is responsible.
In the future, Cole is all growed up and is in a prison underground. He’s chosen to go back in time and try and find a cure of the virus to bring back to the scientists in the future. If he’s successful, his prison sentence will be reduced.
He goes back in time several times unsuccessfully. But inevitably he hooks up with Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe). She doesn’t believe him at first but eventually she’s Totes McGoats on his side and works with him to take down the 12 Monkeys. Also it’s kind of a love story, but not in a sexy way. In a weird uncomfortable way.
Why are the 12 Monkeys so mad? Why are lions roaming the streets in the future? Who thought cock-eyed Brad Pitt was a good idea? Do Cole and Kathryn succeed? I guess you’ll just have to watch.
I love how ridiculous this movie is. I think it may have been a little too ambitious and the story is literally all over the place. But it’s got good bones and it’s entertaining and fun AF. What Julie Weiss does with the costumes is so good it makes me mad.
Julie’s boards for this movie fill me with so much joy and anxiety.
REMIX
This remix almost didn’t happen. I’d rewatched the movie about 2 years ago and wanted to remix the future scientists’ lab coats. They had these awesome lab coats that were covered in clear plastic. My issue was that at the time I couldn’t find the right fabric to make it work. So I gave up on the idea.
Flash forward to a few months ago when I rewatched Bad Times at the El Royale. I instantly fell in love with Darlene Sweet’s (Cynthia Erivo) see through raincoat. I just had to have it in my life. I looked through my closet and found a nice thin clear vinyl. However, the vinyl was a little too thin to stand on its own as the raincoat. So I once again moved on.
Then it happened. While I was looking at a proof of concept that I designed that involved alien scientists. I was reminded of the future scientists from 12 monkeys and went down a rabbit hole researching pictures of said scientists. What I noticed this time that I hadn’t the last several times that I’d watched it is that they didn’t have plastic on top of their lab coats, the plastic was PART OF their lab coats. That is, the plastic and white twill worked together as an inner and outer layer bound by bias tape. So I ran back to my stash, pulled out the clear vinyl, found a pile of white twill (I always keep it around for emergencies such as this) and realized that the future scientist lab coat of my dreams was going to happen.
Except I was going to make it into a raincoat. Mic drop!
Pattern: McCall’s 6517 Misses’ Jacket, Belt and Rainboot Liner
Fabric: Clear Vinyl and White Twill from the now defunct Fabric.com
Style: Raincoat
Vintage/Contemporary: Contemporary
This pattern was super easy. But working with these two very different fabrics was hard as a MF. In fact, this was only my second time ever working with vinyl and the first time I didn’t sew it, I used an epoxy glue. So I found this project particularly difficult.
I cut the pattern panels in both fabrics, used my serger to overlock the two different fabrics for each panel together, sewed the garment, then added black bias tape around the open edges to give it some pizzaz. The only major change I made was to add a separating zipper instead of using buttons.
RENDERING
