Iconic Outfit / Live-Action Films

Iconic Outfit in Films.

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• Austin Powers' thick glasses, crushed velvet suits, Beatle boots and male symbol medallion. There's also Mustafa's hat: "I don't recall your name, but your fez is familiar."
• Back to the Future:
  • Marty McFly's orange/red "life preserver", worn over a jean jacket, which only appears in the first movie, but appears in almost every other adaptation and parody outside of the movies.
  • To a lesser extent, Doc Brown has three: his radiation suit from the first time machine test, his yellow futuristic suit, and his "locomotive" Hawaiian shirt and cargo pants combination. Like Marty, these three show up in most other adaptations outside of the trilogy.
• The BDSM-like costume that Catwoman stitched together in Batman Returns.
• Beetlejuice:
  • Betelgeuse's black and white striped suit is only one of about the six costumes he wears throughout the film, but it's the one everyone remembers. It was the outfit featured on the movie poster◊, and was the one carried over to his animated version◊ and the musical◊.
  • Lydia's red Pimped Out Wedding Dress that she wore at the climax, to a lesser extent.
• The Dude's cardigan sweater, and, to a lesser extent, his aviator shades, in The Big Lebowski.
• The muscle shirt with the kind of Fu Manchu-looking guy on it worn by Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. Also Wang Chi's "Dragon of the Black Pool" bomber jacket, and David Lo Pan's wizard outfit.
• Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049:
  • Officer Deckard's brown trenchcoat and checkered necktie.
  • Rachael's black blazer and blouse.
  • Roy Batty's long, leather trenchcoat.
  • Detective Gaff's fedora, slim bow tie, waistcoat, and cane.
  • Dr. Tyrell's enormous owl-like glasses.
  • Officer K's dark green cotton coat.
  • Joi's translucent yellow raincoat.
• The Blues Brothers black suit pants and jackets, ties, shades, hats, and white shirts. Mostly the shades, if anything gets parodied.
• Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Givenchy Little Black Dress worn by Audrey Hepburn.
• Bullitt: The dark blue turtleneck worn by Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) with the gun holster on his shoulders really struck the imagination, to the point of being famously homaged:
  • James Bond: Roger Moore's Bond wears the same in Live and Let Die, and a similar outfit worn by Daniel Craig was used to promote Spectre.
  • Jean-Paul Belmondo donned such an outfit in Peur sur la ville, which was itself later homaged by Benoît Poelvoorde in Keep an Eye Out!.
  • Sterling Archer frequently dons this look, which he calls "the tactleneck", during field missions.
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Dr. Caligari has stolen the top hat forever. And Cesare made that whole look fashionable.
• Carrie (1976):
  • Carrie White's pig-blood-drenched prom dress.
  • To a lesser extent, Norma's red baseball cap in the '76 version, which she wore in every scene, even at prom and at the hairdresser (it rested on top of the hair dryer). Reportedly, the hat was the idea of her actress, P. J. Soles.
• Charlie Chaplin's Tramp outfit.
• Chucky's striped shirt and overalls in Child's Play. Also, Tiffany's leather jacket and white dress following her first appearance in Bride of Chucky.
• From A Clockwork Orange, we have Alex with his boots, pajamas, jockstrap, bowler and fake eyelash on one eye.
• Cher Horowitz's yellow plaid suit in Clueless. So much so that costume designer Alexandra Byrne even paid homage to it in Emma. (2020).
• John McClane's white tank top from Die Hard, which is so iconic that it ended up in the Smithsonian.
• Detective Harry Callahan from Dirty Harry has his iconic three piece suit and Model 29 .44 magnum revolver.
• Jake Gyllenhaal's skeleton outfit in Donnie Darko.
• The Driver from Drive (2011): white satin jacket with embroidered gold scorpion on the back, brown leather driving gloves, skinny tight navy jeans and light colored madison boots.
• Johnny Depp's portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is never without a pair of aviators, a cigarette holder sticking out of his mouth, and a bucket hat (or a green transparent visor.)
• Ferris Bueller's ugly orange-and-black sweater vest, worn over a plain white T-shirt. His True Companions also have iconic items of clothing — Cameron has his Red Wings jersey, and Sloane has her white fringed jacket.
• Leeloo's bright-orange suspenders over a white cropped top in The Fifth Element. Also Korben's orange tank top and Ruby Rhod's flamboyant skintight leopard print with a phallic-shaped hairdo.
• Alex's giant grey sweatshirt and red heels from Flashdance.
• Seth Brundle's outfit in the first act of The Fly (1986): charcoal grey suit jacket, white dress shirt, red necktie, black trousers, and brown Oxford shoes. The fact that he wears the same clothes every day is even lampshaded in the film.
• Jason Voorhees' hockey mask from the Friday the 13th series, which he put on in Part III.
• The Ghostbusters outfits are still a fancy dress mainstay, more than thirty years later.
• Clint Eastwood's poncho in the Leone Westerns. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which takes place chronologically earlier during the war (whether the characters are the same or not), doesn't give it to him until two and a half hours in.
• Michael Myers' dark green or blue coveralls and William Shatner mask in Halloween.
• Hard Candy: Hayley Stark is always drawn and remembered in her red hoodie, red leggings and beige skirt, although she spends most of the movie in jeans with her black tank top or green scrubs. Funnily enough, Elliot Page actually wore an orange hoodie on set, and his costume only turned red after color correction.
• In the Harry Potter movies, the main trio's most memorable outfits outside of the Hogwarts uniforms and robes are the regular clothes they wore in the third act of Prisoner of Azkaban. Especially Hermione's pink hoodie. Plus the blue-grey T-shirt with blue trim that Harry wore in the third act. He wears it throughout◊ the◊ series◊.
• The Heathers have their color-coded boxy shoulderpad-jackets, skirt, and high socks combo. The stage adaptation, ostensibly to make dance numbers easier but possibly for other reasons, makes the skirts shorter and the jackets more form fitting, which seems to have enhanced the iconic status. Oh, and J.D. has his leather jacket.
• The Host (2006) has Gang-du's outfit when we first meet him: green hoodie, grey shirt, baggy grey trousers, blue converse and gaudy blond highlights.
• The Hunger Games: The black training shirts and the jackets that the tributes wear in the arena.
• From Inception, Eames's Paisley shirt, Arthur's waistcoat and Ariadne's scarf have become character identifiers in fandom.
• Indiana Jones' brown, tattered fedora, bomber jacket, and bullwhip. To a slightly lesser degree, there's his satchel, which is actually a British WW1 gas mask pouch. RedLetterMedia notes that Indy is such a Flat Character that if you removed the fedora, it wouldn't be Indy, because he's more of an icon than an actual person.
• James Bond:
  • The trademark tuxedo, of course. This has led to a misguided notion that he wears nothing but it (a staple of the typical Shallow Parody of the series), which isn't true (though he doesn't wear one in You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die). He wears plenty of normal, practical outfits (even military fatigues) and the tuxedo is limited mostly to social events. Bond's tuxedo is so emblematic that it's often invoked in things inspired by Bond, as a Shout-Out. And every single James Bond video game always includes at least one mission where he wears it.
  • Honey Ryder's white bikini from Dr. No.
  • Blofeld's Mao suit, copied by parodies such as Dr. Evil.
  • Bond has two iconic outfits in Goldfinger: A white dinner jacket ensemble, immaculately worn beneath a wetsuit in the pre-title sequence, and a grey three-piece suit as Goldfinger's prisoner.
  • Roger Moore's Bond was famed for his safari suits, particularly in Moonraker and Octopussy.
• Jurassic Park:
  • Dr. Grant's blue long-sleeve wrangler shirt with a red kerchief, aviator sunglasses, safari hat, and Timberland boots.
  • Ian Malcolm's Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, black shirt (which is open for a good while) and black leather jacket.
  • John Hammond's white shirt and pants, fedora, and cane with an amber handle and a fossilized mosquito inside.
  • Ellie Sattler's Pink shirt, dark blue undershirt and short shorts.
• Buster Keaton occasionally played Upper Class Twits in well-tailored clothes, but is usually pictured in a baggy suit, slapshoes, and his trademark porkpie hat.
• Labyrinth: Jareth's tights. They could have been painted on. Well, they are often referred to as "criminally tight" pants for a reason.
• La La Land has Mia's iconic yellow dress, which is featured on the poster and which she wears during the "A Lovely Night" musical number with Sebastian.
• Parodied in Last Action Hero: The "hero", played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, wears a brown leather jacket, jeans, and a red t-shirt. When he opens his closet to change clothes, the closet is full of identical t-shirts, jeans, and jackets.
• Bruce Lee:
  • The yellow and black tracksuit from Game of Death (although it only appeared in one movie for a few minutes), especially after Uma Thurman wore the same outfit in Kill Bill. In fact, that track suit is one of the many ways to tell if someone's a Bruce Lee Clone.
  • A close second would be bare-chested in black pants as seen in Enter the Dragon. Expect any Bruce Lee Clone to wear one or both sooner or later.
• Let Me In has Owen and his oversized, silver jacket. He wears it in virtually every scene in the film, unless hes going to sleep or swimming.Even in scenes where wearing it would rather uncomfortable, such as when hes waiting in the hot humid changing area of the swimming pool. This suggests it works as a kind of security blanket for him.
• Harold Lloyd's horn rim glasses.
• Lucky Luke (Jean Dujardin) wears the same iconic outfit as in the comics — white cowboy hat, yellow shirt, red scarf around the neck, black jacket, denim pants, and brown boots.
• Mad Max's leather jacket with the one torn sleeve and the armoured shoulder pad is iconic not only of the series itself, but of post apocalyptic cinema in general.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Tony Stark's beard and sunglasses.
  • Black Widow's black tactical suit.
  • Loki's golden horn helmet.
  • Star-Lord's rust-colored leather jacket.
• The Mask: Stanley Ipkiss becomes The Mask four times. Only in one he wears that yellow zoot suit, but it's so iconic any derivative works, such as the video game and the Animated Adaptation, turns it into his regular outfit. And like with Beetlejuice, it's the outfit he wears for the movie poster.
• Freddy Krueger: A red and green striped sweater and fedora, with the razor-clawed glove on his right hand.
• The Night of the Hunter: Harry Powell. Knuckle Tattoos. That is all.
• Inspector Clouseau's trenchcoat and Herbert Johnson trilby in the original Pink Panther films.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack's hair (and everything in it) alongside his bandanna and, of course, his hat.
• James Dean, in all post-mortem representations, is wearing the red windbreaker from Rebel Without a Cause. To the point where Fry's outfit from Futurama is modeled after it.
• RoboCop's iconic full body armour and gun from the first movie.
• Rocky: Apollo Creed's red, white, and blue "stars and stripes" boxing shorts.
• Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever wears different clothes throughout the movie but the white leisure suit is the one people remember most.
• The Ghostface Killer's (no, not him) black robe and distinctive elongated white mask from the Scream movies.
• Hannibal Lecter's restraint mask from The Silence of the Lambs. Not even mentioned in the novel (he wore a hockey mask instead) and appearing only for a single scene in the movie, it went on to have a starring role in Hannibal, which opens with Mason Verger buying the mask for a ridiculous amount of money, has a scene of him wearing it and eventually putting it on Dr. Lecter. It gets featured again in Red Dragon for a brief scene and Hannibal Rising features a moment with him putting on an ancient samurai mask that resembles his later restraint. The mask has become a symbol for Hannibal Lecter despite him wearing it for just a few minutes in every movie. The Iconic Mask latter appeared in advertising for the second season of the TV series but this time it's Will Graham in the mask. Considering how the first season ended with him being framed for Hannibal's murders it's actually quite fitting.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Klingon uniforms in the opening scene, which were refined in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and would become the Klingon warrior outfit in all subsequent Trek works.
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The red Starfleet uniforms, or "Monster Maroons", which were worn in all subsequent TOS-era movies. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation, these uniforms were introduced as early as 2278, 7 years before the events of Star Trek II, and Starfleet was still using these uniforms in some manner up until around 2350, almost 10 years before the beginning of TNG, making these the longest-lasting Starfleet uniforms in-universe.
• Star Wars:
  • Princess Leia's cinnamon-bun hairdo in A New Hope. Her white dress and blaster are also part of her classic look, but not as important as the hair. Her more famous outfit (if you can call it an "outfit"...) is the metal bikini in Return of the Jedi. In fact, parody depictions will often combine the cinna-bun hair and bikini, despite being from different movies.
  • Han's vest and yellow-striped pants.
  • Luke has a few:
    • His initial kimono-esque tunic and boots in A New Hope.
    • Luke's grey-green jacket and pants that he wore on Dagobah and Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back (and The Muppet Show).
    • Luke's all black Jedi Knight shirt and pants, and brown cloak in Return of the Jedi. It became his default outfit in all post-Endor media through New Jedi Order.
    • His white Jedi robes and the brown-grey cloak from the Sequel Trilogy.
  • Obi-Wan's brown frieze-like robe, which would become the Jedi outfit.
  • Yoda's robe.
  • Rey's triple-bun hairstyle and her desert robes. Also her grey outfit from The Last Jedi.
  • Finn's (originally Poe's) brown leather jacket.
  • The bright orange flight suits and white helmets worn by Rebel pilots.
  • The various Imperial armor types are all pretty iconic, especially the Stormtrooper armor.
  • The olive grey tunics, matching Kepi caps, and red-blue rank insignia of the Imperial officers also count.
  • Darth Vader's armor, from his glossy black helmet to his samurai-esque mask to his long black cape.
  • The Emperor/Darth Sidious' black cloak.
  • Boba Fett and Jango Fett's Mandalorian armor.
  • Queen Amidala's ornate red robes and gold headdress, along with her red and white face makeup. Despite only wearing this for three brief scenes early in The Phantom Menace, they were such a focus of marketing that they became her signature look. As Padmé, her most iconic look is likely the white outfit she wore on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones, especially after the top is torn by the Nexu's claws, revealing her midriff.
• Bo Derek's yellow bathing suit and cornrows in 10 (1979).
• The Terminator's leather jacket, black shirt, and sunglasses.
• Practically all of Rose's outfits in Titanic, particularly:
  • Her black and white pinstripe boarding suit with a wide-brimmed purple hat.
  • Her beaded and embroidered red dinner dress.
  • Her blue velvet dress for the "flying" scene.
  • Her pink embroidered coat with a pink satin and white chiffon sash dress during the sinking.
  • The Heart of the Ocean necklace, which she wears while completely naked.
  • Jack keeps it simple with his white shirt and suspenders combo.
• Fred Astaire's has its own song: "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails". It also includes a cane, which isn't mentioned in the song.
• Laurel and Hardy's bowler hats (often depicted in their movies' opening titles for instant identification) — gives them a little dignity against all odds. Wearing them in Way Out West marks them as out of their element.
• Universal Horror:
  • The Phantom of the Opera (1925): the Phantom's standard black cape, and his more flamboyant Masque of the Read Death costume from the masquerade scene. Unlike many later versions of the character, this Phantom is best-remembered without his signature mask, due to Lon Chaney's makeup being so iconic.
  • Dracula's black suit, medallion, and cape that Bela Lugosi wore. He was even buried in it.
  • Frankenstein (1931): the monster's ill-fitting black suit, turtleneck sweater, and platform boots. Henry Frankenstein's labcoat.
  • Imhotep's burial bandages in The Mummy (1932), which only appear in the opening scene, as he goes incognito as a modern Egyptian afterwards and walks around wearing a stylish fez. The look was so iconic that Universal's second Mummy, Kharis, only appeared onscreen in the bandages for four straight movies, creating the cliche of the shambling, undead mummy.
  • The Invisible Man (1933): Griffin's disguise which hides his invisibility, consisting of gloves, heavy bandages, wraparound sunglasses, and a neckerchief. His other default look is, of course, wearing nothing at all, but it's much harder to sell merchandise of a character you can't see.
• Gene Wilder's costume for Willy Wonka, which he had total creative control over, is considered the iconic outfit of the character: purple coat, floral waistcoat, gold bow tie, sandy-yellow trousers, brown shoes and matching top hat. Any parody will base itself on this.
• The Wizard of Oz:
  • Glinda's pink dress.
  • The Wicked Witch Of The West's black hat and dress. Even just her hat alone is enough to identify her.
  • Dorothy's blue-and-white gingham dress with the ruby slippers.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • Professor Charles Xavier's trademark outfit is a very distinguished three-piece suit, which is a more serious-looking variation of his tweed-preppy fashion sense in X-Men: First Class.
  • Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto's various Corinthian-like helmets that protect him from psychic powers like those of Xavier, and his capes.
• Sean Connery's scarlet Mankini and bandoliers in Zardoz.

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