Costume Envy: The Fall

My friend Lucy suggested that I do a Costume Envy post on the Black Bandit from The Fall.

Costumes for The Fall where designed by Eiko Ishioka, who is known for her Oscar award-winning designs in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Cell, and the upcoming Immortals.

So technically speaking, I don’t really understand the choices made with the Black Bandit’s costume design.  It’s a pretty basic black get up, at once a military uniform and a cowboy’s gear, with a bright red Zorro mask thrown in.  But the hat?  The armless top?

Probably, if I had been Tarsem I would have vetoed it, but I’m also a complete idiot.  Ishioka has created a costume that is extraordinarily iconic, even while grabbing from different sources.  It works really well, considering the story that Roy Walker (Pace) is creating comes from a billion different regions.  At times, he seems to be grasping at straws, but the Bandit’s costume fits in wherever, even though it is entirely outlandish.  Who is he supposed to be, anyway?  The French soldat, who left for sunnier climes in the American West?  Only he got turned around and wound up in Mexico, where he got his wide-brimmed hat and the red mask idea?  And where did the shaved head and eyeliner come from?

But the Bandit is recognizable: You see him, and he’s a bandit.  He’s the man in the black, seemingly like Zorro, only American (or French or Spanish) and it makes him mysterious.  Highly suspicious, as all good bandits are, but intriguing. 

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