When Leeloo is first introduced, she is synthetically created in a capsule and dressed in the most memorable piece from the film, the bandage playsuit. The film follows Korben Dallas, an ex-special forces major and current taxi driver who stumbles upon humanoid and “supreme being” Leeloo, and they go on a mission to save the world, obviously. With a $90m budget, the most expensive production outside the US at the time, 1,000 pieces were designed by Gaultier for the film (including the costumes for all the extras – all of the aliens were dressed in couture), amounting to over 10 fashion collections for one movie. Fashion and pop culture Youtuber Mina Le has said about The Fifth Element in one of her videos: “It’s always tempting to make the colour scheme for a lot of sci-fi apocalyptic movies to be dark and grim and have the characters appear as such, but adding colour just makes the action so much more exciting.” Besson’s orange motif throughout the film, from Leeloo’s hair to Korben Dallas’ vest brings another layer of cohesion. It’s fun to see a vibrant, fun and cool conceptualisation of what people would wear in the 23rd century. Looking back at its costume design created by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier – best known for his cone bra famously worn by Madonna, cut-out bandage dresses and French sailor-inspired uniforms – whose designs couldn’t be more current, with Gaultier mesh tops going up for £500 on Depop, Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa copping vintage JPG on their street style shots, and subversive basics taking over the fashion industry. Luc Besson’s 1997 film The Fifth Element celebrates its 25th birthday this month, and its visuals and cinematography are still standing strong, injecting a colourful life into the gloomy dystopian future.īut what really makes this film stand out in cinematic history are its costumes that, a quarter-century on, are more relevant than ever.
Picture it, it’s the year 2263, humanity is still going strong despite climate change, there’s flying cars, and the fashion is out-of-this-world iconic.
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