Costume Design by Norma Moriceau. A great resource for costume pictures is the Mad Max beyond Thunderdome souvenir magazine.
Tunic: Black long-sleeved tunic, approximately knee length. The neck opening extends approximately down to navel level. Material: most likely a black-dyed cotton muslin. Contrary to popular belief, the tunic style Max wears is not typical of Arab traditional dress and is actually the length of a kurta or kameez: traditional shirts worn in central Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Jacket: Max wears the same exact jacket as he did in Mad Max 2 (The Roadwarrior). Max's jacket shows signs of wear: the thick black stitching on his left shoulder (bearclaw mohawker damage from Mad Max 2), his collar, his shoulder seam, his elbow, and a few stitches where his sleeve zipper used to be. The jacket's zipper is missing many teeth as well, so it's never zipped up in the film. For more info, see Special Topics: Jackets
Trousers: Black leather trousers with no back pockets, cut in a general "jeans" pattern. Thick black stitching can be seen on the crotch area. Zipper is possibly broken.
Boots: Max wears his MFP boot on his right foot, which has had some tyre tread added to the soles, and a cowboy boot on his left foot. For more info, see Special Topics: Boots
Shirt: Black cotton sleeveless shirt, probably made from scratch.
Shoulder Pad: Right-hand-side Rawlings football shoulder pad plate attached to football shoulder pad arch padding by 2 one-inch-wide leather straps. The plate shows a lot of wear: scratches and gouges. One 5/8"-wide belt riveted to bottom of padding, fastened under the arm. For more info, see my tutorial page.
Belt: Max wears two belts. One of them has ammunition shoulder straps attached to it, and is a British style belt. This belt's round brass buckle reads, "Astore Police". My only guess on this is that it could be a British police buckle from Astore, Pakistan (formerly British-ruled India). Hanging below the British belt is another belt with a pocket and bullet loops and is connected to a black leather holster.
Turban and Cloak: Max wears a black turban and a black cloak (looks like a cape) during the beginning of the movie. The black turban is made of black cotton bubble gauze (at Spotlight's in Australia, it was called cheesecloth). If you are making a turban, use a piece that is 1/2 meter x 6 meters or 18 inches x 6 yards. The cloak comes down to the ankles, and is open on the front.
Miscellaneous: Max has some sort of laced-up medical support bandage on his knee. Max's silver whistle is known as a naval bosun whistle.
See Also Shotguns
From Rolling Stone Magazine, August 1985:
"The dress Moriceau concocted for Entity is an expressionist classic: a seventy-pound soldered amalgam of dog muzzles, coat hangers and chicken wire, the whole overlaid with gleaming chain-mail butcher aprons and accessorized with pendulant auto-spring earrings. The accompanying wig, styled to echo the movie's male plumage, required Tina to shave her head for proper fitting. She offered no protest."
The overwhelming majority of the male guards wear Rawlings CP-66 football shoulder pads. They have a rubber mat on the front, riveted on using the front lace holes. Many of the pads have a piece of black horse mane covering the right deltoid pad. (A wig can be used instead of the mane. I recommend looking for the black "surfer dude" a.k.a. "wizard boy" wig.) On top of the pads, you can find a variety of different decorations and car parts, ranging from reflectors to rearview mirrors to marker lamps. There is one marker lamp in particular that is used very often on the costumes, which is only available in Australia. It is a teardrop shaped plastic lamp - chrome with a red lens. The ones I bought are Narva brand marker lamps, part no. 86360. They are a common sight in Australia, especially on box trucks. The acorn-shaped light is a Chrome Marker Light, 80069, which I ordered from Big Jim's.
The mohawks are most likely made of horse manes and tails (with the hide still attached). The hair runs longer in the rear. As horse manes are fairly difficult to acquire, I used wig hair. I cut the wig into strips and super-glued the strips to a leather base. To keep the hair up, I would strongly recommend some kind of inner reinforcement, as synthetic wig hair is almost impossible to keep up at the heights required (at least 20cm/8inches). The mohawk has black straps, 1 cm wide, with a leather chinpiece attached. Two straps come from the top of the mohawk, down the sides, with loops in the ends. One strap comes around the back of the neck and to the chin, through the loops of the other straps, and buckles together.
The guards sometimes wear sun-goggles made of motocross goggles with full mask faceguards. The lens is replaced with "bubble goggles", which are covered in pantyhose. I found that motocross goggles and full face masks came in few styles, and tended to be expensive, so I worked with paintball goggles and mask instead.
The guards wear wide leather belts accessorized with various car emblems, including a Buick emblem and a vintage Harley-Davidson horn cover (accented with red paint). I bought a "Classic Horn" from a Harley-Davidson dealership. It's a reproduction of their old horns from the 30's and 40's. The belts measure 20cm/8 inches on the front and back, taper on the side bottom edge (very important when wearing with padded football pants), and are held together by 4 buckles on the rear. Horse tail hair is attached and hangs from the front and rear of the belt.
The guards wear baseball shinguards on both legs and usually on at least one forearm. The shinguards on their legs are accented on the tops with hair. (I like to think that all of the hair found on the guards' costumes comes from the people they have killed and scalped.) The guards wear padded football pants under black football tights. The costumes are accented throughout with pieces of leather, and red mini reflectors. They carry modified hubcaps as shields.The female guards wear the same mohawks and shin guards. Instead of football pads, they wear JT motocross chest protectors, modified with leather breast cups, a chrome motorcycle fender tip on the right shoulder, a football pad deltoid cap attached to the left shoulder, and mudflaps/floormats over the buttocks. Instead of trousers, the female guards wear a black triangular bikini-type bottom, which covers up to the bottom of the front of the chest protector (about waist level).
For screen captures and notes concerning the female guards, click here.
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