Most apocalyptic movies play out like this: First humanity falls, then the sweaters get torn. OK, maybe it’s not quite that simple. But in nearly every catastrophic film of the past few decades—from 1997’s corny clunker “The Postman” to 1999’s hallowed chronicle “The Matrix,” to the sorta-schmaltzy, sorta-stirring “Hunger Games” trilogy (2012-2015)—hole-ridden, wholly beaten-up sweaters have served as the foundation for the character’s costumes.
“It almost makes you laugh,” said Nancy Deihl, director of the Costume Studies program at New York University’s Steinhardt School, of the tattered-knit trope. Though the pandemic has delayed many movies’ release dates, distressed clothes continue to punctuate the apocalyptic epics that have reached cinemas or are on deck. In the South Korean zombie-apocalypse film “Peninsula,” which came out in America this August, the characters battle the undead in threadbare sweaters, coats and shirts. In the trailer for “A Quiet Place Part II,” which is now slated to hit theaters next April, the knits remain intact (if in need of a good wash) but the T-shirt Cillian Murphy’s character wears is sufficiently sliced.
The urge to shred has even begun to bleed over into the costume design for movies and TV shows that only glancingly concern the end-of-days. If you see a distressed sweater in any drama, it unmistakably signals misfortune. In the recently released HBO miniseries “The Third Day,” the drab, downtrodden sweater that Sam (Jude Law) wears as he explores an eerie British island is a dead giveaway that his journey will end tragically.
Filmmakers trying to create a foreboding atmosphere didn’t always rely so reflexively on the generic distressed sweater. In earlier post-apocalyptic movies, the clothes could be more idiosyncratic. Dawn Testa, production design professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, noted that in some movies the “clothes for the end of the world seemed to in a way replicate the beginning of people wearing clothes.” In 1968’s “Planet of the Apes,” for instance, perhaps the godfather of all ruined-earth pictures, the human characters are led around in skimpy loincloths.
Other costume designers made survivalist anti-heroes look, for lack of a better term, cool. In 1979’s original “Mad Max,” the characters were famously garbed in head-to-toe leather. The designers of 1981’s “Escape From New York,” dressed Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) like a cross between an Alice Cooper impersonator and a Tae-bo instructor in slick, thigh-clenching pants, a spandex-y tank top and an eye patch. In the flop “Tank Girl” (1995), the wardrobe team outfitted the namesake character (Lori Petty) with a patch-covered denim vest and a stringy, seemingly DIY hairstyle that made her appear, in a somewhat enviable way, as if she had wandered out of a Bad Religion concert. And when the characters in “The Matrix” ventured into the glistening virtual world, they did so in swooshing trench coats and shiny, body-hugging dresses.
The Link LonkNovember 02, 2020 at 11:10PM
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How to Dress for the Apocalypse - The Wall Street Journal
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