Remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Costumes
Tony-winning costume designer William Ivey Long says that when he was designing the costumes for Fox's The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, he took plenty of inspiration from original RHPS designer Sue Blane. "We were paying homage after 40 years of it being a hit," he tells E! News. "When you're doing a revival, you're only doing a revival because the original was a smash hit—so you don't want to throw the baby completely out with the bath water."
Click through the gallery to find out how he created each look...
Laverne Cox, Dr. Frank-N-Furter
"Dr. Frank-N-Furter is inhabiting this old movie palace, so...she has fashioned all of her outfits herself out of old silent film movie star clothes. You see three different corset looks with different ripped-up, beaded dresses," Long says.
Ready for Dinner
For Frank's dinner look, "which is a tunic over the black leather corset, I hand-beaded that with three different colors of red bugle beads to look like it was red blood," Long says.
NoLa Vibes
"The leather jacket has Voodoo patches all over it. Very New Orleans," Long reveals.
Shoulder Pads to the Rescue
For this look, "she found something from the Bride of Frankenstein, a lab coat, and she decided, 'No, I'm Joan Crawford playing this role!' So she added shoulder pads, cinched in the waist, and made it into a look!" Long created the print himself and took inspiration from a handprint found in the Velesko Caves in France and from Jackson Pollock.
Victoria Justice, Janet Weiss
"I wanted a color that would hold its own," Long says of Janet's blue suit. "I knew Dr. Frank-N-Furter was going to be in blood red and then black and white, and those are the strongest colors. So I wanted a color that would anchor Janet. Remember, we're doing woman power here! [Frank and Janet] are the two power people. We're talking two praying mantises."
Ryan McCartan, Brad Majors
Brad (and the rest of the humans) also wear shades of blue. For Brad's suit, Long picked a plaid fabric. "He's from that nerdy world where cummerbunds and bowties match."
The Domestics
For Riff Raff and Magenta ("the domestics," as the film calls them), Long went traditional. "He's the butler and butlers always wear white tail suits and white gloves. We saw Downton Abbey! It's all based on they're the butler and maid. She's wearing a white apron."
Reeve Carney, Riff Raff
Riff Raff's costume is based on an Alexander McQueen pinstripe suit from a decade or so ago, with a wink to the RHPS movie. "For anyone in the fashion world who knows their stuff, it's going to be an homage to Mr. Goth himself, Alexander McQueen. I turned it into a suit with tails, skinnied the pants. His left foot has a spat on it, and that's an homage with a capital H. here Richard [O'Brien], here Sue Blane!"
Christina Milian, Magenta
"Of course she's wearing a black maid's outfit," Long says. "[She] is so sexy! I think we have to see as much of her skin as possible, so everything she wears is see through. I think you'll see it at certain moments more than others, but all of her outfits are translucent, with white collar and cuff, a white apron and a saucy maid's hat."
Staz Nair, Rocky
There's not much to work with when it comes to Rocky's costume, but Long knew what he didn't want. "We didn't want it to be the speedo at all," he says. "Because Staz is such a macho guy we thought let's give him boxing shorts!" The "R" is, in fact, a nod to a famous boxer of the same name. "We have an 'R' on his belt, double referencing the Rocky for people whose eyes are wandering."
Annaleigh Ashford, Columbia
Long went back to the script to craft Columbia's look. "It seems she is a human and we know she's in love with Eddie, but I didn't realize that she's one of the very few humans. She's the ultimate groupie," he says, meaning she gets the same color palate as Brad and Janet. "She's gotta be blue, I'll give her blue and purple! We had a lot of fun doing that glam rock goes slightly into grunge rock or punk rock look."
Adam Lambert, Eddie
Lambert's Eddie might not be around for a long time, but he has a memorable look. "Eddie is symbolizing all of that Sid Vicious punk rock [vibe]," with a spiky arm cuff and leather. "It has all these Christmas tree spikes on it and it comes from the shoulder seam and it's attached to the vest but it goes all the way down," Long says. The other arm has a glimpse at Lambert's real-life tattoos.
Ben Vereen, Dr. Everett Scott
Long took inspiration from real life for Dr. Everett Scott. "Dr. Scott is a professor, and as you see his hair is a little Albert Einstein, and that's what I copied. I found pictures of Albert Einstein at Princeton."
Ivy Levan, Usherette
The Usherette's look changed once Ivy Levan was cast. "At first it was going to be a goth lady who had discovered a uniform from the ‘40s and goth-ized it. And then we got Ivy Levan and the goth went out the window. She's so sexy," says Long. "There's a famous painting by Edward Hopper of an usherette in a movie theater in the '40s, late '30s. I am referencing that image, except she was in trousers and I made a micro miniskirt."