Tarantino's Best Costumes
Friday, January 24, 2020 at 9:00AM 
Despite some misgivings regarding this year’s highly unimaginative Best Costume Design line-up, there's much to rejoice about that Oscar category. One of the biggest reasons to celebrate is Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood's deserved nod for Arianne Phillips’ designs. As it happens, this is the first time any Quentin Tarantino film has been nominated for this particular award. Considering the director's ability to create memorable images and influential bits of cinematic iconography, this is somewhat preposterous. Better late than never.
Still, to shed light on the many costume delights of Tarantino's colorful oeuvre, here's a list of the ten best costumes in this director's films…
Honorable Mentions: The intelligent recycling of tired archetypes is a Tarantino specialty, as we can attest by the schoolgirl uniform of Kill Bill's Gogo Yubari or the Colonel Sanders cosplay of Django Unchained's Big Daddy. There's also a great collection of T-shirts in this filmography, ranging from Jules and Vincent's comedic second-hand duds in Pulp Fiction to the suave coolness of Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth.
10. MAJOR MARQUIS WARREN'S STYLE
from The Hateful Eight
costumes designed by Courtney Hoffman
It's as if someone threw the best elements of spaghetti western iconography into a blender and then served us this sartorial cocktail with an unexpected pop of color. Samuel L. Jackson looks awesome.
9. ELLE DRIVER'S CARTOONY CLOTHES
from Kill Bill: Vol. 1
costumes designed by Kumiko Ogawa and Catherine Thomas
When she first appears onscreen, Elle Driver looks like she jumped right out of a cartoon and is still adapting to a tridimensional reality. What better way to dress a character that's as bigger than life as she is deadly?
8. SHARON TATES' PLAYBOY PARTY LOOK
from Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
costumes designed by Arianne Phillips
This is almost two costumes in one, both encapsulating some of the best, silliest and most iconic features of 1969's Hollywood style. Sharon looks like a fashion plate and like a movie star, an icon and a woman, ridiculous and sexy, all at the same time.
7. SHOSANNA'S BLOOD-RED FROCK
from Inglourious Basterds
costumes designed by Anna B. Sheppard
Red is the color of love, passion, sex and blood, violence, revenge and the Nazi flag. To kill Hitler, Shosanna dresses in his colors, reclaiming them for her mission of Jewish retribution on a mass scale. Plus, she looks beautiful.
6. JACKIE BROWN'S FLIGHT ATTENDANT UNIFORM
from Jackie Brown
costumes designed by Mary Claire Hannan
That vibrant blue and retro cut both evoke the blaxploitation cinema that made Pam Grier famous as well as the 40s noir that serves as inspiration for the picture. It's a great piece of costuming that is believable within the story, but also highlights its star's inherent glamour and magnetism.
5. O-REN ISHII'S WHITE KIMONO
from Kill Bill: Vol. 1
costumes designed by Kumiko Ogawa and Catherine Thomas
Lady Snowblood is reborn as a character that seems to have walked straight out of a stylized anime. Simple, but memorable, this is one iconic costume whose pristine textiles serve as a perfect canvas for the bloodshed to come.
4. BRIDGET VON HAMMERSMARK'S SUIT
from Inglourious Basterds
costumes designed by Anna B. Sheppard
Anna B. Sheppard is an expert when it comes to the recreation of 1940s fashion and that expertise is beautifully shown in Diane Kruger's wardrobe for Inglourious Basterds. Her Bridget is a dream of wartime elegance peppered with hints of movie star glamour and even a pinch of absurdity. From the tip of the feathered hat to the elegant shoes, this outfit is exquisite perfection.
3. DJANGO'S BLUE COSTUME
from Django Unchained
costumes designed by Sharen Davis
This outfit, inspired by Gainsborough's Boy in Blue, is a delightfully oddball choice for a revenge western. Jammie Foxx looks both ridiculous and fearsome, wearing this electric blue confection with the confidence of a man capable of turning even the wackiest outfit into an icon of deadly coolness.
2. THE RESERVOIR DOG'S ICONIC OUTFITS
from Reservoir Dogs
costumes designed by Betsy Heimann
This collective costume is brilliant both because of its simplicity as well as its variations. Few of this movie's characters are actually wearing black suits, most are outfitted in a mix match of formal pants and disparate blazers, black jeans, and cheap shirts. Each choice reveals character detail while keeping with the instantly recognizable style of this group of criminals.
1. THE BRIDE'S BRUCE LEE HOMAGE
from Kill Bill: Vol. 1
costumes designed by Kumiko Ogawa and Catherine Thomas
Bruce Lee's yellow and black jumpsuit from 1978's Game of Death is reinvented, first as biker leathers and then as a tracksuit. Like her enemy's white kimono, The Bride's bright yellow costume is a great canvas for the blood splatters that come from the carnage. After she's done with the Crazy 88s and arrives at a showdown in the snow, buttery shades are dyed red. Instantly, we have an icon of bloody revenge and Tarantino's most memorable heroine.
What's your favorite costume from Quentin Tarantino's filmography?
Reader Comments (12)
You forgot—
Pam Grier's red dress in Jackie Brown
Pam Grier's ecru robe in Jackie Brown
Pam Grier's navy suit in Jackie Brown
Pam Grier's black tank top and black newsboy cap and hoop earrings in Jackie Brown
Kill Bill should have been nominated for 12 Oscars.
Peggy Sue -- totally.
Claudio -- thanks for doing this but i'm just over here being alarmed that Daryl Hannah's cartoon nurse uniform wasn't #1.
JF & NATHANIEL R -- I decided I'd only pick a costume per character, so I ended up only featuring one for Jackie and Elle even if they do have other great ensembles. In the end, it was a matter of personal taste. Also, Kill Bill Vol. 1 was starting to eat up too many spots (I originally had Gogo Yubari in here), so no Elle's nurse costume, though I adore that eyepatch with the red cross. Sorry.
Peggy Sue -- I completely agree. Picture, Director, Actress, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Costume, Art Direction, Makeup, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects. It's still my favorite Tarantino flick to this day.
Peggy Sue, Nathaniel, Cláudio, I think 14. Surely you could add Liu and Carradine in Support.
...what about Travolta and Thurman's black suits and giant wide white collars from Pulp Fiction?
button holed -- I'd certainly nominate Carradine for Vol.2. As much as I love Liu, I don't think I'd have nominated her in 2003. That year is full of great contenders for Best Supporting Actress, even though the Academy's final line-up doesn't reflect that reality.
jcon -- Other great suggestions. It's wonderful to see how many people have strong feelings about the costuming in Tarantino's pictures. It just makes it more ridiculous that his only Best Costume Design nominee is OUATIH.
There's a fun interview with Arianne Philips on Elvis Mitchell's podcast, The Treatment. She sounds genuinely excited about her work with Tarantino and talks really intelligently about the historic moment of 1969 Hollywood as an intersection of different fashion influences.
I hope Phillips gets this Oscar - I'll consider it also a retro award for Hedwig and the Angry Inch!
How Mia Wallace is not here?
The Bride's Bruce Lee get-up.
I would prefer Philips wins this (and thanks Madonna on stage!) than any of the others. The only particularly inspired nomination of the bunch (although I love LITTLE WOMEN's designs, I feel like OUATIH's style of costuming isn't rewarded nearly enough and here's a great time to do so). It's truly stunning that KBV1 didn't get a costume nomination let alone any of his others. What filmmaker has more instantly iconic looks that get turned into Halloween costumes?
Wish the women of Death Proof and their antagonist Stuntman Mike were included here.