A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) had Milena Canonero as costume designer in her first gig; the movie also was very low-budget (almost all of it was shot on location rather than in sets), so most of the costumes are off-the rack except for some of Alex's fantasy sequences where I'm sure it's reused period stock.
Canonero's Droog costumes however remains one of the most iconic costume designs in film history; the combination of underclothes, suspenders, old-fashioned hats and cricket codpieces. The asymmetrical makeup calls to mind tribal warriors but also adds a little androgyny (despite them all being vicious misogynists). The final touch is gore prosthetic decorations, such as the eyeballs on Alex's cuffs, that feel like a forerunner to punk fashion. This kind of DIY costume design was also done to excellent effect by Bobbie Mannix on The Warriors and Norma Moriceau on Mad Max 2.
There's some other nasty 'Droog' gangs too; one of the torture sequences (more harrowing cos Kubrick was being a sociopath again and had Malcolm McDowell's eyes being scratched for real) has some other Droogs in different hats, whilst Alex's nemesis 'Billyboy' (played by Richard Connaught) wears a very different kind of Droog uniform; consisting of leather overalls, military wear (especially WWII German military), and clashing colourful frilly shirts.
McDowell also gets to wear a fantastic purple suede and snakeskin jacket - prop sites say it was designed by Canonero, but the first comment on this Propstoreauction youtube video says something different 'I actually sold this coat to Malcolm around september 1970 in Kensington market in London , it is a plum suede and python trim coat designed and made by a young Yugoslavian guy and bought from our stock. the film’s costume designer had no imput. Malcolm chose it. Priced at £120 in 1970, it was the most expensive item in the market'. Interesting - given it only appears in one brief scene, it would make sense that it was bought. He also gets to wear a red and white nightgown that presumably was also off the rack.
As for the rest of the film's outfits? They all scream '1971' and were presumably off the rack. though almost all the women have had their hair dyed in garish colours. I love the red outfits worn by Sheila Raynor as Alex's mother, as well as the vinyl-lined red jumper worn by the unnamed lodger. Also the multicoloured dress worn by the psychiatrist, and the red jumpsuit worn by one of Alex's victims. Also the Milk Bar security who wear spandex unitards with studded belts, for some reason?
There's a couple of fantasy sequences that Alex indulges in, that I'm mostly including so that someone can hopefully indentify which film their costumes are from - he briefly has a fantasy of being a Roman soldier torturing Jesus, as well as being an ancient noble. Then he has one as a soldier in Old Testament battles; again, I highly doubt these were made for the film given the very low budget and the briefness of these fantasy sequences (clips from other movies were used in these fantasy sequences after all), but I did notice the helmets worn by his warriors were familiar - because they had been reused by costume designer James Acheson in the Doctor Who serial 'The Mutants' a year later!
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