The fifth Element by Luc Besson has become a real cult film in pop culture. Released in 1997, the film was a box office hit, grossing $263 million worldwide. But if the film marked the public, it is not only because of its scenario and its futuristic decorations. Nope, Leeloo Dallas played by Milla Jovovich has greatly contributed to the success of the feature film, notably with her costume.
To be naked without being
Indeed, everyone knows the famous line “Leeloo dallas Multi pass“but we also remember the costume of the character that she wears at the beginning of the film and which can only be summed upto simple strips revealing a large part of the actress’s body while hiding what there is to hide.
It is Jean-Paul Gaultier who signs the costumes for the film. Originally, for the birth of Leeloo, the couturier follows the instructions of Luc Besson who wanted the actress to be naked without being. To find inspiration, Gaultier will even benefit from the help of Milla Jovovich. As she just explained in a recent interview for vogue, she and Luc Besson discussed how to film the birth of the character before meeting Jean-Paul Gaultier:
She’s naked but she can’t be naked for the whole movie, so what?
That’s when Milla Jovovich thinks about the gowns patients wear in hospitals :
What struck me was that in the hospital, for example, they put you in a kind of open dress in the back to give you injections, put you in tubes, … you have to have the less possible but you also have to cover yourself. So what to do? And that’s where the idea for the bandage came from.
The actress will then share her idea with the director and the designer, explaining that when people are injured, they put bandages to cover the necessary parts. The idea seduces and that’s how Gaultier launches into the design of Leeloo’s costume.
And the idea is excellent since the costume of Leeloo Dallas will mark the public and even 25 years after the release of the film, this look is unique and will influence other fashion designers like Jeremy Scott or Alexander McQueen who paid homage to this costume that has become a fixture in pop culture.
