THE COSTUME
Raiders Of The Lost Ark’s costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis talks us through Indy’s iconic threads
JACKET
“When we went to La Rochelle for the first day of shooting, at the Nazi U-boat facility, there was only one costume ready! I took Indiana Jones’ clothes with me in my own suitcase. The evening before we went to set, we had dinner at an oyster place and then I went back to the hotel and I aged that jacket. I had mineral oil, a steel brush and Harrison’s knife — he used to carry one of those big Swiss Army knives, in case he had to fix anything. He and I had a drink by the pool while I was working on the jacket, and
I cut myself up real good — my hands had metal shards in them. But you had to believe that jacket was [Indy’s] second skin. You had to believe if he hung it up, it would be so soft that it would just fall like a towel. You had to believe he rolled it up and put it under his head at night. You had to believe. I wanted to give Harrison whatever he needed to bring that authenticity to the screen.”
TROUSERS
“His trousers were based on the ones worn by the LA sheriff’s highway patrol. These motorcycle cops wear jodhpurs, trousers that are called Pinks. And the fabric is this wool-twill. In the [1954] movie Secret Of The Incas, the treasure hunter played by Charlton Heston wears the same kit, pretty much, but that character is totally different. He’s not a nice person.”
HAT
“I’d already made a complete prototype [outfit] for Tom Selleck — he was designed and ready to go. Then he dropped out, and at that point we were casting for the costume, not the other way around. The costume was going to stay and they were just finding someone to put in it. I remember being in [renowned costumiers] Bermans & Nathans in Camden Town with Harrison, up to our knees in fedoras. We’d got boxes and boxes of them and dumped them on the ground and tried them all, one by one, in front of a triptych mirror. Harrison is long on patience; he really is the strong silent type. The model we settled on was the Australian, which
I cut down. It’s really about the height of the crown and the width of the brim — it’s all about the proportion.”
SHOES
“I brought those shoes over from Los Angeles. They were Red Wings and I purchased them on Ventura Boulevard. They were work boots and the style of them hadn’t changed for years and years and years. I actually think Harrison had worn them as a carpenter anyway. Red Wings are an American icon; they’re sturdy and they’re comfortable. You can live in them. You never need to take them off.” NICK DE SEMLYEN