A Leeloo Costume

The Look of a Leeloo Costume

Sci-fi fans know that Leeloo is the Milla Jovavich character from the 1997 cult favorite The Fifth Element. Even though the film has been out for quite some time, women dressed as Leeloo are still spotted regularly on the floors of the Comic-Con and Cosplay events.

Leeloo had two specific looks in the film. One consisted of metallic beige stretch pants with black stripes on the front, back, and around the knees. This look was paired with a wide black belt. Over a cropped white T-shirt, Leeloo wore very distinctive, rubber, hole-punched orange suspenders that fastened in a V under the groin. She also wore black boots and her punk-orange hair was cut in a bob.

The other costume, which is more memorable and a lot more daring, was white bandages wrapped around the body revealing lots of flesh. The bandages began around the neck and one ran vertically down the torso, while the rest wrapped horizontally around at strategic locations. This bandaged costume was accompanied with white boots.

Additionally, many Leeloos like to carry a multipass, the card used in the film. While this was an important prop in the film, it isn't necessary for a costume to have impact.

Buying a Leeloo Outfit

Leeloo is not a popular enough character to warrant mass production of a Leeloo costume. However, you can purchase the suspender costume at a few specialty outlets. Warp’d Online offers a very complete costume including the pants, belt, wig, multipass (although they warn it’s not a full prop re-creation) and suspenders. Crucially, they will custom-fit the suspenders. They ask for full measurements to try to get it right on the first take, but will give you one free refit if necessary.

You can also purchase this costume at Three Muses Clothing. If you prefer to save some money, you can opt to only buy the suspenders, which are custom fit and very exact to the film. They are made of vinyl. Rubber would be more accurate, but very difficult to work with, wear and maintain, so don’t feel bad about wearing vinyl instead.

The suspenders can also be bought from Kropserkel.

A version of the bandage costume can be found at Artifice Clothing, but be aware that it has been given some cyber-Goth modifications. However, it still looks great and if combined with the wig, will be distinctively Leeloo.

Making Your Costume

Part of the fun of Comic-con and Cosplay is making your own costume, because everyone is so much more impressed and you feel terrific. Both of Leeloo’s costumes can be made at a relatively low cost and trouble, depending on your resources and skills. However, most people prefer to purchase the suspenders at one of the above options, because they are so detailed and hard to make.

The bandage costume can be made simply using any white fabric, although you should use something that has some stretch and will hold tight against your skin. You might even want to use a bit of body glue for extra assurance. There are many good pictures of Leeloo and people in reproduction costumes online so you can use these as a model to re-create the costume yourself. If you can’t find an orange wig, you can dye a blond wig using Manic Panic or other strong punk dyes.

Be prepared to wow!