Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television

October 3, 2009 through January 10, 2010

This exhibition of costumes from Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Star Trek, Indiana Jones – and many more of the most popular films and television shows of all time – shows how costumes play a crucial role in defining characters for visual storytelling in media.

The exhibition examines how costume design incorporates color, style, scale, materials, historical traditions and cultural cues to help performers and audiences engage with the characters being portrayed. It offers museum visitors new ways of seeing characters as defined by their costumes.

Costume highlights include:

• Hat worn by Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Indiana Jones’s whip from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Leather jacket worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Terminator (1984)
• Embroidered robe worn by actor Joe Turkel as Eldon Tyrell, creator of the replicants, in Blade Runner (1982)
• Darth Vader cape, helmet, and lightsaber from Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Tunic and sash worn by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek (1967)

The traveling exhibition was organized by the Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum.