MOVIES : The ‘Rocky Horror’ Dress-for-Excess Look

Soon there will be two versions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”: the original film that plays at midnight in more than 178 theaters every weekend, and its new competition, the videocassette tape that will be released Nov. 8 by CBS/Fox video.

If your first experience with “Rocky Horror Picture Show” is watching the video at home, you will have missed most of the fun. The film is only half of the “Rocky Horror” show; the costume antics of the audience and the props they have brought along account for the rest. But you’re still in time to be part of what is sure to be a new phenomenon: the “Rocky Horror Video Party.” All you need to know is how to dress and what props to bring.

Dori Hartley of New York is credited with the first look-alike effort. She chose to imitate Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a cross-dressing alien. Since her pioneer outing there have been countless audience interpretations of the film’s super-characters--Dr. Frank, Magenta, Riff Raff and Columbia--who have the best and most costume changes. In supporting costume roles are Brad, Janet, Rocky, Dr. Scott, Eddie, and assorted Transylvanian dancers.

Every Saturday night at the Nuart theater in Santa Monica, where “Rocky Horror” plays at midnight, a fully costumed live cast gathers to cheerlead the audience through their paces. This is the preshow entertainment, and the film does not begin without them.

Sue Blane designed the “Rocky Horror” costumes. She did both the original stage version in London and two years later designed the costumes for the film.

“At the time they were quite anarchic from a costume point of view,” Blane said from London, where she recently mounted yet another stage production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” “To see the body so close and so rough was a terrific shock unless you were used to seeing strip shows. . . . Now they don’t seem so shocking. You see people in the tube (subway) station that look far more bizarre and with less clothing.”

The fashion trends have caught up with Blane’s vision. The costumes the live cast wears at the Nuart bear a marked resemblance to clothing you see in the clubs around town--black corsets and bras worn without blouses, rhinestone encrusted bustiers, long frock coats and minuscule skirts. Blane was in her early twenties when she created the look that would eventually spread to music videos and Melrose Avenue.

“It was the beginning of glitter rock,” she said. “The look was showing up in Chelsea and Kings Road. The reason the costumes were a hit is we had picked up on something that had just begun.”

Blane modestly declines the credit for launching the underwear-as-outerwear trend. She insists on sharing her prescient design sense with street savvy-London designer Vivienne Westwood. But more than 15 years later, she will take the blame. “As I grow up I am a bit alarmed at what I spawned,” she said ruefully.

Blane estimated she had 90% of the costumes for “Rocky Horror” custom-made. Only the clothing in the wedding scene and various undergarments were bought. Rabid fans have had to do likewise, sewing their own with occasional trips to the secondhand shops to assemble the look. The main ingredients in dressing as the flamboyant Dr. Frank are a long cape, corset, bikini underwear, fishnet hose, platform shoes, large millimeter pearls (choker length), elbow-length gloves without the fingers and scads of eye shadow. Jim Dockery, who plays Dr. Frank in the Nuart’s cast advises men to have their corsets custom-made. The ones available in the lingerie shops all have built-in cups that look deflated on a man. Dockery is a “Rocky Horror” costume specialist, he has been playing the part of Dr. Frank for 12 years.

The hardest elements to locate, said Dockery, are the large pearls and the platform shoes, but he’s always had good luck finding shoes at local thrift shops for about $2. To create his heavy-duty makeup, Dockery said he uses Ultra Fair base. For the eye shadow, he mixes the base with Maybelline liquid and waterproof eyeliner, “because it won’t smear or drip.”

All of the stars with major billing wear fishnet hose and high, high heels at some point in the film. Another across-the-cast effect is heavy eye makeup. You can’t go light on the eyeliner.

Columbia and Magenta’s costumes combine great fantasy dressing. Magenta gets the upstairs French maid regalia--a short black uniform and frilly white apron. Her massive ‘do’ of dark wavy locks with gray streaks at the temples is straight out of “Bride of Frankenstein.”

Columbia’s costume is show-stopping glitter. Her striped-and-sequinned shorts, gold glitter top hat, cropped jacket with tails and red rhinestone bow tie are dazzlers. Riff Raff, a hunchback with balding pate surrounded by long wispy pale locks, is the ghoul. His costume is a distressed tuxedo with tails, fingerless gloves and spats (“winkle pickers,” Blane calls them.) The Nuart’s Riff Raff is played by 22-year-old Greg Seeley, who claims he spends his days studying to become a Franciscan monk. Seeley reckons he has about $200 invested in his costume. The detail that was the most difficult to find was the spats, which he eventually located in a secondhand store on Melrose.

Janet Weiss and Brad Majors spend most the show in their undergarments. She emotes in a white underwire bra and matching half-slip with hip-hugging panties. Brad wears white jockey shorts and a decorous blue cotton robe. Both looks are readily available in most department stores.

The Transylvania family members wear assorted tuxedos with unusual accessories.

Costume style for “Rocky Horror Show” has become classic. Several stage versions have been mounted in the last decade. The costumes for these productions are usually true to the original movie. Dave Yoder, a Los Angeles-based theater producer, has done two productions of “Rocky Horror’--one faithful to the original costuming, the other more futuristic. The show with the traditional costuming was a financial success, the other wasn’t.

Even Blane had to reprise herself for her latest production of “Rocky Horror.” “A new look at this stage would be commercial suicide,” she said.

The costume efforts are consistent from theater to theater, but the dialogue and props will vary considerably. This list of must-brings was recommended by “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Comic Book,” published by Caliber Press and copyrighted by 20th Century Fox:

Rice is thrown after the newlyweds leave the church.

Newspapers are used to shield your head, as Janet does, from the next prop.

Squirt guns are for simulating the thunderstorm.

Flashlights are used during the song “Over at the Frankenstein Place” when the verse “. . . there’s a light” is sung.

Surgical gloves to snap in unison with Dr. Frank after the creation speech. Here, timing is everything.

Party makers are brought to make as much noise as possible after the mad doctor’s creation speech.

Confetti is thrown to celebrate the newly made Rocky as he accompanies Dr. Frank off to the master suite.

Toilet paper, preferably Scott brand, to hurl when Dr. Scott enters the laboratory and Brad shouts “Great Scott!”

Toast is for throwing when a toast is offered to absent friends at the dinner table scene.

Party hats are worn during the dinner scene.

A bell. When Dr. Frank inquires, “Did you hear a bell?” that’s your cue.

Cards are for throwing during the song, “I’m Going Home,” when Frank sings, “Cards for sorrow, cards for pain.”