Stone-Agers Never Looked This Good

The Movie: “The Flintstones.”

The Setup: Two-dimensional no more, Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) is the dimwitted patriarch of a “modern” Stone Age family living in the city of Bedrock. He and wife Wilma (Elizabeth Perkins, pictured right) are best friends with Barney Rubble (Rick Moranis) and his wife, Betty (Rosie O’Donnell, pictured left).

The Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton, whose credits include “Robocop 2,” “Gremlins 2,” “Ruthless People,” “Airplane!” and “Frankie and Johnny.”

The Look: Tiger, leopard and some mythical prehistoric furs and skins are whipped into men’s tunics and women’s dresses with a definitive late ‘50s-early ‘60s fashion feeling. Wilma, always in white, favors one-shoulder silhouettes, and Betty goes for halters. Everyone is shoeless.

Semi-Politically Correct: The costumes are made from printed Ultrasuede and leather.

Hemline Watch: Just above the knee, as in the cartoons.

Quoted: “I tried to use the cartoon clothes and make them as human as possible, which is harder than it seems. (In the cartoon) the women are all Barbie dolls, but not as tall, and the men’s bodies are little eggs with heads and feet. Their clothes were surprisingly abstract,” Norton says.

Inspiration: Besides reels of the original ‘60s cartoons, Norton turned to Vogues and Harper’s Bazaars from ’61 and ’62. For women other than Wilma and Betty, she relied on Paris designers Givenchy and Cardin.

Trivia: Thoughts of adorning Elizabeth Taylor, who plays wealthy Pearl Slaghoople, with jewels resembling lumps of coal--from which diamonds form--were dashed when the coal photographed badly. Instead, Pearl wears jewelry made to look as if it were carved from geodes or crystals.

We Could Live Without: The barefoot gag works only up until a point. When the camera offers views of the actors’ dirty soles--ugh.

Sources: All the costumes, about 1,000, were custom-made in Los Angeles.