Heavy on the spit and polish

FROM Berlin to Iwo Jima to Uganda, cinema screens are teeming with uniforms. And the costume designers behind the movie combatants are garnering early awards notice.

So, just what is the most important command when re-creating military vestments? Historical accuracy.

The contenders we surveyed relied on expert military advisors, period-specific archival materials, historical war footage and, in one case, an elderly family member.

“My father was a Marine. He fought in four battles in World War II,” said Deborah Scott, costume designer for “Flags of Our Fathers.” “He sent me his Marine uniforms, which were in perfect condition. I used them as samples.”

For Louise Frogley, costume designer on “The Good German,” the upcoming George Clooney film set in a post-World War II Berlin, it meant a wardrobe-buying trip to Germany where the costumers combed through Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg, Theatre Kunst and Sturm -- the storied military uniform warehouse in an old flour mill in East Germany -- to create the 1,750 uniforms they would need.

What she couldn’t buy or rent she built, with the help of textile artist Mary Etta Lang, who aged fabrics by shading and building in shadows. None of the military uniform vendors “seem to have a complete set of anything,” Frogley says. “Every single uniform was culled from six or seven different places.”

Given the labor involved, it’s no wonder the wardrobe commanders we surveyed suggest that fatigue isn’t just a fabric in need of distress.

Sheigh Crabtree

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“The Good German”

Commander: Louise Frogley

Medals of honor: Three Costume Designer Guild Award nominations

Uniform: World War II Allied and Axis powers

Troops deployed: Six U.S. Army Class A captain uniforms, winter weight; 1,750 supporting cast members and extras in U.S., Russian, French, British Army and post-Gestapo German police uniforms.

Battle breakthrough: Finding Walter Bradford, museum curator at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. “He was completely brilliant and did a really wonderful book for us explaining absolutely every piece of uniform. So, if we did cheat, we knew we were cheating.”

“The Departed”

Commander: Sandy Powell

Medals of honor: She’s won two Oscars (five nominations), one British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award (eight nominations), one Costume Designers Guild Award nomination

Uniform: Massachusetts State Police (a.k.a. “Statey”)

Troops deployed: Nearly 100 on-screen cadets at the State Police Academy.

Battle breakthroughs: “We hand-built cadet uniforms for the principal characters because standard police uniforms tend to fit so poorly. I hired another costumer to handle the extras’ wardrobes. I usually hire experts to oversee uniforms because it’s important that they be historically accurate.”

“Flags of Our Fathers”

Commander: Deborah Hopper

Medals of honor: One Oscar, one BAFTA nomination

Uniforms: U.S. Navy, Marines

Troops deployed: Mount Suribachi: 500 background soldiers in HBTs (herringbone twill fatigues), 100 HBT costumes in various states of distress and a number of Class Bs (khaki pants, shirts and ties) onboard ship.

Bond tour rallies: Principals dressed in Class A uniforms and an additional 10,000 period costumes.

Battle breakthrough: Tracking down HBT fabric. “We thought we were going to have to make the fabric ourselves, but we found a resource back East. Then we started the process of dying, aging and manufacturing the costumes. We distressed collars and cuffs, frayed edges and over-dyed. [Uniform] aging depends on how long each solider has served and how much action they’ve seen.”

“The Last King of Scotland”

Commander: Michael O’Connor

Uniforms: Ugandan Army president / king of Scotland, troops

Troops deployed: For Idi Amin: Ugandan Army khaki fatigues; Air Force field marshal fatigues; air marshal dress uniform with medals and lanyards; field marshal dress uniform with medals; Scottish kilt in black-watch tartan; Ugandan Army tan lizard camouflage.

For extras: 600 Ugandan Army soldiers in olive fatigues; four Ugandan Army gatekeepers in shorts and red felt hats.

Battle breakthroughs: “Idi was a complete costume freak and he was the head of everything. I had a lot of the clothes made in Africa and bought some medals off EBay. We had to reinforce fabric and lengthen jackets to support all his medals.”

“Pan’s Labyrinth”

Commander: Lala Huete

Uniforms: Spanish Army (captain, sergeants and ranking officers), Guardia Civil (rural field officers, cavalry division)

Troops deployed: Capt. Vidal: Eight identical officer uniforms in various states of distress.

Supporting cast: 20 uniforms in various ranks. Extras: 60 uniforms.

Battle breakthroughs: “For the decorations of rank and other military insignias, we searched the antique shops in the El Rastro neighborhood of Madrid.... We accentuated the volume and rigidity of the uniforms, for example, widening the shoulders and cinching the waists to create the sensation of an almost sculptural militarism; we were able to give it an approximation to the Nazi style that instilled such great terror.”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”

Commander: Penny Rose

Medals of honor: Costume Designers Guild Award nomination, BAFTA nomination

Uniforms: East India Trading Co., British Royal Navy

Troops deployed: Trading Co.: 100 seamen, 150 regulars and 50 officers. British Royal Navy fighting corps: 60 regulars.

Battle breakthroughs: “The number of costumes on ‘Pirates’ got to be up to 600 to 700 a day. The uniforms were all hand-constructed and historically absolutely on the button except for slightly lighter wool. You employ a costume shop, a dye shop, milliners, boot makers....”