Over the next few weeks we are going to profile a few of the costumes used throughout the series. From the way they’re made to why they were designed the way they were. This week is Jack’s costume. Click any of the costume pictures for a larger view.
Jack is the brains of The Tribe. He’s intelligent and committed to finding a technological solution to their problems. It is Jack who is able to construct a basic generator to power the essentials for the group.
Jack is also considered a bit of a “geek”. But definitely a good looking geek!
He and Ellie have been close over the series. Jack overall wears pretty normal clothes and I’m sure he’s glad that he’s never been squeezed into any leather outfits. Unfortunately he has a strong attachment to very bright shirts!
This bright green floral shirt was part of Jack’s costume during Series 3. He was captured by the Chosen and months later turned up on the river where he ran into Cloe.
The shirt is made from very thin cotton keeping Jack cool in summer. It’s pattern is very beach orientated. The green part of the shirt has all sorts of shells on it. On the green are orange and white flowers.
It’s a basic short sleeved collared shirt with five buttons down the front to do it up. The buttoms are actually wooden. There is a breast pocket on the left.
His silver jacket, worn in Series 4. This is a straight cut jacket that has slits at the bottom of the jacket on both sides. There is a breast pocket on the left-hand side. The jacket is made of a plastic type vinyl and is outlined on every seam with double red stitching. the inside of the jacket is lined with green nylon.
There is a bright blue plastic zip to do it up down the front.
In Series 5 Jack gets a whole new outfit and it certainly impresses Gel.
His jacket is orange and blue in colour. The blue material is quite amazing. It’s quite reflective and sparkles in the light and feels very much like plastic. It’s textured with tiny little raised triangles and the whole material seems to be covered in some shiny coating that makes it shine!
This material is used mostly on each side of the jacket and of course the arms.
The orange material is like a mesh with a thin layer of plastic over it. Very much like cling film. The wardrobe department have sewn blue cotton through it to give it vertical blue lines. This is used for the waistband, the two front panels on the front and two panels on the back.
It has a high collar and this is done up with four silver domes.
Under his jacket Jack wears a cargo type short sleeved shirt. This shirt is actually from a store but has been “Tribestyled” by the Wardrobe team.
It’s made of cotton poplin and is a stone colour. It has two breast pockets each done up with domes. On the left hand pocket is a five pointed yellow star.
On the top of each sleeve is a flap with a dome at the end but the other half of the dome isn’t there so it’s not able to be done up. On the right sleeve there is sewn on some stripes suggesting some sort of rank. There are also two patches on this sleeve of various characters, one with a skateboard that says “extreme child” and the other looks strangely like Popeye and says “Hi!”.
On one side of the collar on the inside is a strip of white cotton tape that has four blue eyelets attached. On the other side is a patch which is in the shape of a triangle. It’s red with a yellow smiley face on it and says “keep smiling”.
The shirt is done up with seven domes down the front. there are othe various patches which can be seen above in the close-up photo.
Under the shirt is worn a t-shirt. It’s an army green colour and around the neck, sleeve seams and bottom has been painted with a mud coloured paint. The neck band and sleeve cuffs are contrasted with a ribbed version of the same material.
The Jeans
There’s been a lot of talk over these jeans. The label they have inside says “De Zigner – denim”
In the photo to left you can see the jeans from their front perspective. As you can see over the crotch there is a square panel that is done up with four silver buttons on each side.
Down each leg has been sewn large rectangle patches of a tartan like material. The material is grey and brown in colour with cross crossed stitching of light blue and dark blue. The bottoms of the jeans have been cut so that they fray.
The jeans have two pockets on the side which have rivets at the top and bottom of the pocket.
Now to the strange part. The back side of these jeans looks like a mixture of the front of a normal pair of jeans and the two back pockets of a normal pair of jeans. On the back of the jeans is a fly and the two back pockets. Hope you understand as this is getting pretty hard to describe!
Michael is often hassled on set when the fly comes down and it kept happening to him on the Tribe Tour earlier ths year!
Last but not least are the shoes. They’re blue and black and are a little higher than normal shoes in that they come well up the ankle. The label says SHK – FREE. They are done up on either side of the tongue with velcro. They look really comfortable and have lots of padding inside. They’re made of leather and I can imagine such a sturdy, well made, comfortable shoe is quite expensive.
The Wardrobe team do lots of shoe shopping and price is never an issue because it’s all about the look!