Forgotten Fashion In Film: Hackers

_Y2k_Grunge _Authenticity

Nov 22, 2024

When I don’t feel psyched about what I’ve been wearing and the manner I’ve been wearing it, I know it’s time to do—and maybe become—something new.

First I start with some market research retail therapy, but afterward, it’s time to lock in. I’m going to need music and a series of movies for inspiration.

This season, I’ve been looking hard at the mid-nineties cyberpunk classic, Hackers.

I’m a fat Black, Caribbean, Queer, neurodivergent nerd, so I’m not really able to pop into the mall and come out with a new fit easily. I need something a little more obscure, a mix of something vintage, something silly, something (un)practical. Hackers takes me exactly where I need to go!

It has everything a Brooklyn girlie needs for a chill night on the Lower East Side…or a 10-hour party in Bushwick I can only stay at for 3 hours because I’m nervous and easily overstimulated.

How does such a relatively unknown, quiet, fun, and silly film give me all this? Behold, the breakdown is coming to explain it all…

What Movie Is This?

Hackers, released and set in 1995, is a cyberpunk crime thriller about a ragtag bunch of anticapitalist teenager hackers who discover a virus created by a large corporation to capsize an oil tanker for ransom.

The main characters are computer nerds, not in the neckbeard programmer or tech-bro genius sense, but in a young adult Y2K grunge underground way.

At its core, the film has messaging around chosen family, community care, surveillance, and technology at a time when most people could not access computers or the internet. We’re talking dial-up here folks! Payphones! Rollerblades!

During an interview, Matthew Lillard said that they were seeking to make a film that would not seem dated. Technology advancements aside, they CARRIED!

Who’s Who?

The cast is somewhat diverse.

Several of the main cast went on to become larger stars, and this was one of their first relatively major film roles.

*Left to right: Laurance Mason, Jesse Bradford, Renoly Santiago, Matthew Lillard, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Lee Miller*

Let’s start with the baddie, Acid Burn played by Angelina Jolie. She previously had been modeling and starred in smaller productions. Hackers came out before both Gia and Girl, Interrupted.

Johnny Lee Miller plays Zero Cool. Some might know him from Elementary with Lucy Liu, and he was also just about to break bigger, with Trainspotting coming out later the following year in 1996.

Looks like a typical transpolycule house meeting about someone not doing the dishes and equity

Laurence Mason is Lord Nikon, he had just wrapped cult classic The Crow with Brandon Lee a year before and has worked in TV and movies ever since. Jesse Bradford (Joey) went on to star in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet the following year and then later in Bring it On, another fave.

Renoly Santiago (Phantom Phreak) shortly after starred opposite Nicholas Cage in Con Air, and continued to work in television, with credits including The Get Down and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Matthew Lillard (Cereal Killer), who also auditioned for the lead role, later became one of the Ghostface slashers in Scream and iconic messiah Shaggy, in Scooby Doo.

Most of the cast was in their twenties, so it’s really interesting to see how the actors evolved throughout their careers—just like my fashion sense.

Sound Check

I love electronica, so this is nearly a no-skips soundtrack for me. There is a heavy UK underground rave influence throughout, so there are back-to-back bangers if you’re into trance, drum ‘n’ bass, acid house, or trip-hop. The soundtrack features several classics that cement a cyberpunk 90s vibe.

The Prodigy and Leftfield are heavily featured for the energetic, digital, computers=techno neon feel. There’s also Massive Attack’s Protection and Halcyon & On and On by Orbital to chill out amongst some slower tracks.

One of the great things about this soundtrack is that it allows me to LOCK IN when I’m doing something important—like shopping at Trader Joe’s or Target on a Saturday.

Role Call

Hackers is directed by Iain Softley, who also directed The Skeleton Key, another fan-favorite Southern Gothic love story (if you look at it from the right angle). Softley also employed real-life hackers to stay on set and ensure the acting and dialogue were authentic.

The costume designer for the film was Roger K. Burton, and he knocked this one out of the park.

Hackers Walked So The Fifth Element Could Run?

1995 saw a LOT of movies about computers and hacking come out, like The Net, Ghost in the Shell, and Johnny Mnemonic. Previously Star Wars (1977), Blade Runner (1982), and Back to the Future II (1989) were the biggest movies taking a chance on futuristic fashion and design, but I gotta give it to The Fifth Element (1997), for finally injecting some joy back into cyberpunk futuristic fashion.

The film reminded folks that environmental damage is a major concern even in the future. Now Keeping in mind both movies’ anticapitalist messaging, let’s get into their fashion similarities.

The fashion in The Fifth Element is as timeless as Hackers, with wearable looks that remain on trend to this day. Do I think Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, was looking at a movie like Hackers for notes? Who knows! But the visuals convey such a similar grittiness, that when I want to embrace some wild fashion looks, I queue these two movies up.

*Zorg (Gary Oldman) is the villain with the corporate emo drip*

Jean Paul Gaultier—the genius behind the ultra-tailored cone bra corset combo Madonna famously wore during her Blond Ambition tour—was responsible for the costuming and he really tapped into something needed in the cyberpunk genre. Gaultier was no stranger to cohesive runway shows, but the amount of colorful playfulness he packed into everyone’s costume was so refreshing.

*Thinking about this McDonald’s uniform with an ‘M’ tiara*

*POV: you’re a flight attendant who graduated Euphoria High and went to college with The Jetsons*

The Fifth Element was one of the first cyberpunk films that used bright colors and chic shapes in such a wearable way. Before Hackers, most cyberpunk films used dark shapes and scenery, and wardrobe was muted and boxy trenchcoats, military uniforms, suits, and working-class streetwear, like in Escape from New York, Robocop, and Bladerunner.

Hackers and The Fifth Element costumes were both inspired by the theatricality of the gay community, lowbrow fashion, and streetwear. While Gaultier was more focused on chic and sexy silhouettes with a club kid twist, Burton was designing for high school aged teens. Burton chose a more sporty, gritty, New York route. Real-life hackers at the time were dressing in all black much like the cyberpunk movie costumes have been, but both Burton and Gaultier injected their versions of aspirational cool into the characters.

Without Ruby Rhod, would we have Lil Nas X?

Ruby wears striking looks that match their charismatic personality. Flamboyant, loud, and bold, once Ruby shows up in The Fifth Element, they steal the show. With an outrageous bouffant hairstyle, a sultry, tailored suit, and oozing genderless sex appeal, Ruby is on every Queer Black person’s inspirational style sheet in one way or another. Lil Nas X took Ruby Rhod’s ‘sorta gay’ vibe and turned it up to eleven.

Rubber suspenders haven’t quite caught on…yet

In the movie, Milla Jovovich’s character, Leeloo, applies her makeup using an automatic Chanel compact, and the blonde roots we’ve seen on Grimes.

What also links these films together? The response from the Queer community.

Many of the characters in each movie interestingly subvert gender roles. The femmes in the movie, including Ruby Rhod, are fierce, decisive, and kick butt, while the masc folks follow their lead. There is no ‘get back to the kitchen’ banter about the women in these movies, even though women are occupying male-dominated spaces.

Fashion Focus

Is this a fashion film like our beloved Clueless? Not by far. But name a cyberpunk movie where everything is this wearable! I won’t wait.

Costume Designer Roger K. Burton built the wardrobe for these characters so well. I’d say aside from the conceptual hacking shots, the wardrobe is a supporting character. Burton didn’t collaborate with just one designer, he shopped various small designers. Everything we see in the movie is a mix of random vintage, army surplus, custom, and small boutique finds.

At the time, there was nothing quite like the fashion worn movie-wise. It was an excellent synthesis of punk, goth, vintage, and army surplus pieces that satisfy a modern sensibility amongst the more eclectically dressed today. These outfits were selected for aura—they were very tied to a downtown punk NYC style at the time that is still alive and well now.

*This store had EVERYTHING, but only like 3 pieces of each item.*

In an interview, Roger K, Burton mentioned that most of the hackers he met doing research wore a lot of black, and he was more drawn to Lower East Side street fashion in NYC—Patricia Fields girlies make some noise. He also took inspiration from the attendees of Wigstock, a public performance event celebrating Queer culture in NYC.

LookBook Breakdown

I am a fashion nerd. I watch runway videos with my partner, and we critique the looks as if we’re rooting for our favorite sports team. The pieces in Hackers were collected from a variety of sources, but weren’t really sellable runway looks at the time—many of the more complex pieces were DIY one-offs. Because the internet was so new then, there wasn’t the same type of documentation we have now of streetwear and underground fashion.

What we do have now is the trends and designers that continue to be influenced by the punk, grunge, military, fetish, and vintage sportswear Burton was inspired by and experimented with.

Currently, fashion has had a collapsing of trends, meaning, there are no common trends most people shop from, it’s become a free-for-all! Therefore in stores and on the runway, you see a mix of different trends, with mass appeal and from formerly niche subgenres. To explore the cyberpunk fashion in this film, I picked some contemporary designers and threw in some classics.

First up? Dade’s back-to-school boxy crop top and bondage harness—it was a horse bridle!?!

The costume designer said he included the leg harness to hold the quiet character together. Pairing it with the beeper and crop top, chef’s kiss! Andrea Crews’ look has a similar relaxed fit pant and this cool vintage jacket with a ‘worn in’ feel to it. Mark Fast’s layered crop over the knit bodysuit with tails is a more sporty/chic vibe. All of the hackers in the film have these storied types of looks, while the people around them are wearing basic 90s, plain t-shirt and jeans outfits.

Main character jackets are a must for cyberpunk! Zero Cool and Acid Burn wore the coolest ones which were thrifted 70s biker jackets from hole-in-the-wall boutiques. The cut and the length of the jackets on the runway now have a modern twist, but don’t look out of place next to Hackers’. There are still oversize looks, sportswear elements, and aging techniques used for the punk/grunge vibe.

Acid Burn also gets to wear several bondage-inspired, Vivienne Westwood looks to underscore her badassery, and I love that they don’t show tons of skin but are still really sexy. For the contemporary looks, I was digging Junya Watanabes’ buckled-in harness, the idea of using athletic gear and straps with reflective pieced-together nylon fabric is stunning and totally something Acid Burn could wear. The KNWLS, Y/Project, and Ottolinger pieces play with ideas of bondage, comfort, and sportswear tailoring.

The top Acid Burn is wearing is a replica of a Vivienne Westwood 70s bondage outfit. It’s modeled after fetish harnesses and parachute gear from the military. She wears it when they’re getting down to REAL hacker business and striking back at the corporate bad guys. Bondage is still very much alive on the runway. Check out Kidill’s jumpsuit with the tartan harness over it. It gives a very Malcolm McLaren x Vivienne Westwood vibe. Phreak would probably also be into the leopard jumpsuit.

Finally, we get to the rest of the gang. While Nikon (nickname due to his photographic memory, which is sick) is usually seen in a photographic t-shirt and vinyl pants, Phreak wears a mix of leopard and prints. Joey is pretty much dressed as if his mom picked out his clothes so we can skip him, but Cereal Killer wears layers of leather combat pants and random dangling tchotchkes, jingling everywhere he goes. These dudes were carrying these looks, throughout the film everyone was mixing prints and textures in such a fittingly carefree, playful way.

The costumes in Hackers were all accessible looks. If you have the time and patience, Depop, eBay, vintage stores, and Etsy will deliver the goods.

IRL Inspo

Am I Hackersing or what?

This styling challenge was really fun! I had an old desert camouflage jacket from a helicopter pilot that was meh, but with some fuchsia fiber reactive dye, I was back in business! I threw on a cropped neon open-knit sweater and Simon Miller bubble clogs for some techno neon on the bottom. The pants are studded on the side for some edge, and the wallet chain with the leopard belt adds the fun back in. For makeup, I’m not too into frosted looks but I love a graphic liner. My eyebrows are usually always pink for safety reasons.

One thing about me, I love dressing like a prettyboi. I was DESPERATE to find Dade / Zero Cool’s orange vest but the hunt continues. I did find a fishing vest in a spectacular and obnoxious neon. I layered it over a neon green zebra stripe undershirt, and a button-down dad shirt with skulls on it. There’s a mini skirt/tulle layer maxi underneath, and I added some platform Demonias for height. The tiny glasses and headset were the fun, Jetset Radio Future / Matrix accessories needed to round out the maximalist look.

For those interested in watching Hackers, you can either buy or rent it on streaming, or watch it on Youtube, but I’d like to think the spirit of the movie lends itself well to sailing the seven seas.

That’s my recap! If you’re going hacking, don’t forget to take breaks, drink water, and rest your eyes!