The wardrobe department had over 150 cast members to be outfitted in period garb.
The grander attire for the eleven people at the head table -- including Count Thibault's dark teal, velvet, studded doublet and Lady Rosalind's jewel and fur encrusted pink gown -- were designed by costume designer Penny Rose.
"I researched the period, made drawings and showed them to Jean-Marie. My wonderful cutters and makers then worked to drawings," Rose says.
While Rose was in Chicago tending to the day-to-day needs of the in-production modern portion of the movie, her assistant costume designer John Norster was tracking down the large numbers of period costumes needed for the extras in the medieval portion.
"He rented half the costumes from Italy and the other half were adapted by our chief cutter Dominic Young and his two wonderful seamstresses from existing clothes. So, a lot of time was spent on fabrics, trimmings, beadings, dyeing ... anything to adorn these garments and make them more glamorous. Since it is a banquet at the King's Court, it needed to look very elaborate."
"Penny Rose is a brilliant and very talented costume designer," says Ledoux. "Our main goal was to get someone with an American eye, but not too far from Europe. We needed someone who could translate our vision for an American audience without being too ridiculous for a European audience. Penny has a lot of humor and understood very well what was needed."
The accomplished and in-demand English costume designer was attracted to the challenge of essentially doing two films -- one period and one present-day -- rolled into one movie. "I'd worked with Jean Reno before on 'Mission: Impossible' and I remembered what a delight he was. Jean-Marie seemed like jolly good fun. All the ingredients together made it seem interesting.
"Jean Reno wears a 'working outfit' in Chicago that features a brown, leather tunic over leather trousers and this great, deep green cloak, with his family crest embroidered on the inside. Underneath his tunic, he has this lovely quilted undershirt. In Medieval times he has a suit of armor and a wonderful leather coat. We had to make a plastic version because it takes two people to carry the leather one behind him."
Jean Reno and Christian Clavier's medieval costumes were made by MBA, London, and all the shoes in the film were made by Carlo Pompei in Rome, who Rose thinks is the best shoemaker we have.
"Christian's costume for the majority of the film consists of these very simple trousers under leather suede chaps over and a little mustard color undershirt. What proved to be a really stupid idea, but was great fun, was to have his sweater made out of old string to go over the shirt," describes rose. "Unfortunately they lasted only one week at a time. They just fell apart, but everybody loved them and the effect worked.
"His look didn't change until he got money and then he went on a mad shopping spree. Picture a montage of various Eltonish, '70s pop-starish looks. It was based on the idea that a medieval man would be attracted to these extreme outfits.
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