30 Hollywood Wardrobe Malfunctions

You may not know this, but behind the scenes of all of your favorite films, one of the biggest challenges that a movie makers faces can be dressing the actors. Wardrobes are essential to building a character and making him seem more lifelike. Furthermore, the wardrobe is meant to help set the mood in a scene for the time period or culture that the movie takes place in. However, even some of the biggest Hollywood blockbuster movies have missed some very obvious wardrobe mistakes, errors that somehow managed to evade the eyes of the films’ editors, and made it into the final cut. Some of these are funny or even forgivable, yet others will have you wondering whether the actor or actress involved still looks back and cringes. Here’s some of the most notorious Hollywood wardrobe blunders, which ruffled more than a few feathers.

Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman: Full Breast Exposed

For the vast majority of her movies, it’s a well-known fact that Julia Roberts holds strict no-nudity clauses in her contract. This is due to her distaste for disrobing and over the course of her career; she has been rather firmly against nude scenes. However, earlier on, an on-the-rise Julia Roberts did briefly flash some nipple in Pretty Woman, her star-making, Oscar-nominated performance.

For this most infamous of on-screen wardrobe malfunctions, you’ll have to wait until towards the end of the movie. Julia Roberts’ character is wearing a slightly too big sheer nightie. As she’s getting undressed for a romantic moment with her co-star Richard Gere, there is a brief glimpse of her bare chest.

Cameron Diaz, Vanilla Sky: Nip Slip

Vanilla Sky, a 2001 science fiction thriller, directed and written by Cameron Crowe, has plenty of action to keep a viewer engaged. This movie is also notorious for an accidental wardrobe malfunction. A skimpily clothed Cameron Diaz, wearing little more than a sheer dress, has been captured by Tom Cruise’s character and tied to the bed.

As she attempts to move, the top of the dress slips and quickly reveals Diaz’s breast. Apparently, Cameron caught on quickly enough, and she shrugged the dress back into place. And yet, despite her having noticed, that slip still made it past the editors and into the final cut of the film.

Debbie Reynolds, Singin’ in the Rain: That Dress Isn’t From the ’20s

You can be sure that this 1952 musical is one of the most beloved films ever. The movie is a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, and follows three stars portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to “talkies”. It’s one of the rarities that currently can boast a full 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Singin’ in the Rain features a young Debbie Reynolds, playing the role of Kathy Selden, flaunting the height of the era’s fashion. Her performance remains a career-definer, but there’s one fatal flaw when it comes to her costuming. Remember that lovely pink outfit? Apparently that would not at all have been in style during the era depicted, the 1920s. Oops!

The Firefighters, Gangs of New York: Futuristic Uniforms

Gangs of New York, a critically acclaimed film released in 2002, boasted plenty of stars in its cast: Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Liam Neeson, and many more. The film, inspired by Herbert Asbury’s non-fiction book, The Gangs of New York, took a look at Irish immigrant life and death against the backdrop of the 1863 New York Draft Riots.

For the most part, the film was a successful film in respect of details. However, there is one small detail which was overlooked in the movie. The firemen featured in the film wore uniforms that are not different from what firemen wear nowadays. Of course, the firefighter uniforms of the Civil War era would, logically, looked much different.

Natalie Portman, Closer: Bra Malfunction

When Natalie Portman played a stripper in Mike Nichols’ 2004 star-powered film, Closer, but didn’t actually get nude, the disappointment was huge. The disappointment got bigger a second time when it was made known that Nichols filmed nude scenes of Portman, which ended up being cut from the final film because he promised to burn them to ensure they would not end up on the Internet.

But despite all of that hullaballoo, there’s still a moment of accidental partial nudity that made its way into the film. In a late scene, Natalie Portman’s character is talking to Clive Owen’s. She crosses her legs, and in that instant, a nipple accidentally pops out of that teensy bra. Needless to say, more flesh was shown than either Portman or Nichols wished would have been seen.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, I Know What You Did Last Summer: Peek-A-Boo

I Know What You Did Last Summer, a blockbuster loosely based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan, centers on four young friends who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they were involved. In this 1997 American slasher film directed by Jim Gillespie, most horror film buffs likely overlooked this malfunction if they were more into the next moment of carnage.

Sure, this is a moment so brief that it barely even counts as a scene, but it was nonetheless long enough for plenty of people to notice what was up. In this scene, Sarah Gellar’s character Helen was frantically climbing a rope. As Gellar reaches for that rope, her ill-fitted wardrobe choice gives way, granting viewers a look at what that dress is supposed to hide.

Danny Glover, The Color Purple: A Clip-On Tie

Danny Glover portrayed abusive husband “Mister” Albert Johnson in The Color Purple. The Spielberg-directed film is based off a seminal novel by Alice Walker. The coming-of-age movie follows the lives of Black American women who lived in the South across several decades in the early 1900s.

Starring such massive names as Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, movie’s plot is gritty, including domestic violence, incest, pedophilia, poverty, racism, and sexism. Playing the main character Celie’s controlling and violent spouse, Danny Glover is seen wearing a clip-on tie in the film. However, the scene is set in 1916 and clip-on ties were not invented until 1928. We’re sticklers for details!

Russell Crowe, Gladiator: Lycra Did Not Exist Until 1958

Gladiator had a lot of things going for it: Russell Crowe’s acting, intense fight scenes, and the classic wardrobe. The epic historical drama helped to reignite interest in Ancient Greco-Roman culture for a new generation, and was the darling of the Academy Awards the year it came out.

The film also showed one blooper that might be hard to overlooked: Lycra. It definitely had no place in the arena and would not be invented until 1958 — you know, about two millennia later. Sure, it would have been difficult to maneuver around set in those clunky metal outfits, but this anachronism is pretty glaring.

Foot Soldier, Glory: Keeping Track of the Civil War With A Digital Watch

Often celebrated as one of the most realistic war films of all time, Glory explores the true story of the Union Army’s second African-American regiment in the American Civil War. Directed by Edward Zwick, the film depicts the soldiers’ journey as a group of spirited volunteers all the way to their first engagements in battle.

Blink and you’ll miss it. Someone clearly forgot to tell this extra to be more careful; or that extra himself should have known in the first place! As the soldiers are marching, you’ll notice one of the infantrymen is flaunting a decidedly modern digital watch on his wrist. Oops!

Cast, Amadeus: Mozart’s Zippers

Often regarded as one of the most ambitious films of all time, generally speaking, Amadeus strove for accuracy, even filming in the same opera house in Prague where Mozart’s operas had debuted. Undoubtedly, this 1984 film is one of the most celebrated in the history of modern cinema, but even some of its most fervent fans cannot deny that director Miloš Forman took quite a few creative liberties concerning historical inaccuracies.

But even this excellent film was not without its bloopers. Perhaps the most egregious would be the zipper, so out of place in this film it might make your head spin, as it would not be invented for another 130 years after Mozart’s era. The blunder doesn’t just apply to one character, but several dancers wearing the modern inventions, making the film more inaccurate than it could have been.

Extra, Raiders of the Lost Ark: Blue Jeans

Many moviegoers take extra casts for granted. But they are a key part of helping the filmmaker convey to the audience a more fully-fledged sense of the time and space that he or she is trying to depict. If the extras don’t look the part, the result could be quite jarring. In this particular case, one extra drives this point home.

In one scene, where Indiana Jones is drinking away his sorrows, various characters drift in and out of frame behind him, illustrating the bustling marketplace he’s in. One such extra clearly didn’t get the memo that they’re in 1930s Egypt, as he’s worn his denim blue jeans on camera! Among other extras, particularly in the old Cairo bazaar, he looks out of place in his plainclothes.

Anne Baxter, The Ten Commandments: Underwire Bras & Turquoise Dresses

In DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments, the invented character of Nefretiri, played by the ever-iconic Anne Baxter, wears a stunning sheer blue dress and heaps of glittering jewelry. And yet, as you soak in her gloriously shimmering beauty, there’s just one glaring flaw.

Sure, that sheer fabric is just so fashionable, but it reveals a historical goof: the type of lovely lacy bra she’s clearly wearing underneath it would definitely not have existed back then. And here’s an even bigger disappointment: that color of turquoise blue would have been nearly impossible to replicate in Ancient Egypt.

Oola, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi: Unintentional Stripper

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi is one of the most thrilling films of all time. It was in this film, the last of the classic Star Wars trilogy, that Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) battles the slimy gangster Jabba the Hutt and then the cruel Darth Vader to save his comrades in the Rebel Alliance and triumph over the Galactic Empire.

There is, however, some accidental nudity in this film when there is some accidental exposed breast from Oola (played by Femi Taylor), a Twi’lek slave dancer in criminal Jabba the Hutt’s desert palace. Just before she was dropped down a trapdoor and eaten alive by the Rancor, Jabba the Hutt grabbed her slave chain, causing her to stumble towards him. This made her boob pop out of her very skimpy clothing.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator: Terminator Jr.

The opening scenes of The Terminator featured Arnold Schwarzenegger unashamedly walking around naked as he acquires clothing. The director, James Cameron, shot the scene in such a way that he would tease viewers and hopefully maintain Arnie’s modesty, using low lighting and distant camera angles to obscure it all.

However, the Blu-ray edition of the film reveals that as Schwarzenegger’s character strides towards the gang of thugs, his man bits are quite visible. It’s the sort of thing that requires you squint to make it out, and both James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger in their time likely underestimated how many people would take the time to try and look.

Amy Smart, Crank: High Voltage: That Camera Slip

Crank: High Voltage is a 2009 over-the-top action film and the sequel to Crank. The film was written and directed by Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine. It featured an extremely quick glimpse of Amy Smart when a group of cops tried to arrest her and her boyfriend, the protagonist Chev Chelios (Jason Statham).

Smart’s character, Eve, jumps on a police officer’s back, and the way the camera is angled offers a rather personal view of both her underwear and her privates. However, the shaky camerawork makes the slip feels like something that should be shown, and within fractions of a second, the movie cuts back to its action.

Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai: Obsolete Samurai Costume

The Last Samurai, released in 2006, performed decently at the box office, though it received its fair share of backlash. Its subject matter would raise discussion about race in film; and though the filmmakers strove to bring the feel of the 19th century in Japan, there is one key detail that somehow went overlooked — and more knowledgeable viewers were quick to figure it out.

In the film, Tom Cruise’s played Captain Nathan Algren

As Captain Nathan Algren, Tom Cruise sports plenty of armor that you would assume would be the typical uniform of a Japanese samurai. But even if the gear was intricate and carefully crafted, it’s wholly incorrect for the film’s period. The film was set in 1876, and that armor dates back to the 1600s, making it wildly obsolete.

Samuel L. Jackson, The Caveman’s Valentine: Unintentional Shower Scene

You would never really associate Samuel L. Jackson as having done nude scenes; it’s just not the persona he generally portrays. This is backed up by Jackson’s own admitted discomfort with nude scenes. However, the unpopular 2001 drama The Caveman’s Valentine features a very brief glimpse of Jackson in the buff when he strips off and enters a shower.

The head of his member flaps past his leg and as he heads into the bathroom. But unlike many of the other actors and actresses on this list, Jackson has luck on his side, as this film isn’t available on Blu-ray, so nobody’s going to able to do a high resolution exploration of the scene anytime soon.

Mel Gibson, Gallipoli: Skinny Dipping

Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian war drama movie directed by Peter Weir, featuring new-on-the-scene young actor Mark Lee and a fellow rising young Australian actor whose name you may recognize: Mel Gibson. The film tracks young men from rural Western Australia who enlisted in the Australian military during the First World War. They are sent to fight in Australia’s disastrous and infamous Gallipoli campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the Gallipoli peninsula of what is today Turkey.

While the film modifies events for dramatic purposes and as a result actually has its fair share of historical inaccuracies, it is also known for a different kind of blooper. In the film, Mel Gibson briefly showed off everything, when he stripped and swam with his fellow soldiers. When he dove into the water, his modesty flopped around for all to see for a split second.

Louis C.K., American Hustle: This Rolex Did Not Exist Then

Comic Louis C.K. was among the incredible ensemble cast members of the 2013 movie American Hustle. The film garnered much popular acclaim and received many Oscar nominations, including for Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. Inspired by the FBI Abscam operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s this black comedy crime film was directed by David O. Russell.

In this tale about two con artists who set up sting operations on corrupt politicians while under duress from an FBI agent, C.K.’s character made a fatal error: he wore a Rolex. Joke’s on him, as this watch wouldn’t be created until 2010, while the movie itself takes place in the 1970s. Clocks go forward, not backward, unless C.K.’s is a time-machine in disguise.

Tom Cruise, All The Right Moves: Tom Cruise Jr.

No doubt, Tom Cruise is one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, back in 1983, he was still rising on the scene, about to become a household name. In this film, he stripped down for an intimate on-screen scene with Lea Thompson. However, as he takes his clothes off, the camera lingers right in front of him, and for just a few frames, his member pops into frame also.

Though the film did receive an R-rating, this was far too quick of a moment to have been intentional. And as this was so early on in his career, it could be argued that perhaps Cruise didn’t have enough power to nix the idea of this moment of nudity.

Kate Winslet, Titanic: Rose’s Wandering Mole

Titanic is a classic, no doubt. The epic romance and disaster film directed by James Cameron is a fictionalized account of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic. In one of the most celebrated love stories in cinematic history, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio star as members of markedly distinct social classes who dare to mix onboard the doomed vessel.

But a big problem with Titanic is Kate Winslet’s (portraying Rose) wandering mole that migrated in different scenes. The mole was originally on the left side of Kate Winslet’s face and moved to the right side later in the movie. You would think that her makeup team would have figured this out soon enough, but it made it to the film’s final cut.

Extra, Teen Wolf: That Intentional Zipper Malfunction

Chances are, you may not have heard of this film, but you’ve probably heard of this goof. This 1985 fantasy-comedy film was a Michael J. Fox vehicle. His character discovers, you guessed it, that his family has something funky with their genetic that transforms his high-school student self into a werewolf.

This blooper in this film is easy to miss. An extra cast decided to jump around while checking to make sure she was dressed well. The extra, a woman, scrambled after cheering on the basketball players and quickly hid her wide open fly as she straightened her top. Think that’s bad? In another scene, an extra intentionally pulled his member out of his pants — and it made the final cut.

Female Cast, Julius Caesar: No Bullet Bras

Julius Caesar is a 1953 epic film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, based, of course, on the real-life story of betrayal and power struggle in Ancient Rome. Led by such massive stars as Marlon Brando, James Mason, Greer Garson, and Deborah Kerr, the movie received critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. That is not to say that it was without a blip.

Bullet bras were an iconic standard of lingerie back in the 1950s. Wearing those pointy bras was a norm, considered one of the hallmarks of femininity in its era. However, as stylish as it was then, there is no way the female cast of Julius Caesar would have been able to own one in 44 BCE, eons before its invention.

Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood: A Bad Sole

One of the best actors to have lived is Daniel Day-Lewis, but even he is not immune to a blooper or two. Neither are the films he has made, including the especially celebrated 2008 hit There Will Be Blood. Is it one of the highly dramatic and absorbing movies of that period? Short of doubt. However, is it totally historically correct? While the answer is no, you would have to pay close attention to see why.

Daniel Clearview’s boots showcase a waffle sole design on the bottom. Okay, we’re being sticklers here, particularly because the chances of anyone’s sight lingering on the bottom of Daniel’s shoes are a bit low. But it should be noted that the pattern his shoes sport would not have been invented yet in 1898.

Tobey Maguire, Seabiscuit: The Jockey Strap

In the movie Seabiscuit, Tobey Maguire was gorgeous as jockey Red Pollard, who rode the eponymous horse. The movie fared well with both audiences and critics. However, it did not do so well sticking to 1930s and 1940s horse jockey fashion.

The real horse Seabiscuit lived from 1933 to 1947, making it impracticable for the champion thoroughbred’s jockey to put on the strapped helmet that was not yet invented during the period. Maybe the filmmakers only certainly wanted to ensure safety, or perhaps they just wanted to strap a bow to Tobey Maguire’s head.

Female Cast, Pearl Harbor: Ladies’ Legs

The nurses of Pearl Harbor look lovely as they sit on their luggage with enthusiasm, showing off their leis and beautiful period dresses. The unassuming eye might not catch anything wrong with the scene. The naked legs exposed underneath their dresses, however, would have been quite outrageous at the time period.

Naked legs would never have met the somewhat conservative dress code of the time period. It’s a fact that nylons may have been in stunted supply during the war, but even if that were so, then the women of 1941 would have at minimum painted a seam on the back of their legs to look like they had on stockings. That kind of minor detail would have certainly enriched the old-fashioned scene.

Mel Gibson, Braveheart: Skirts The Issue

Braveheart still awakens the freedom fighter in us all, and casts light on an unfortunately lesser-known portion of Scottish history. Regrettably, it’s also famous for its deficiency of historical correctness in many departments, one of which are the costumes. As cool as this is to see so many fellas in kilts, they essentially had not yet been invented.

When the movie was made, in 1995, it may have appeared much more fun, not to declare more relaxed, to act the movie in kilts, but kilts were invented much later, roughly the 1720s. That would have made it not just impracticable but also plain weird for a group of warriors in 1280 to kill while putting on what would have been thought of as odd skirts.

Keira Knightley, Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth Gets The Boot

Few characters in English literature could be as celebrated as Elizabeth Bennet. Certainly, she comes to know the error of her ways after she falls for and marries Mr. Darcy, who genuinely is not short of his own proud errors and prejudiced ways. But, does she ever learn to tread heavily through puddles without getting wet?

In the 2005 film interpretation of the book, Keira Knightley may play a quite remarkable version of intelligent Jane Austen’s stubborn Lizzie, but she does so while wearing rain galoshes that weren’t in existence until 1852. You could contend that the movie could be filmed after the 1850s, but since Austen died in 1817, it’s surely not a period right to include rubber boots. Maybe the zombie version was more correct all together.

Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained: Django Time Travels

This may well be one of Tarantino’s best significantly celebrated films, but Django Unchained holds a huge obvious piece of modern technology contained in not only the entire film but in the movie poster itself — Django’s sunglasses! That type of shades may well look amazing on Jamie Foxx, but they didn’t exist in 1858.

This is one thing that Tarantino certainly knew while directing the movie. It’s one of those instances where the director decides to go with what seemed best instead of what portrayed the era accurately. The sunglasses, patterned after Charles Bronson’s character in The White Buffalo, were possibly a nice choice; fans were so fascinated with them that “Django sunglasses” have become popular purchases on the market.

Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future: The Futuristic Guitar

Alright, so this isn’t a wardrobe malfunction, but it is just so glaring of a mistake that we nerds couldn’t help but fume about it! Back to the Future, the first of a trilogy, follows the adventures of high school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), and the kooky scientist Dr. Emmett L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Together, they use a DeLorean car-turned-time machine and travel back to the 1950s, when Marty’s parents were themselves high schoolers.

In one of the most famous scenes in sci-fi, Marty McFly celebrates at the end of the film by rocking out to Chuck Berry on a Gibson ES-345 guitar, which would not be invented until 1958. It is a minor blooper given that it is only a three-year delay (the film takes place in 1955), but it is still a pretty glaring mistake, especially for a film about time travel.