EFNY Snake Plissken's black top

RobWolf

RobWolf

Well-Known Member
Hey guys;

I'm trying to put together a Snake Plissken outfit, I've found a lot of useful threads on here but the key item I can't lay my hands on is Snake's black sleevless top with the zippers at the shoulders. I've tried a few word combination's on eBay etc and so far I've had no luck. Trouble is I don't really know what you'd class it as- sleevless shirt, vest, tanktop...?

Anyone got a source on these or got a spare one for sale?
 
Glad you asked; I've been thinking about this myself and it would be nice to not have to start completely from scratch.

I saw one Snake costume that used an Under Armour shirt, which looked pretty good--but it still had the logo, unfortunately. It seems like removing sleeves wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm curious as to whether the movie shirt was originally a raglan type, and they just replaced the front seams with zippers. (I'm thinking no, but I'll check the DVD.)

And speaking of DVD...the Blu-Ray version of EFNY is due out August 3. :D
 
The shirt was not made for the movie.

If I remember rightly, I read this or saw it in an interview, Kurt Russel came across a guy wearing it in the street in Europe and bought it off the guy on the spot because he thought it was exactly what Snake would wear.

I would imagine that the costume department made duplicates from the found item.
 
This thread needs some pics dammit!

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Nick
 
Thanks for those Mr Webber :)

I think I may get a regular black vest and put the zips on myself. May end up making the pants too.

I have a feeling the watch and tracer bracelet ('tracelet'?) are going to be the two items that drive me insane. I've done a few searches for LED timers and come up with nothing usable- the closest I've come are several timer kits (but the smallest size is 1" digits, which is too big) and a '70s Bulova divers' watch which has the correct 6 digit screen and the two pairs of dots- except it is a watch and so doesn't count down from a preset time, also the numbers are a bit too small.

I've done a quick sketch (the exact measurements of the full board are not given) and, assuming that 1" is the size of the little blocks the LED segments are on (not the height of the digits themselves), and making the watch body JUST big enough to fit the board) you would get a watch that is a fair bit bigger than the real deal. And that if anything would just make it stand out more to passers by :) Note that I haven't even considered a power source yet (in one of the older threads, it was stated that the real one actually had a hidden cable coming off it providing the power); these LED kits are powered by a 12v power source.
 
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I purchased my EFNY shirt off of eBay about 4 years ago and am very happy with it. The only thing I had to ask the seller/maker was to make a second one using a more accurate nickel zipper, which I special ordered from a company in NYC. For some reason, it's hard to find a nickel zipper instead of brass these days. Not sure of the company's name - maybe 'Zipperstop'? - but I think it comes up easily in a Google search for 'zippers'. Unfortunately, I don't have this seller's info any longer, nor have I seen the shirts on sale on eBay since I purchased mine. If it's any help in locating the seller, I know she also made specific hat band replicas from the 70s movie 'Billy Jack'.

As far as the shirt itself, it's a fairly simple construction, made of heavy-weight jumbo spandex...you don't want the thin, swimsuit spandex.

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I can't say for sure, but in research that myself and another Snakeophile did years ago, we never came up with any info that led us to believe the shirt was a 'found' item. Steven Loomis was the costume designer, and AFAIK, the only found wardrobe used was the jacket. But then again, I have no concrete proof to back that up. Good luck on your replica!

Art
'Jon8712'
 
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terryr said:
Looking at the movie pics, it doesn't look like the zips go to the end of the cloth.
Click to expand...

They're only supposed to be vents, I believe...I mean, would you really need to make a sleeveless shirt of all things easier to take off by having two zippers on it?
 
RobWolf said:
They're only supposed to be vents, I believe...I mean, would you really need to make a sleeveless shirt of all things easier to take off by having two zippers on it?
Click to expand...

I wonder if its simply a way to be able to take it on/off without ruining the hair? Like a mohawk?

Anyone else hearing dark synthezeizer music watching the pics? ;)
 
MFP 2020 said:
I think they're just supposed to be cool.
Click to expand...

Incidentally, I saw 'This is Spinal Tap' at the cinema last night, and for the first time noticed that at a couple of points in the film, Nigel Tufnel is wearing a black sleveless spandex top, and it has added zippers- one of them is across the left shoulder, exactly like Snake's, and at one point he has this one unzipped and the flap is hanging down. I think it is just a vent for cooling.
 
I found a black sleeveless shirt on Amazon and then cut it and sewed in zippers. Here is quick tip about sewing in the zippers: don't worry about the zippers actually working. I sewed the part of the zipper where it opens CLOSED. Also, I didn't cut all the way through the shirt. I cut from the neck line to the sleeve line and inserted the zipper. Maybe I am not explaining that very well but the important part is, the zippers are there for show, not for function. Doing it that way made it MUCH easier to add to the shirt. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Snake Mac 10.JPG
 
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