The Forgotten Matt Damon Sci-Fi Movie That Featured Costumes From Armani

When it comes to fashion designer and business mogul Giorgio Armani, who just passed away at the age of 91, you'd have to search far and wide to escape his influence — especially in movies. Though he may have been a familiar sight on red carpet events throughout the last several decades, the industry powerhouse never hesitated to lend his talents to cinema on several occasions. Of course, it's easy to imagine that scripts involving mega-rich characters and finely-tailored businesspeople would inevitably make their way to his doorstep. After all, what better way to convey prestige and sophistication than through an Armani suit? But not all of his contributions to the film industry took the most obvious route.

While many of Armani's on-screen costume credits tended to lean towards serious dramas, award-worthy genre efforts, and other passion projects crafted by the most acclaimed of auteurs, one in particular involved the most unexpected (and forgotten) of productions: Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium." The South African/Canadian filmmaker's highly-anticipated follow up to "District 9" had everything going for it, including a major star in Matt Damon as the lead, gritty and dystopian world-building details, and a timely sci-fi premise about the haves and have-nots. What many viewers may not have realized, however, is that it had another secret weapon up its sleeve. Armani served as the costume provider for Jodie Foster's villainous Jessica Delacourt, the Defense Secretary in charge of security on the orbital space station where the rich and powerful live. Her straight-to-business demeanor and utterly ruthless attitude is only matched by the severe silhouette cut by her various outfits, all of which have Armani's fingerprints on them. (You can see this for yourself in the featurette linked below.)

Although this would be far from his most famous or celebrated work on the big screen, Armani's attention to detail on "Elysium" proves just how gifted he was in life. If he could even make a film that Blomkamp himself bluntly disowned that much more interesting than it otherwise would've been, well, what movies couldn't he improve? I'm glad you asked.

While the fashion world at large mourns the passing of an icon as significant and pioneering as Giorgio Armani, those in the movie business have the perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on the very large shadow he cast on some of the biggest and best pictures of the last few decades. Known for his love of films, Armani's legacy would be incomplete without mentioning his work that appeared again and again on celluloid.

According to Vogue, some of his finest moments are intertwined with several of the most influential and successful cinematic touchstones ever made. Fittingly enough, perhaps Armani's most widely-known credit comes from director Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street," itself as maximalist a display of extravagance, wealth, and privilege that's ever been captured on film. The Jordan Belfort biopic couldn't have been a better fit for Armani's unmistakable touch, which involved designing multiple suits that star Leonardo DiCaprio would wear over the course of the epic story. (In fact, you can check out the actual, original sketches he drew in order to help bring these designs to life.) Before that, he was also recruited for a different defining blockbuster centered on a billionaire; this time, Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises." Yes, Armani brought his unique eye to suits worn by Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, which is as perfect a collaboration as you'll ever see.

Armani's various other credits include crafting the wardrobe for actor Richard Gere in Paul Schrader's "American Gigolo," his first Scorsese team-up with "Goodfellas," a meeting with Justin Timberlake to create custom-made clothing for the character of Sean Parker in "The Social Network," and even a crucial assist for Brad Pitt's Nazi-hunting soldier Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." Arguably no other designer has been able to match what he did to further enhance movie fashion, and it's unlikely that anyone ever will.