| 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-78 | 1979-80 | 1981 | 1982-83 | 1989 |
GENE'S
COSTUMES
1974
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From
here on it gets very hard to keep track of Gene's costumes, as these would change several
times during 1974. And to complicate things even more, items from the costumes would be
combined in many different ways. In pictures A - D, you see the first of them. It was a
leather shirt, which would be tied over the chest, and had batwings under the arms (the
bat-theme would follow Gene for the rest of his career). On the back of the shirt was a
large, white skull-and-crossbones design.
Picture B shows a pair of leather pants often worn with this outfit: black leather pants,
with air holes on the thighs, and studs in the crotch area. But as seen in picture D he
would sometimes wear a pair of leather pants, with a bat-design made from studs. These
pants will return later on this page!
Picture C shows a pair of platform boots, rarely worn. I have only seen a few pictures of
them... they were black leather boots, with a silver dollar sign on each one (you
can just make one out in the picture). Gene would change between no less than 4 different
pairs of boots during this period... two are seen in this section, and the last two can be
seen in the 1975 section!
Highlighted in picture D is the first of many leather chokers worn by Gene in the early
years. It looks like a simple dog-collar, with a single row of spiked studs. He would also
use this one in 1975...
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Pictures
E - H are from late summer 1974, and shows Gene in an all-over leather-costume, with a
skull-and-crossbones design on the chest. The outfit also had a pair of detachable horn
shoulder pads, and a set of impressive batwings (see in picture G).
This is one of the most beautiful costumes Gene ever wore, but probably also the hottest,
since his entire body was covered with heavy-duty leather. Maybe that is why pictures of
this costume, are actually quite rare (especially ones taken at concerts). Oddly enough
the costume can be seen in several video-clips from the period, like on "The Mike
Douglas Show", and in the TV commercial for the "Hotter Than Hell" album.
Picture E shows an earlier version of the outfit, where the skull-and-crossbones, had yet
to be painted white. Picture H shows the boots usually worn with this outfit: a pair of
plain black platform boots, that was also used in 1973!
The fact that the outfits were made of leather, presented a problem in itself. They were
hot, and the band were sweating heavily in them. It was a constant problem to get the
costumes dry from show to show, and wet leather has a tendency to become rather stiff when
it dries. This probably made the outfit both smelly and rather uncomfortable to wear!
Because of this, Gene started wearing a pair of tights underneath the leather pants (as
you can see in picture J... compare this to picture I where you can see Gene's naked thigh
through the hole!!).
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The last picture (N) is from the infamous Hotter Than Hell photo session, where Gene was wearing an entirely different costume. A leather outfit with a medieval look of large, round studs in rows. He also wore two spiked cuffs, and a red cape. The shoulder pads and leather pants are the ones from the costume on picture L and M, which was also the costume Gene wore on the front side photo on Hotter Than Hell.
return
to KISS costumes main page
Many thanks to Jan Laursen for
letting us use these pages.
Here is the link to his website:
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