Cinema often creates the illusion of time and place, yet watchful movie aficionados can easily bust this facade. It becomes particularly alarming when a seemingly innocuous detail—a zipper in a 19th-century costume drama or the anachronistic appearance of braces on a character from the 1960s—smacks you in the face. From sunglasses that didn’t exist yet to ultra-modern dresses in period pieces, we’ve compiled 15 especially notable instances of costume misjudgments that could leave you in stitches.
Take *Gossip Girl*, for instance: a perplexing moment when Serena shows up at prom adorning a tassel in her hair while her classmates flaunt their traditional caps. Was it a statement, or merely a gaffe?
In *Wonder Woman*, the gemstone adorning Gal Gadot’s necklace is both real and noteworthy, being one of the rarest diamonds discovered in 1877. However, the plot unfolds in 1937, raising eyebrows when audiences realize the timeline discrepancy.
Further, in a period film, Pitt’s character’s disheveled appearance is more reminiscent of the swinging sixties than the early 1900s. Audiences began to question the integrity of time-traveling narratives when bizarrely out-of-place microphone packs protrude from the backs of characters.
