The 'Dune' wardrobe team made 'about 2,000' costumes for the sci-fi epic, including bodysuits that actually cooled the actors off in the desert

• "Dune" costume designer Jacqueline West said they created "about 2,000" costumes for the film.
• "That probably outdoes anything in 'Star Wars' or any other very big sci-fi film," she said.

The costume designer for "Dune" said the film's wardrobe department created "about 2000 costumes" for Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic.

"That's enormous," designer Jacqueline West told The Hollywood Reporter. "That probably outdoes anything in 'Star Wars' or any other very big sci-fi film. It's up there with something like the original 'Ben-Hur' or some classic epic."

According to West, about 400 of the outfits were "specialty costumes," and she enlisted costume supervisor Bob Morgan to help bring her visions to life.

"I knew he would hire the right crew for us and have incredible input into what works and what doesn't work on the human body," West said.

West, who also crafted the costumes for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Argo," and "The Revenant," spoke at length about the process of constructing the film's iconic stillsuits. Originally envisioned by Frank Herbert, the author of the 1965 novel "Dune," a stillsuit is described as being a wearable device that converts the body moisture of its user into potable water.

Given that most of "Dune" takes place on the desert planet of Arrakis, stillsuits are critical to the survival of the film's main characters. While the stillsuits in the film don't actually function as Herbert imagined, the costumes West created still had the comfort of the actors (who shot much of the film in desert locales like Jordan) in mind.

"What we did was create a bodysuit out of five or six layers of what we called a 'micro sandwich' of fabric," the designer said.

"We selected a beautiful Japanese fabric that would wick water from the body and then it would kind of cool the body when the moisture hit the air of Jordan, through a mesh system of both cotton, nylon and acrylic," West continued. "When there was a breeze in the desert, there was a cooling effect on the wearer - and the actors said it really worked."

"Dune" is currently available to watch in theaters and on HBO Max. You can check out the trailer below.