Mick Dundee turned a plain Akubra-style hat into one of the most recognizable outback silhouettes in movie history, and almost every piece of it is a real, wearable item rather than a costume-shop invention. Get the hat's tooth band and the vest right and the rest falls into place on its own.
How to Make Crocodile Dundee Costume
Crocodile-Tooth Bush HatOpen-Front Suede VestKhaki Safari ShirtKhaki Cargo PantsWide Brown Leather BeltBowie Knife Costume PropBrown Leather Ankle BootsTooth Pendant NecklaceSaveTap any item in the photo to shop itClick any item in the photo to shop it
| # | Item | Description | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crocodile-Tooth Bush Hat | A black leather wide-brim hat with a band of crocodile-tooth-style spikes around the crown — the single detail that makes this costume read as Dundee from across the room. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 2 | Open-Front Suede Vest | A brown suede waistcoat worn unbuttoned over the shirt. On screen Mick wears his open over bare skin; a shirt underneath is the practical call for trick-or-treating. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 3 | Khaki Safari Shirt | A plain long-sleeve khaki button-down with chest pockets, worn under the vest with the sleeves left down or rolled to the forearm. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 4 | Khaki Cargo Pants | Relaxed-fit khaki pants with patch pockets — Mick's are plain trousers, not shorts, even in the Northern Territory heat. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 5 | Wide Brown Leather Belt | A simple brown leather belt at the waist, worn outside the shirt under the open vest and used to carry the knife. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 6 | Bowie Knife Costume Prop | A 15-inch life-size plastic toy bowie knife with a dark handle — the "that's not a knife" knife. Check your venue or event's prop-weapon rules before carrying it. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 7 | Brown Leather Ankle Boots | Worn-in looking brown leather boots, laced over the trouser hems. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
| 8 | Tooth Pendant Necklace | A single tooth-shaped pendant on a leather cord, worn loose at the collar to echo the hat band. | 🛒 Check on Amazon |
Getting the details right
The hat is what sells the costume, and it's worth getting specific about why: the real prop was a black Akubra "Down Under" hat with its band replaced by a strip of crocodile hide ringed with around 17 crocodile teeth. A handful of sellers now make that exact style — a black leather outback hat with a spiked tooth band — so you don't need to glue teeth to a plain hat yourself. Keep it black, not the tan or "golden brown" versions of the same style, which read more like a generic safari hat.
Color discipline matters more than exact garment style for the rest of the outfit. Everything below the hat is earth tone — brown leather, khaki cotton — with no white, no bright prints and no modern activewear fabric. The vest is the second most important piece: it's worn open, not zipped or buttoned shut, so the khaki shirt shows through the middle. If you can't find the vest above in stock, any plain brown suede or faux-leather western vest with a V-neck does the same job — avoid anything with long fringe, which belongs to a cowboy costume, not this one.
The knife moment is the character's most quoted scene: when a New York mugger pulls a switchblade on him, Dundee laughs, says "that's not a knife," and pulls out a foot-long bowie knife of his own before slashing the kid's jacket open. Carrying the oversized knife prop (in a costume-obviously plastic or foam finish) is what turns a generic khaki outfit into a specific, recognizable reference — just check it's allowed wherever you're wearing it, and never swap in anything with a real edge.
For another Australian outback costume built around the same khaki-and-boots palette, see our Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter costume — swap Dundee's hat and knife for a reptile-wrangling attitude and you've got a strong pairing for a group.
About Crocodile Dundee
Michael J. "Mick" Dundee is the title character of Crocodile Dundee, released in 1986 and directed by Peter Faiman from a script co-written by star Paul Hogan. Hogan plays a Northern Territory bushman and crocodile hunter who is profiled by American journalist Sue Charlton, played by Linda Kozlowski, after a run-in with a crocodile that supposedly cost him part of a leg. Once Charlton sees him survive the outback on his own terms, she invites him back to New York City, where the bulk of the film's comedy comes from Mick navigating Manhattan with nothing but bush instincts — sizing up a subway busker, greeting strangers on the street, and casually outclassing a mugger with his knife.
Made on a budget of roughly A$8.8 million, Crocodile Dundee went on to gross about US$328 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film released in the US in 1986 and, for years afterward, the highest-grossing non-American film ever released there. It spawned two sequels, Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001), and turned Hogan's hat-and-knife silhouette into a piece of Australian cultural shorthand that's shown up everywhere from tourism ads to Olympic ceremonies since.
