diff --git a/commit.h b/commit.h
index a0b710f843..3bfb31b5e0 100644
--- a/commit.h
+++ b/commit.h
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ struct pretty_print_context
 	int need_8bit_cte;
 	int show_notes;
 	struct reflog_walk_info *reflog_info;
+	const char *output_encoding;
 };
 
 struct userformat_want {
@@ -85,6 +86,8 @@ struct userformat_want {
 
 extern int has_non_ascii(const char *text);
 struct rev_info; /* in revision.h, it circularly uses enum cmit_fmt */
+extern char *logmsg_reencode(const struct commit *commit,
+			     const char *output_encoding);
 extern char *reencode_commit_message(const struct commit *commit,
 				     const char **encoding_p);
 extern void get_commit_format(const char *arg, struct rev_info *);
diff --git a/pretty.c b/pretty.c
index c253172ef9..8549934751 100644
--- a/pretty.c
+++ b/pretty.c
@@ -403,8 +403,8 @@ static char *replace_encoding_header(char *buf, const char *encoding)
 	return strbuf_detach(&tmp, NULL);
 }
 
-static char *logmsg_reencode(const struct commit *commit,
-			     const char *output_encoding)
+char *logmsg_reencode(const struct commit *commit,
+		      const char *output_encoding)
 {
 	static const char *utf8 = "UTF-8";
 	const char *use_encoding;
@@ -555,6 +555,7 @@ struct format_commit_context {
 	const struct pretty_print_context *pretty_ctx;
 	unsigned commit_header_parsed:1;
 	unsigned commit_message_parsed:1;
+	char *message;
 	size_t width, indent1, indent2;
 
 	/* These offsets are relative to the start of the commit message. */
@@ -591,7 +592,7 @@ static int add_again(struct strbuf *sb, struct chunk *chunk)
 
 static void parse_commit_header(struct format_commit_context *context)
 {
-	const char *msg = context->commit->buffer;
+	const char *msg = context->message;
 	int i;
 
 	for (i = 0; msg[i]; i++) {
@@ -677,8 +678,8 @@ const char *format_subject(struct strbuf *sb, const char *msg,
 
 static void parse_commit_message(struct format_commit_context *c)
 {
-	const char *msg = c->commit->buffer + c->message_off;
-	const char *start = c->commit->buffer;
+	const char *msg = c->message + c->message_off;
+	const char *start = c->message;
 
 	msg = skip_empty_lines(msg);
 	c->subject_off = msg - start;
@@ -741,7 +742,7 @@ static size_t format_commit_one(struct strbuf *sb, const char *placeholder,
 {
 	struct format_commit_context *c = context;
 	const struct commit *commit = c->commit;
-	const char *msg = commit->buffer;
+	const char *msg = c->message;
 	struct commit_list *p;
 	int h1, h2;
 
@@ -1011,13 +1012,27 @@ void format_commit_message(const struct commit *commit,
 			   const struct pretty_print_context *pretty_ctx)
 {
 	struct format_commit_context context;
+	static const char utf8[] = "UTF-8";
+	const char *enc;
+	const char *output_enc = pretty_ctx->output_encoding;
 
 	memset(&context, 0, sizeof(context));
 	context.commit = commit;
 	context.pretty_ctx = pretty_ctx;
 	context.wrap_start = sb->len;
+	context.message = commit->buffer;
+	if (output_enc) {
+		enc = get_header(commit, "encoding");
+		enc = enc ? enc : utf8;
+		if (strcmp(enc, output_enc))
+			context.message = logmsg_reencode(commit, output_enc);
+	}
+
 	strbuf_expand(sb, format, format_commit_item, &context);
 	rewrap_message_tail(sb, &context, 0, 0, 0);
+
+	if (context.message != commit->buffer)
+		free(context.message);
 }
 
 static void pp_header(enum cmit_fmt fmt,