Audrey Hepburn on the set of My Fair Lady
In an epic multimedia presentation, film historian Max Alvarez leads a stylish journey through six decades of cinematic costume design, starting with the earliest days of Hollywood in the 1910s to groundbreaking work from the 1970s and beyond. Through rare archival material, including remarkable preliminary costume sketches from the hands of the greatest costume artists in history, film fashionistas can find a greater understanding of the process of designing clothes for actors from sketchpad to soundstage.
Costume design in cinema is among the least studied and least appreciated of the filmmaking disciplines. This is especially unfortunate given the overwhelming challenges that have faced designers throughout the past century: internal studio politics, temperamental egos working on both sides of the lens, unforgiving cameras and film stocks, and, most importantly, the challenges of creating clothing that accurately reflects characters and narratives. Complicating matters further are projects set in previous decades and centuries, or perhaps the future. These potential obstacles make the achievements of the legendary 20th-century film costumers even more remarkable.
Consider how costume artistry throughout movie history has enhanced our memories of unforgettable films: the gray suit designed by Edith Head for Kim Novak in Vertigo; Irene Sharaff’s massive hoop dress for Deborah Kerr in The King and I; the brilliant Milena Canonero’s simple-yet-unsettling mix of white shirt, trousers, codpiece, and bowler hat for the Droogs of A Clockwork Orange; William Travilla’s pink gown and full-length gloves for a diamond-bedecked Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Helen Rose’s provocative white dress for Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Cecil Beaton’s spectacular “Ascot Gavotte” fashion show in My Fair Lady; and the Montmartre chic of Walter Plunkett’s black-and-white outfits for the Beaux Arts Ball in An American in Paris. Even such international fashion designers as Erté, Coco Chanel, Bill Blass, and Yves Saint-Laurent were recruited for film work on rare occasions during the previous century.
Comparative studies of sketches and final filmed costumes afford the opportunity to examine this monumental, seriously underdiscussed, and influential art form.
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