In the early years of the Academy Awards, celebrities didn't always dress themselves in the latest glamorous fashions. In 1935, Claudette Colbert wore a simple traveling suit to accept the Best Actress Award for It Happened One Night. Colbert didn't expect to win, so was already on-board a New York bound train as the ceremony began. The train was held at the station and Colbert was rushed to the ceremony to accept her award. That same year, Bette Davis wore an "afternoon frock" to the Academy Awards and was criticized by the press and studio executives for her lack of glamour. During the early 1940s, Ingrid Bergman proudly wore the same black dress to the Academy Awards two years in a row!
Congratulations to costume designer Sandy Powell, who won the Costume Design Academy Award for her work on The Young Victoria! Costumes from The Young Victoria are currently on display at the FIDM Museum as part of our 18th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition. This free exhibition is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm and will run until April 17th, 2010.
For a glimpse of the exhibition, and a brief interview with Sandy Powell, watch this video from LXTV.
The task is to form the future from the materials of the past-Vivienne Westwood1
For centuries, corsets were an essential, but unseen, part of a woman's
wardrobe. Visible only through their shaping of the body, actual
corsets were typically seen only in the most intimate of situations.
This remained true until the 1970s, when punk fashion demonstrated that garments associated with sexuality and/or deviancy (including corsets) could be worn as everyday streetwear. In the early
1990s, corsets became a widely accepted part of the fashionable
wardrobe, thanks in large part to the Jean Paul Gaultier corset worn by Madonna on her Blonde Ambition tour of 1990-91.
Corset Vivienne Westwood
Spring/Summer 1994
Museum Purchase
2003.5.12
Widespread cultural preoccupations or anxieties are often expressed through dress. This can be extremely overt, as in the case of a T-shirt slogan, or much more discreet, as in a frequently recurring decorative motif. In the 19th century, anxiety relating to the Industrial Revolution and the move from an agrarian to urban/industrial society resulted in the frequent appearance of ripe wheat stalks on dress and accessories.
