FIDM Museum Blog

20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design opens February 14, 2012

 

The FIDM Museum is proud to present the 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition. Celebrating the art and industry of costume designers, this exhibition presents more than 100 costumes from twenty films released in 2011, including all five Academy Award nominees for Best Costume. Selected costumes from Anonymous, The Artist, Hugo, Jane Eyre, W.E, Immortals, Super 8, Warhorse and other films provide an up-close view of the costumer's art.

The exhibition will also showcase classic film costumes from the FIDM Museum collection and the Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, Historic Hollywood Collection. Some of these same costumes were featured during the first Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition in 1993. Worn by Fred Astaire, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich and other Hollywood legends, these historic objects celebrate the history and glamour of Hollywood costuming.

 

Movie Modes hat

 

During the 1930s, Hollywood films were a major influence on fashion. Movie screens were "huge, luminous shop windows," offering viewers an opportunity to browse the latest creations from talented costume designers.¹ Despite the Depression, films were an affordable form of entertainment; during the 1930s, many movie theatres showed a double-feature, cartoon and newsreel for only 10 cents.² Recognizing that the public wanted to escape their problems, movie studios usually sidestepped the economic and social troubles of the decade, instead producing comedies, westerns and grandiose musicals. Designed by the likes of Adrian, Howard Greer and Edith Head, onscreen fashions inspired the fashion choices of both sophisticated urban women and midwestern farm girls. Believing that women filled the majority of theatre seats, Hollywood studios seized on fashion tie-ins as a means to promote their films.

Hat
Movie Modes
1935-1941
Museum Purchase
2009.5.48AB

 

Lana Turner's clutch, 1952

 

Lana Turner's story is the stuff of Hollywood legends. One afternoon in 1936, Turner skipped class at Hollywood High School to get a soda at a Sunset Boulevard soda fountain. While sitting at the counter, Turner was spotted by William Wilkerson, publisher of movie magazine The Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson approached Turner (then known as Julia Turner) asking if she'd like to be in pictures. This chance meeting led to a small role in the 1937 film, They Won't Forget. As the murder victim at the center of the plot, Turner wore a tight, fitted sweater. Though her on-screen appearance was brief, Turner was a hit. Audience response cards and fan mail begged for more of the "Sweater Girl," aka Lana Turner.

Throughout the 1930s and '40s, Turner starred in succession of films, including a highly praised performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Off-screen, Turner's personal life also had a cinematic arc. Turner reportedly enjoyed Hollywood nightlife, and was romantically linked with a succession of married and unmarried men. Turner's life both off and on the screen was well-covered in the press. The rate at which Turner switched romantic partners was considered somewhat scandalous, and MGM sometimes engaged in damage control regarding Turner's personal life. For example, when Turner slashed her wrist in the wake of her 1951 divorce from her third husband, the press reported that she cut herself in the shower. This type of misinformation campaign was not unique; studios frequently engaged in damage control to protect their assets, i.e. their film stars.

Clutch purse
1952
Museum Purchase
2004.5.56AB

19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition now open!

 

Did you see The King's Speech, Alice in Wonderland or True Grit? What about Clash of the Titans or Burlesque? Selected costumes from these and other films are currently on display at the FIDM Museum. Featuring costumes from 20 films released in 2010, our annual exhibition provides an up-close view of the costumer's art.

The exhibition is FREE and open to the public, Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. through April 30th, 2011. Please note that the FIDM Museum will be closed April 22 through April 25 for Spring Recess.

Until you have a chance to see the exhibition in person, here's a sneak peak. You'll have to visit our galleries to see what other costumes are on display!

 

Collen Atwood for Alice in Wonderland. The costumes from Alice in Wonderland are nominated for a Costume Design Academy Award. A prolific costume designer, Atwood has received many Oscar nominations for her costume designs and won twice: Memoirs of a Geisha in 2006 and Chicago in 2002.

 

Re-Designing History Illustration Competition winner inspired by Lolita style

 

Remember our Re-Designing History illustration competition? In conjunction with our current exhibition, Re-Designing History: FIDM Museum Study Collection, 1850-2000, we sponsored a competition for current FIDM students. The goal was to create a design inspired by this c. 1872 fuschia day dress. Our panel of judges selected three winners based on the following criteria: overall creativity, visual composition, and design inspiration. Thank you to the many students who submitted illustrations, and congratulations to the competition winners: Katrina Andrews (3rd Place, Fashion Design), Marc Blaskovits (2nd Place, Graphic Design) and Elizabeth Teemley (1st Place, Theatre Costume Design). As 1st place winner, Elizabeth's illustration will be on display in our gallery until Re-Designing History closes on December 17, 2010. Elizabeth describes her design process, inspiration and style in the following entry.

 

Hello, everyone. Elizabeth Teemley here. Thank you all for your congratulatory words and your interest in my art. I must say I was surprised, but honored, to be selected as a winner in the Re-Designing History competition. On top of winning, I have an opportunity to share a little about my art. As might be apparent in my illustration, I am inspired by anime and Japanese comics. My favorite fashion trend originates in Japan, as well. You may have heard of a style called Lolita. It is a fashion that draws primarily from Victorian children's clothing. Lolita girls are particularly obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. I, too, am inspired by Alice's innocence and how it contrasts with the somewhat dark and mysterious wonderland she enters.

Elizabeth Teemley's 1st place illustration

Beyond the Black Cape: Dress in Bram Stoker's Dracula

 

As promised, here is an excerpted portion of Meghan's research on Dracula, which she recently presented at Fashion in Fiction: The Dark Side.

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Since its publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been interpreted in a variety of ways: as a Victorian Gothic novel, vampire lore, and psychoanalytical expression of repressed sexuality. Beyond genre studies and Freudian psychology, Dracula has become a phenomenon in popular culture. Despite its continual adaptation over the last hundred ten years, the twenty-first century reader should note that the novel is truly a window into the many anxieties and transitions of turn-of-the-century England. Prior to 1897, the British Empire had a long history of spreading its power, values, and, not least of all, style of dress around the globe. While France was certainly the world capital of fashion, establishments such as Redfern and Lucile were equally influential in women’s fashions. Moreover, the somber black suit–the hallmark of the British gentleman-had become the uniform in Western menswear by the late nineteenth century, with very little opportunity for individual statements in pattern, color, or cut. Social norms in dress and etiquette were strongly upheld in England, including in literature; as a result, any variation from these norms would immediately set a character apart in the mind of the contemporary reader.

Harper’s Bazar, 21 July 1894, p. 577
FIDM Museum Special Collections

Re-Designing History: The Competition

 

In conjunction with our current exhibit, Re-Designing History: FIDM Museum Study Collection, 1850-2000, FIDM Museum & Galleries held a design competition for currently enrolled FIDM students to re-design history by creating illustrations inspired by this high-fashion, c. 1872 fuchsia day dress from the FIDM Museum Study Collection.

Day dress
Silk
c. 1872
Gift of Steven Porterfield
S2008.897.5A-C

The competition was open to all majors on all campuses and more than sixty entries were submitted. The winning designs were chosen by a panel of judges who looked for overall creativity, visual composition, and design inspiration. The winning illustration (below) was designed by Elizabeth Teemley, a Theatre Costume Design student at FIDM. Look forward to a post from Elizabeth describing how she arrived at this illustration!

Elizabeth Teemley's 1st place illustration.

We thank all of our talented students for their entries and congratulate our three winners who used history to re-design the future.

L to R: Marc Blaskovits (2nd Place, Graphic Design), Elizabeth Teemley (1st Place, Theatre Costume Design), Katrina Andrews (3rd Place, Fashion Design)

See-through dresses of the 1930s

In deciding which objects to showcase on our blog, I often scrutinize the cataloged and photographed objects in our collections management system. During a recent scroll through these images, I was struck by the number of sheer, transparent and see-through garments in our collection. Many of these revealing garments were created between 1965-2000, when a glimpse of the body itself, or the undergarments that shield the body from view, moved in and out of fashion. More intriguing than these relatively contemporary garments were the sheer dresses dating from the 1930s.

In contemporary fashion, the revelation of skin or undergarments has reached the point where it is remarkable only in certain circumstances, i.e. the workplace or other professional and/or formal situations. Outside of these specific situations, transparent, see-through or barely-there garments are simply another feature of the fashion landscape. But what about transparent or see-through dresses of other eras, specifically the 1930s?

Sheer day dress
1936-38
Gift of Anonymous Donor
2003.40.1
1936-38

Sketch to Screen exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

As we told you in this post, eight costumes from the FIDM Museum collection are currently on exhibit in Sketch to Screen: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Consisting of more than 85 original garments and accessories, the exhibition highlights the work of influential Hollywood costume designers, including Gilbert Adrian, Walter Plunkett, Edith Head and Travis Banton. Sketch to Screen closes on August 15, 2010, so you'd better visit soon if you haven't already!

For our readers who can't make it to Oklahoma City, we offer you the next best thing: installation photos of the FIDM Museum pieces accompanied by relevant segments of the audio tour. Narrated by our curator Kevin Jones, these short, informative segments are part of the Sketch to Screen audio tour. To listen, click on the link. Enjoy!

Kevin Jones discusses the gown worn by Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair

Paisley strapless evening gown worn by Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair
Irene/Edith Head
1949
HC 3633
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum
Photo by Jim Meeks, Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Kevin Jones discusses the "Suit of Lights" worn by Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand

"Suit of Lights" jacket worn by Rudolph Valentino in Blood and Sand
Natacha Rambova
1922
HC 4001
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, FIDM Museum
Photo by Jim Meeks, Oklahoma City Museum of Art

The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Opens Today

Organized by guest curator Mary Rose, The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design salutes memorable costume designs from recent television shows. See costumes from your favorite shows, including Mad Men, Treme, Glee, Big Love and others. The display is free and open to the public, July 27, 2010 thru September 4, 2010. Museum hours are 10 am – 4pm, Tuesday thru Saturday.

L to R: Mad Men Costumes worn by Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, Jon Hamm as Don Draper, January Jones as Betty Draper. Costume Designer, Janie Bryant; Costume Supervisor, Le Dawson. Nominated for 2010 Emmy for Outstanding Costume Design.

Treme costumes worn by Clarke Peters as Albert Lambreaux. Costume Designer, Alonzo V. Wilson; Assistant Costume Designer, Ann Walters.