Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Costume
this interior structure of costume design with his statement
that ‘‘one could line up all the gowns and tell the
screen story.’’
THE COSTUME DESIGNER’S RELATIONSHIP
WITH THE FILM CREW AND CAST
The costume designer liaises with the actor, director,
cinematographer, art director, hair and make-up stylists,
and even the writer and stunt coordinator. On the set
daily and/or nightly, until shooting wraps, for fittings,
alterations, accidents, or additions, the costume designer
is involved from a film’s earliest pre-production and must
do exhaustive research, even for a modern movie, regarding
location, climate, class, age, taste, and fads. But, the
designer must be always inventive. Historical clothing
must be both accurate and believable for today’s eyes.
Truth, at times, must be sacrificed to ensure that an actor
will look correct and the designer must determine how to
make departures from strict historical accuracy appropriate
both to the period and to the actor’s physique. For
example, the narrow shoulder lines of a nineteenth-century
cowboy jacket could make a twenty-first-century
actor look pinched, and so must be adjusted. This is a
difficult and intuitive process because the designer must
know the history well enough to tweak it, if necessary,
without losing an accurate feel for the time. After
research, a designer will usually make sketches, some
quite artistic, and attach swatches of cloth to the paper.
This becomes the prototype of the final costume.
The ingenuity of costume designers is legendary. For
the Italian neorealist film Bellissima (1951), Piero Tosi
asked people in the street to give him the clothes they
were wearing, which, once told it was for ‘‘cinema’’ and
‘‘Anna Magnani,’’ they eagerly did. For the Mafia film
Casino (1995), Rita Ryack looked through the closets
of Brooklyn gangsters in their homes. For the littledocumented
slave incident dramatized in Amistad
(1997), Ruth Carter examined period American and
European paintings and African cloth. For Lagaan
(2001), a nineteenth-century Indian story, Bhanu
Athaiya studied the climate and landscape of Bhuj, the
film’s locale. To bring evocative movements to the flying
or fighting characters in Ying xiong (Hero, Zhang Yimou,
2002), Emi Wada followed ancient Chinese dance
costumes’ cutting patterns. And to dress a cast of 10,000
in clothes from 1903 to 1969 for The Last Emperor (1987,
Academy AwardÒ), James Acheson studied the history
of twentieth-century China for six months.
The costume designer’s primary relationship is with
the actor, who often feels in character once in costume
but also expects the designer to exalt good features and
diminish bad ones. To do this, the designer will ingeniously
pad, tailor, dye, and cut minutia such as sleeves,
Tom Ewell takes note of William Travilla’s memorable
dress for Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (Billy
Wilder, 1955). EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION.
waists, buttons, collars, and hems. During Hollywood’s
studio era, costume designers often built an enduring
collaboration with the actors they dressed and were associated
with a ‘‘look’’: Adrian with Greta Garbo and Joan
Crawford, Travis Banton (1894–1958) with Marlene
Dietrich and Mae West, Jean Louis (1907–1997) with
Rita Hayworth, Orry-Kelly (1897–1964) with Bette
Davis, William Travilla (1920–1990) with Marilyn
Monroe, Howard Greer (1896–1974) with Jane Russell,
Irene Sharaff (1910–1993) with Elizabeth Taylor. Widely
copied film outfits became, in some cases, a signature such
as Rita Hayworth’s infamous strapless Gilda gown (1946,
Jean Louis), Elizabeth Taylor’s slip in Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof (1958, Helen Rose), the tight cap-sleeved undershirt
Lucinda Ballard (1906–1993) provided for Marlon Brando
in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Marilyn Monroe’s
pleated halter-top dress in The Seven Year Itch (1955,
William Travilla). The designer dresses actors of every
type and shape in films of every genre and must work
376 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM