Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2005 - 66

is a fitting irony that the film industry's highest
award for costume design-Oscar, the venerated
statuette awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences-is a naked man. Every year costumes from Oscareligible films are gathered by the Fashion Institute of Design &
Merchandising in Los Angeles for its Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition. FIDM's efforts result in the
only annually recurring display in the U.S. dedicated to the actual art of costume design for film. The exhibition fills three
galleries, with over 100 costumes from twenty-five films arranged in vignettes, some including props and set dressings.
"Including the prop pieces is relatively new for us" explained
Kevin Jones, curator of the FIDM Museum. "We wanted to
show that film costumes are not created by themselves, but
have to work with all the other elements of a film."
Work on the exhibition, which includes all of the Oscar
nominees for Best Costume Design, begins nearly a year in advance. "We have to decide which films will be in the exhibition
well before the Academy announces its nominees because we
need to gather costumes from around the world. So far we've
never missed a nominated film," Jones said, displaying visible
relief. The nominees for Best Costume Design in 2004 were
Colleen Atwood for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Alexandra Byrne for Finding Neverland, Sharen
Davis for Ray, Bob Ringwood for Troy, and Sandy Powell who
won her second Oscar for The Aviator.
Situated in downtown Los Angeles near the garment district, the FIDM galleries are geographically located near the
heart of Hollywood. Each year the costume exhibition opens
just after the Academy announces it nominations-this year
the exhibition ran from January 29 to April 23, 2005. Now in
its thirteenth year, it has gained an event status in the industry.
"Costume exhibitions generate a great deal of publicity the studios don't have to pay for," Jones explained. "We used to chase
down the costumes, now the studios are calling us." The
exhibition's opening night is a glittering affair featuring many
of the costume designers whose works are included as well as
representatives from studios and the industry. And yes, there is
a red carpet, but this time it is the costume creators-not the
wearers-who are the center of attention.
This exhibition celebrating the art of costume is arranged
in a viewer-friendly layout. Costumed mannequins stand on
narrow platforms in groupings that invite close scrutiny of the
garments, offering a side or back view of many. While security
guards do enforce exhibition decorum, in the FIDM Galleries
patrons can lean in for a closer view without risk of tripping a
chirping alarm or a barking guard. Just the opposite, the security staff is supportive and encouraging. Noting one patron's
keen interest in a particular gown, a guard beckoned her toward the wall to see a particularly interesting detail in the
back. While the general public is more interested in the stars
that wore the items, or the cost of each garment, costume connoisseurs often closely inspect the exhibits to study construction or design details.

Viewing these film costumes in person and up close reveals the intricate surface detail in most of the pieces. The
camera lens tends to flatten items on the screen and one technique to combat the effect is to incorporate complex textures
in the costumes. Theatrical costume designers often employ
heightened and exaggerated surface textures to overcome loss
of detail due to the distance between audience and stage. Film
designers also employ texture but in the opposite scale. They
understand that every detail they create will be huge when projected onto the movie screen. Costume design has not
always included such intricate detail, which raises the
question, is the pendulum of public taste swinging
back to the kind of ostentation appreciated by Cecile
B. DeMille?
One costume designer in the 2004 exhibit worked in an
extremely small scale. Karen Patch, costume designer for the
film, Team America: World Police, created costumes for the
marionettes to be "scrutinized as if looked at under a magnifying glass." 1 She realized that on the big screen every stitch and
detail would be visible. Patch worked with a milliner, a shoe
sculptor, a purse maker, and numerous stitchers to design and
build the 1,200 costumes in the film. A close look reveals each
marionette wears a belt buckle that is the eagle side of an actual quarter.
The four costumes on display from Lemony Snicket's A
Series of Unfortunate Events are also examples of complex
surface and design detail. Colleen Atwood, nominated for
Best Costume Design for the fifth time, incorporated an astonishing level of surface complexity in her designs. One
costume, created for Jim Carrey's character, Count Olaf,
appears to be an ordinary black-striped three-piece suit.
On closer examination, however, one can see that the suit
is not constructed of striped fabric after all. The stripes are
actually metallic gold piping sewn between thin strips of
black fabric. As more evidence of Ms. Atwood's attention to
detail, the scale of the stripes changes on smaller areas such
as the lapel and cuffs.
Another astonishing example of design detail is a costume created for the character of Aunt Josephine, played by
Meryl Streep. A black princess-seamed gown with extreme lego-mutton sleeves, this dress is actually made of two fabric layers flat-lined together. The under layers are alternating
princess panels of light blue satin, black satin, and black
crackle-printed taffeta. Each underlayer shows through the
sheer top layers, which were created with smocked organza
and black bobbinet. The center front panels feature the lightest flat-lining color and the side panels incorporate the darkest underlining. This technique creates the visual illusion of
pulling the front of the body forward, and allowing the sides of
the body to recede.
While this alternating underlining color effect is also
used frequently in opera and theatrical design for a slimming
effect, it can also serve a related function in film design. The
alternating panels of underlayer colors and surface textures
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