Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition displays this year’s Oscar-nominated outfits
FIDM
The costumes from “The Young Victoria” were on display last year at the Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition, presented annually by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. This year’s exhibition will include costumes from all of the Oscar-nominated films except for “I Am Love.” Five costumes designed by Colleen Atwood for “Alice in Wonderland” will be on display, including three outfits worn by Mia Wasikowska in her role as Alice.
Art of Motion Picture Costume Design
Through April 30
FIDM Museum, FREE
By Julie Lee
Feb. 7, 2011 11:54 p.m.
Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. Nick Verreos is a UCLA alumnus.
The lighting in the entrance room was dim, and with just a few steps into the main hall, a woman stood illuminated by a solitary spotlight. Athena, in a shimmering white dress with a gold bodice, extended her arm to those who entered, inviting the viewer into a world of fantasy.
Along with Athena, from “Clash of the Titans,” one can find the costumes from all the films nominated for this year’s Best Costume Design Oscar only at the 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition. With the exception of the costumes from “I Am Love,” which were held up at customs, the curators of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising began organizing the event in January 2010. According to Kevin Jones, the costume historian for FIDM, around 80 percent of the films on display were chosen prior to the announcement of the Academy Awards nominations.
“The curators have this sixth sense of which costume will be nominated,” said Nick Verreos, a UCLA and FIDM alumnus, former “Project Runway” contestant and official spokesman for the event.
When the exhibition began in 1992, it was a small exhibit on Hollywood costumes meant for FIDM students and a few Los Angeles locals. In recent years, it has burgeoned into an annual event with an upscale party to celebrate its opening. The exhibition opens today, in anticipation of the 83rd Academy Awards on Feb. 27, and continues through April 30.
Colleen Atwood received her ninth Academy Award nomination for her costumes in “Alice in Wonderland.” Five of her costumes from the film are on display: three outfits worn by Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice; the dress of Anne Hathaway’s White Queen and Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter costume.
The viewers of the exhibit spoke in hushed tones around Atwood’s work, and when Atwood dropped her black coat on the floor, no fewer than three women, all dressed in black with pointy stilettos, swooped down to pick it up. As a veteran to the Academy Awards, Atwood seemed nonchalant about the possibility of winning another.
“The nomination is great and distracting momentarily, but you’re back to work. It’s not like a long party that you get to go to, sadly,” Atwood said.
While her handiwork is very detailed, Atwood said she believes that the costumes should be taken in as a whole, like a story. But there are secret “fun facts” that Atwood said are for the audience to play with if they find it. One such secret can only been seen when Johnny Depp walks across the table of his tea party: etched on the soft leather of the Mad Hatter’s shoe is “down with bloody big head.”
With the extravagant designs from Atwood on display, it can be easy to neglect the contemporary costumes standing next to them. Mary Claire Hannan, the costume designer for “The Kids Are All Right,” was firm in distinguishing herself from being termed a “stylist for movies.”
“I’m clearly character driven. And a stylist, often, is doing mannequins in a store window,” Hannan said. “I’m not styling anybody. We’re talking about who is this person and what this person wears and how do we go about portraying a person.”
While working on the set, Hannan said she had to straddle the fine line of helping tell a story of a lesbian family without trying to make it a “lesbian movie.” She approached this film through a “social anthropological” lens; each item of clothing was chosen because it meant something in the society and culture in which the film was set.
Hannan kept in mind the underlying meanings in each detail, from the dirty Pumas the character Laser wears to the Free City T-shirt worn by Julianne Moore’s character, Jules.
“Free City … is owned by a lesbian woman … (and) is a very strong item for lesbian women,” Hannan said. “If you were a gay woman, you’d know. But if you’re not, you’d just say, “˜Oh, she looks cute.’ And that was the point.”
Despite the contrast between contemporary and fantasy, Hannan said that costume designing comes from an emotional place.
Atwood agrees. “The fact is, it’s a living process, making film,” she said. “I don’t think the design should take you out of the journey.”
