From Dorothy’s ruby slippers to Harry Potter’s Gryffindor robes to the Terminator’s badass leather getup, ACMI’s newest exhibition, Hollywood Costume really does have the crème de la crème of film costume design.
Dorothy’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Photo: Juliana Mare.
Five years in the making, Hollywood Costume features 100 costumes from 50 costume designers and includes 19 Academy Award winning Best Costumes. With the earliest costume from the film Sex (1920), the exhibition is divided into three parts, ending with the latest and greatest film costumes including Academy Award winning gowns from the 2012 drama Anna Karenina.
Exhibition curator Deborah Nadoolman Landis, the costume designer behind The Blues Brothers and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, says 99 per cent of the exhibition has never been publically displayed before.
“The gallery is filled with many costumes that have never left private and archival collections in California and the rest of the world and they’ll never be together again after this show.”
Whether it’s the Golden Age of cinema or the latest Hollywood blockbusters that catch your eye, the exhibition will definitely have a costume for you to gawk over. Stunningly intricate, lacy period gowns from Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Marie Antoinette (2006) will no-doubt dazzle even the lads along with the wonderfully elegant and iconic frocks of Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (1955).
From left to right: Worn by Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Dame Judi Dench in Shakespeare In Love and Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette. Photo: Juliana Mare.
It’s not all glittery, glamorous dresses though. Equally impressive are the grungy 90’s Fight Club outfit Brad Pitt rocked and the impeccably tailored suit Daniel Craig wore as James Bond. And let’s not forget the superhero suits; Batman (The Dark Knight Rises, 2012), Superman (1978) and Spider-man will impress you from their perches on the walls and ceiling.
More than just an archive of cinema’s greatest outfits, Hollywood Costume is an insight into the entire research and creative process that goes into costume design. The second part of the exhibition is what Professor Landis calls a “master-class,” which includes projections of sketches, screenplays, fitting room photos and dialogue between filmmakers, actors and costume designers to illuminate the thought process behind the costumes.
“Costumes are one channel by which a character is transformed from the written page to a multi-dimensional person,” Professor Landis says.
The Spider-Man costume worn by Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Photo: Juliana Mare.
The exhibition is a chance to see your favourite characters in person, just minus the actor. Seeing the attention to detail that’s been put into cinema’s most iconic costumes is astounding, just slightly more so than realising how tiny the waists of some of Hollywood’s darlings are.
Hollywood Costume is running at ACMI until 18 August 2013
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This piece was written for Meld. The edited article can be found here.
