California Apparel News

With Hollywood’s awards season in full swing, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and its supporters held their own celebration recognizing the work of some of the biggest and brightest stars in the costume-design industry.

At the school’s downtown Los Angeles campus, fashion-industry notables gathered Feb. 11 for the opening of an exhibit called “The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design.” It features more than 100 costumes from 20 films produced for the big screen in 2011. It is free and open to the public until April 28.

Situated in a 10,000-square-foot gallery, the exhibit includes the works of all five of this year’s Oscar-nominated costume designers: Lisy Christl (“Anonymous”), Mark Bridges (“The Artist”), Sandy Powell (“Hugo”), Michael O’Connor (“Jane Eyre”) and Arianne Phillips (“W.E.”).

The exhibit also salutes the work of costume designers from other major films of 2011, including “The Help” (Sharen Davis), “J. Edgar” (Deborah Hopper), “War Horse” (Joanna Johnston), “Water for Elephants” (Jacqueline West) and “My Week With Marilyn” (Jill Taylor).

Each year, FIDM also recognizes the previous year’s Oscar winner. On display in the foyer of the FIDM gallery is the White Queen costume featured in “Alice in Wonderland.” It was designed by Colleen Atwood, who won last year’s Oscar for Best Achievement in Costume Design.

FIDM Museum Director Barbara Bundy said it was too difficult to choose one favorite costume from the exhibit. “That’s like asking which of your children do you love the best. We love all of them equally. We are so proud of our curatorial staff and exhibition staff for putting all 20 of these movies together. What is exciting to me is not only is this our 20th year of exhibiting costume designs from films, but everything is period this year—and it spans so many different eras and so many different genres.”

“The Artist” seemed to be of particular interest among the event’s attendees. “Being a flat black-and-white film, I think people are surprised when they see the costumes up close with their coloration and the trim on the mannequins. They just really pop out at you,” Bundy said.

Notable attendees at the event included Tonian Hohberg (FIDM president); Costume Designer Guild President Mary Rose; Oscar nominee Arianne Phillips; costume designers Deborah Hopper (“J. Edgar”) Mona May (“Zookeeper”) and Julie Weiss (“Frida”); Details magazine founder Annie Flanders; and notable L.A. designers Kevan Hall and “Project Runway” alumnus and FIDM graduate Nick Verreos.

“It’s pretty crazy being the only [nominee] for the film, so I feel a responsibility to represent Madonna and ‘W.E.,’” said Phillips, who has collaborated with the Material Girl on music videos and photo shoots for over 15 years. Madonna directed “W.E.,” the love story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. “One of the greatest things about Wallis Simpson’s style—which I learned during my research and felt a connection to her aesthetic—is that she had a great sense of design and it was very sophisticated. She wore graphic patterns, and she knew how to accentuate her attributes. She suffered from fashion, and she talked about it a lot. She was also very quotable, saying things like, ‘You can never be too rich or too thin.’”

Inside the gallery, Verreos, who designs his own Nikolaki contemporary line and is a FIDM instructor, thrilled many of the guests with his point of view on some of the costume designs on display. “I love the Grecian-goddess look of Alexandra Byrne’s ‘Thor’ costumes.  I just love the draping of these gowns. They look very contemporary to me. If you were to take the cape away from that dress, it would look like a red-carpet gown. It looks couture, and it reflects what is in right now,” he said. “But because the film is sci-fi, it has theatrical details such as the metallic and gold sequins and the oversize paillettes.”

FIDM’s Los Angeles campus also houses a permanent and a study collection of more than 12,000 costumes, accessories and textiles from the 18th century through present day.

For more information about the exhibit, visit www.fidmmuseum.org or call (213) 623-5821.