Characters come first!

The title of this post comes from the authograph Deborah Nadoolman Landis signed on my Hollywood Costume copy.

It was October and she was presenting the event "A Creative Collaboration: Edith Head and Alfred Hitchcock". The event was part of the BFI London Film Festival and it was a great possibility to meet the artist who combines fashion and films' characters together through the great art of costume design.

Deborah Nadoolman Landis - Costume Designer

Deborah Nadoolman Landis is the legendary costume designer of The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Indiana Jones and Michael Jackson's red jacket in Thriller. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Coming to America in 1988.

In her research work for the organization of the Hollywood Costume exhibition, hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum, she directly interviewed Edith Head and went through archives to show the audience her original sketches for Hitch. If I think about it I'm still breathless for the awesome Grace Kelly's dress in one of Rear Window's scenes.

Hollywood Costume - V&A Publishing, 2012

To sum up this event and Hitchcock's attitued towards costume design in his films I want to use Edith Head's words:

" Unless there is a story reason for a color, we keep the colors muted, because Hitchcock believes they can detract from an important action scene. He uses color, actually, almost like an artist, preferring soft greens and cool colors for certain moods."

The fundamental rule of costume design is to think about the characters first and always.
Costume designers take the characters' personality and story and make them live through costumes.

Now I want to give you a glimpse of the Exhibition. First of all, it was a breathtaking travel to the past, and the best thing was that you could see both the history of fashion and the history of cinema.

To give you some examples, some of the most incredible pieces, in my opinion, are Vivien Leigh's green dress from Gone with the Wind, Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's long black dress and pearl necklace, Dorothy's red shoes from The Wizard of Oz and Marlene Dietrich dress from Angel.

Vivien Leigh - Gone with the Wind (1939) - Costume designer Walter Plunkett

Marlene Dietrich - Angel (1937) - Costume designer Travis Banton

Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - Costume designer Hubert de Givenchy

Tippi Hidren - The Birds (1963) - Costume designer Edith Head

Kim Novak - Vertigo (1958)- Costume designer Edith Head

There was an area dedicated to costume drama and a section dedicated to De Niro's and Meryl Streep's transformation in films.

Marie Antoinette (2006) - Costume designer Milena Canonero

 "All his costumes become so much a part of his character. It's not something he's just thrown on - he really inhabits the clothes." Costume designer Rita Ryack on Robert De Niro.

"Costume is incredibly important. That's costume, that's decision, that's your inner world manifesting because you just don't feel right in the wrong thing." Meryl Streep on costumes.

Unforgettable costumes from the early era of cinema, Charlie Chaplin's suit for example, but even more modern costumes from Titanic, Moulin Rouge, Fight Club, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Kill Bill and many, many others.

Charles Chaplin (1915)

Kate Winslet - Titanic (1997) - Costume designer Deborah L. Scott

Nicole Kidman - Moulin Rouge (2001) - Costume designers Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie

I think the images and the clothes speak for themselves, so I'll leave you to your Hollywood dreams with a sincere thanks to Deborah Nadoolman and her efforts to preserve these wonderful examples of the collaboration between two great arts, costume design and cinema.

" I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make - up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on to the stage, he was born."

Charles Chaplin