Dressed in Color

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Dressed in Colors: The Costumes

In 2008-2009 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented an exhibit, "Dressed in Colors: The Costumes".  The exhibit "examines the important aspects of costume design for color films from the 1940s through the 1960s".  Guest-curator Dr. Deborah Nadoolman Landis is a costume historian and Oscar nominated costume designer.  She selected seven costumes from six classic movies to illustrate the use of brilliant color by the costume designers.  Additionally a series of costume design drawing are displayed.

The exhibit illustrates, in glorious color, how costume designers broke out of their limited black and white film box and lit up the screen with a rainbow of exploding color.  This addition of color helped deepen the public's immersion in the film story... though sight, though mood, though style. The "magic" on the screen came with much work from many departments, much experimentation, new discoveries and creative team work.

From their description of their costume exhibit: at the Lynn Dunn Theater in Hollywood:

"The evolution of color movies began in the 1920s. After early technological breakthroughs by several pioneering labs, Dr. Herbert Kalmus’s Technicolor company developed the innovative “three-strip color process” in the 1930s. Technicolor, followed by other color processes such as SuperCinecolor, Ansco Color and Eastman Color, helped usher in a series of changes that would affect almost everything about film production.

"While bold, vibrant and contrasting hues greatly enhanced and expanded the filmmaker’s storytelling tools, executing color effects properly on the big screen also required adjustments in everything from lighting to shot composition to production design. Costume designers in particular used considerable creativity to overcome challenges like clashing pigments, eye fatigue-inducing shades, and washed-out tones as they explored and exploited new artistic possibilities."

Costume Exhibit Movie Index

Exhibit Summary

(and more picture resources)

My Fair Lady

I Could Have Danced All Night movie scene - Eliza & Henry Higgins

The Great Race

Maggie DeBois

The Inspector General

Georgi

A Star is Born

Maggie

The Adventures of Don Juan

Queen Margaret

4 For Texas

Zack Thomas

Exhibit Information & More links

Dressed in Color: The costumes exhibited in the lobby of the Linwood Dunn Theater, in Hollywood from December 1, 2008 though May 2, 2009

bullet Original Exhibit website and announcement
bulletArchive Link to the same info

Exhibit media and cards:

Display cases of the Oscar awards, the award show, and costume designers
Summary and Exhibit credits Technical exhibit information.

More pictures:

Alternate Film Guide

These pictures were taken with lights up and color corrected to high color.  (While the pics on our following pages (shot in low light) are darker and missing color saturation, the ones you will see on the AFG are the true color... but overly adjusted in the opposite direction.)

 

Please note:  the photos were taken without tripod with available low  light, so some are a bit blurry or the camera has "chosen" to remove detail.  I've worked to size them to a point where the costume details show best.  For just looking at the photos, stay with the medium sized version or resize then even smaller.  Look at multiple copies of the same outfit, shots that look almost identical on the thumbnail were taken with different camera setting.

Photos were taken by Cat Devereaux.  Photos from this exhibit are taken with permission.  Photographer gives permission for you to go ahead and makes copies for your personal website.  Any other uses, please contact.

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 This page last updated 11/21/09

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