Clothes make the movies
FIDM’s Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition mirrors this year’s Oscar ballot
By Erin Loomis , Karol Ann Bergman 03/12/2009
In the movies, if the clothes don’t fit, the illusion doesn’t work. It’s just that simple. Some costumes that worked extremely well in films last year are currently on display until March 29 at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising’s 17th annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition in downtown Los Angeles.
There you will see costumes created for such Oscar winners and nominees as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, “The Changeling,” “The Duchess” and “Milk.”
Just think of the number of times you left a movie theater and thought: “How cool would that be?” Now think: Without the film’s costume designer, perhaps none of that magic would have ever happened. Their roles in making movies a magical experience is critical, so much so that sometimes their creations go on to set social trends. Take, for instance, the film “Troy,” with Brad Pitt. The season after the film opened, Grecian dress became all the rage.
This season’s FIDM exhibition, which is free to the public, features a lineup that mirrors this year’s Oscar ballot, with a couple of theatrical blunders thrown in for good measure. After all, clothes may be big factors in a film’s success, but they can’t make actors act any better or film writers, directors or crews think or work any harder.
The museum gallery is sure to impress any fashionista who happens to see the show. We aren’t saying that standing in front of Angelina Jolie’s costume from “The Changeling” is going to change your world, but it’s pretty impressive nonetheless.
To stand an arm’s length from these works of art is to see all the detail that one misses on screen and just how much work a designer puts into creating images for the cameras. Costume designers must think of what a certain color or print would look like on film. They must consider what it is a character does for a living, according to the story line, and devise clothing that fits the day-to-day life of that character. They must know what the character would wear, how they would wear it and why.
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