Dinner at Eight - Jean Harlow in Gilbert Adrian evening gown
I was thinking today that I wish that Gilbert Adrian had been eligible for an academy award for best costume design during the height of his career.. He designed the clothing for over 250 films, but only his last 2, "Rope" and "Lovely to Look At" were made when the category for "best costume design" was added to the Oscar's.
Adrian designed costumes not only for Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow, but for all of the 1930s and 1940s leading ladies including Kathryn Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Judy Garland, and Greer Garson, to name a few!
I'm hoping that someone in the Academy will suggest a posthumous award for Adrian - he richly deserved it! After all, the guy who designed Dorothy's slippers and Joan Crawford's shoulder pads should be given an Oscar, right? But, until then, since the Academy Award nominations will be announced in a little over a week, I thought we'd take a trip down memory lane and look at some of the designers who DID win the coveted Oscar for best costume design.
The Academy award for BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Edith Head costume design for The Heiress starring Olivia de Havilland 1949
1948
Black and White: Roger K. Furse - Hamlet
Color: Dorothy Jeakins, Barbara Karinska - Joan of Arc
1949
Black and White: Edith Head, Gile Steele - The Heiress
Color: Leah Rhodes, William Travilla, Marjorie Best - Adventures of Don Juan
1950
Black and White: Edith Head, Charles LeMaire All About Eve
Edith Head and Charles LeMaire shared the Oscar for All About Eve
Color: Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Elois Jenssen, Gile Steele, Gwen Wakeling - Samson & Delilah
1951
Black and White: Edith Head - A Place in the Sun
Color: Walter Plunkett, Irene Sharaff - An American in Paris
1952
Black and White: Helen Rose - The Bad and the Beautiful
Color: Marcel Vertes - Moulin Rouge
1953
Black and White: Edith Head - Roman Holiday
Color: Charles LeMaire, Emile Santiago - The Robe
1954
Black and White: Edith Head - Sabrina
Color: Sanzo Wada - Gate of Hell
1955
Black and White: Helen Rose - I'll Cry Tomorrow
Color: Charles LeMaire - Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
1956
Black and White: Jean Louis - The Solid Gold Cadillac
Color: Irene Sharaff - The King and I
1957
Orry-Kelly - Les Girls .
1958
Cecil Beaton - Gigi
1959
Black and White: Orry-Kelly - Some Like It Hot
Costume designer Orry Kelly with Marilyn Monroe on the set of "Some Like It Hot"
Color: Elizabeth Haffenden - Ben-Hur
1960
Black and White: Edith Head and Edward Stevenson - The Facts of Life
Color: Arlington Valles - Spartacus
1961
Black and White: Piero Gherardi - La Dolce Vita
Color: Irene Sharaff - West Side Story
1962
Black and White: Norma Koch - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Color: Mary Wills - The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
1963
Black and White: Piero Gherardi - 81/2
Color: Renie Conley, Vittorio Nino Novarese and Irene Sharaff - Cleopatra
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Renie Conley, Vittorio Nino Novarese and Irene Sharaff - best costume design for Cleopatra
1964
Black and White: Dorothy Jeakins - The Night of the Iguana
Color: Cecil Beaton - My Fair Lady
1965
Black and White: Julie Harris - Darling
Color: Phyllis Dalton - Doctor Zhivago
1966
Black and White: Irene Sharaff - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Color: Elizabeth Haffenden - A Man for All Seasons
1967
John Truscott - Camelot
1968
Danilo Donati - Romeo and Juliet
1969
Margaret Furse - Anne of a Thousand Days
1970
Vittorio Nino Novarese - Cromwell
1971
Yvonne Blake and Antonio Castillo - Nicholas and Alexandra
1972
Anthony Powell - Travels With My Aunt
1973
Edith Head - The Sting
1974
Theoni V. Aldredge - The Great Gatsby
Theoni Aldredge won Best Costume design for The Great Gatsby in 1974
1975
Milena Canonero and Ulla-Britt Soderlund - Barry Lyndon
1976
Danilo Donati - Fellini's Casanova
1977
John Mollo - Star Wars
1978
Anthony Powell - Death on the Nile
1979
Albert Wolsky - All That Jazz
1980
Anthony Powell – Tess
1981
Milena Canonero - Chariots of Fire
1982
Bhanu Athaiya and John Mollo – Gandhi
1983
Marik Vos - Fanny and Alexander
1984
Theodor Pistek – Amadeus
1985
Emi Wada – Ran
1986
Jenny Beavan and John Bright - A Room with a View
1987
James Acheson - The Last Emperor
1988
James Acheson - Dangerous Liaisons
James Acheson won the Oscar for the 1988 costume extravaganza "Dangerous Liasons"
1989
Phyllis Dalton - Henry V
1990
Franca Squarciapino - Cyrano de Bergerac
1991
Albert Wolsky – Bugsy
1992
Eiko Ishioka - Bram Stoker's Dracula
1993
Gabriella Pescucci - The Age of Innocence
1994
Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
1995
James Acheson – Restoration
1996
Ann Roth - The English Patient
1997
Deborah Lynn Scott – Titanic
Deborah Lynn Scott costume sketch for Kate Winslet - Titanic
1998
Sandy Powell - Shakespeare in Love
1999
Lindy Hemming - Topsy-Turvy
2000
Janty Yates – Gladiator
2001
Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie - Moulin Rouge!
2002
Colleen Atwood – Chicago
2003
Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004
Sandy Powell - The Aviator
2005
Colleen Atwood - Memoirs of a Geisha
2006
Milena Canonero - Marie Antoinette
2007
Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2008
Michael O'Connor - The Duchess
2009
Sandy Powell - The Young Victoria
2010
Colleen Atwood - Alice in Wonderland
2011
Mark Bridges - The Artist
2012
Jacqueline Durran - Anna Karenina
Any guesses on costume design Oscar winner for this year? Not all costume designers design their pieces from scratch, for example, I predict Michael Wilkinson will be the big winner this year for "American Hustle" -( dressingvintage.com was fortunate to provide some of the clothing and accessories for the film) Michael used his costume designer skills to carefully select the right pieces from the late 1970s that represented the personalities of the various characters in the film. He did such a masterful job evoking the feeling of the times - I especially loved the phenomenal Halston and Gucci pieces they used for Amy Adams - incredible! What are your predictions?
Michael Wilkinson was the costume designer for the 2013 film American Hustle