Celebrating 100 years of Hollywood’s best-loved and iconic characters, the V&A stages one of the largest ever retrospectives of over 100 costumes from the early Golden Age of Hollywood (1912) to the blockbusters of today.
ivided into three parts, the exhibition leads us to the heart of the process of creating and designing the visual identity that imparts such a lasting impact on popular cultur and personal consciousness.
The first section ‘Act 1: Deconstruction’, throws open the studio door in unveiling the research and sourcing that initiates the process the costume designer undertakes when formulating the character’s dress from script to screen; ‘Act 2: Dialogue’ examines the crucial creative discussion between the filmmaker, costume designer and actor in utilising the innovative methods of transformation through clothes, make-up, prosthetics, and cutting-edge technology. The closing ‘Act 3: Finale’ hosts a grand collection of heroes, villains and femme fatales who have ignited global imagination and culture and led numerous fashion trends.
With curation led by Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis (whose design credits include ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’) with assistance from the prolific Governor of British Film Institute, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, and V&A curator Keith Lodwick, the show delivers a fantastic range of cinematic history which has never before left private Californian collections and studio archives.
The exhibition is supported by family events, lectures, and fashion design, photography, and illustration workshops.
Victoria & Albert Museum
Until 27 Jan 2013
www.vam.ac.uk
