Designing Hollywood

Studio Wardrobe in the Golden Age

Christian Esquevin

$168.95

Hardback

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English

The University Press of Kentucky
01 May 2024

Film, TV & Radio; Media studies

Since the 1920s, fashion has played a central role in Hollywood. As the movie-going population consisted largely of women, studios made a concerted effort to attract a female audience by foregrounding fashion. Magazines featured actresses like Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford bedecked in luxurious gowns, selling their glamour as enthusiastically as the film itself. Whereas actors and actresses previously wore their own clothing, major studios hired costume designers and wardrobe staff to fabricate bespoke costumes for their film stars. Designers from a variety of backgrounds, including haute couture and art design, were offered long-term contracts to work on multiple movies. Though their work typically went uncredited, they were charged with creating an image for each star that would help define an actor both on- and off-screen. The practice of working long-term with a single studio disappeared when the studio system began unravelling in the 1950s. By the 1970s, studios had disbanded their wardrobe departments and auctioned off their costumes and props.

In Designing Hollywood: Studio Wardrobe in the Golden Age, Christian Esquevin showcases the designers who dressed Hollywood's stars from the late 1910s through the 1960s and the unique symbiosis they developed with their studios in creating iconic looks. Studio by studio, Esquevin details the careers of designers like Vera West, who worked on Universal productions such as Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dracula (1931), and Bride of Frankenstein (1931); William Travilla, the talent behind Marilyn Monroe's dresses in Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955); and Walter Plunkett, the Oscar-winning designer for film classics like Gone with the Wind (1939) and An American in Paris (1951). Featuring black and white photographs of leading ladies in their iconic looks as well as captivating original color sketches, Designing Hollywood takes the reader on a journey from drawing board to silver screen.

AUTHOR: Christian Esquevin is a writer, collector, blogger, and researcher of Hollywood costume design history. His collection of classic film costume design sketches has been featured by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum in Los Angeles. He is the author of Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label.

74 b&w illustrations, 25 color illustrations

By: Christian Esquevin
Imprint: The University Press of Kentucky
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 203mm,
ISBN: 9780813197913
ISBN 10: 0813197910
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 01 May 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Costume Design in the Movies Universal Pictures Fox Film and 20th Century-Fox Paramount Pictures Warner Bros. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures RKO Pictures The Wrap Up

Christian Esquevin is a writer, collector, blogger, and researcher of Hollywood costume design history. His collection of classic film costume design sketches has been featured by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum in Los Angeles. He is the author of Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label.