Phyllis Dalton: A Career in Costume: From Lawrence of Arabia to The Princess Bride

— —

Alexander Ballinger

Phyllis Dalton

Name: Phyllis Dalton
Price: 82.95 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781399995641

A Career in Costume: From Lawrence of Arabia to The Princess Bride

Alexander Ballinger

$82.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Clapperboard Books
06 April 2026

Textile artworks; Fashion & textiles: design; Film theory & criticism; Biography: arts & entertainment

The extraordinary story of costume designer Phyllis Dalton, filled with insights, recollections, and revelations from a life spent on the great film locations of the twentieth century

In conversation with film historian Alexander Ballinger, Phyllis Dalton (1925–2025) reveals how she created some of the silver screen's most unforgettable and iconic costumes, working with such legendary directors as Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean, a woman in a man's world.

The book spans Dalton's extraordinary fifty-year career in the film industry, from sewing in Soho workrooms on Laurence Olivier's Henry V via intelligence work at Bletchley Park; apprenticeship at Gainsborough Studios to designing costumes on The Man Who Knew Too Much; the epic undertakings of costuming Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (Oscar, Best Costume Design), and Oliver!; through to cult classics A Private Function and The Princess Bride to her successful late collaboration with a young Kenneth Branagh on Henry V (Oscar, Best Costume Design), Dead Again, and Much Ado About Nothing.

Many of the book's illustrations, sourced from Dalton's personal archive, showcase unique ephemera, fabric swatches, production stills, large format pencil-and-watercolour sketches, and production notebooks from six decades of filmmaking. Many of these stunning images, including Dalton's personal on-location photographs from the Lawrence of Arabia shoot, have never been published before.

Distributed for Clapperboard Books

By: Alexander Ballinger
Imprint: Clapperboard Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 279mm, Width: 229mm,
ISBN: 9781399995641
ISBN 10: 1399995642
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 06 April 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alexander Ballinger is a film historian and author of New Cinematographers and The Rough Guide to Film Noir.