Costume design serves a vastly different purpose from fashion design even though both deal with the combination of reality and fantasy, explained the fashion critic for the Los Angeles Times during a presentation at the Phoenix Art Museum on May 21.
“For a costume designer, the goal is to make clothing that’s realistic enough, that simultaneously furthers the story and disappears into the film. That makes costume design … more purposeful,” said Booth Moore, the Times’ fashion critic, to an audience of about 45 people in the museum’s Whiteman Hall.
Moore also contributed to the “Hollywood Costume” exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum, which opened on March 26 and displays more than 100 famous costumes in cinema history.
For “Walk the Line,” a 2005 film about Johnny Cash, costume designer Arianne Phillips did not know much about the famous country singer, and immediately began searching the Internet and library for biographical information, Moore said. Phillips studied performance pictures, family photos and also created binders for each time period represented in the film as well as one for every character, complete with biographical research, corresponding photos and fabric swatches.
“I’ve seen these binders and they’re very extensive,” Moore said. “It’s all part of the process of telling a story through clothing.”
In telling a story that reflects the script and captures the director’s vision, every costume designer’s decision must be justifiable, Moore said. They must take into account “the fabrics and materials that were in use and in fashion” during that time period, Moore added.
The costume designer from the 2010 film “True Grit,” Mary Zophres, approved using a belt to cinch the waist on the young female character, Mattie Ross, who wore her deceased father’s coat even though men did not wear belts during the 1870s, Moore said. In an interview, Zophres told Moore that she justified the decision because men used leather straps to cinch saddle rolls; Ross would’ve gotten the belt by taking one of the leather straps.
“To see film costumes in this context, and to see the process that goes into thinking about them, is a reminder of the role that style, not fashion, plays in our everyday lives, and the subtle cues given off by choosing to wear one thing or another,” Moore said.
ASU doctoral student Andrea Severson attended Moore’s lecture because she’s read her pieces in the “Hollywood Costume” catalog and remembers Moore doing “a great job” at a previous event she spoke at. Severson has also worked as a costume designer at a local theater and said she is fascinated by the relationship between fashion and costume design.
While both fashion design and costume design intersect, the two disciplines differ in that fashion is fleeting while film is forever, Moore explained.
Newness is key in fashion design because its end goal is to create a product that people want to purchase, Moore said. Designers must determine what comes next and, as famous designer Tom Ford said, get bored before the consumer gets bored.
Fashion designers are “creatives and they’re business people; they read the culture like tea leaves and they create products they hope somebody will want and set about crafting an image or a story,” Moore said.
What truly defines fashion design and costume design are their differences. Fashion design creates a story to manufacture multiple copies of design and to get people to shop and buy them, whereas costume design “involves interaction with directors and actors to bring a story to life,” Moore said.
Phoenix Art Museum fashion design curator Dennita Sewell helped coordinate the current “Hollywood Costume” exhibit and Moore’s lecture. She said she asked Moore to speak not only because of her credentials, but also because of the different perspective on fashion and costume design Moore offered since she lives near the Hollywood movie scene and has interviewed different designers and actors.
The “Hollywood Costume” exhibit runs at the Phoenix Art Museum through July 6.
Contact the reporter at celovins@asu.edu
