Oscars: Colleen Atwood wins for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ costume design
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Colleen Atwood won the Academy Award for outstanding achievement in costume design for her work on Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ marking the third time she’s taken home the Oscar in that category. (Nominated a total of nine times, she took the statuette home for the first time in 2003 for ‘Chicago’ and a second time in 2006 for ‘Memoirs of a Geisha.’)
Atwood, whose long history of collaboration with Burton stretches back more than two decades to ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ includes the films ‘Ed Wood,’ ‘Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,’ as well as the upcoming big-screen version of the ‘Dark Shadows’ TV show, set for release in 2012, which also includes another frequent Burton collaborator, Johnny Depp.
Helena Bonham Carter referenced Atwood and Burton’s long collaborative relationship on the red carpet earlier in the evening, when asked about her relatively toned-down black corset dress. ‘I got together with our costume designer Colleen Atwood,’ she told reporters, ‘and thought it would be nice to celebrate film rather than fashion.’
It sounds a tiny bit like sour grapes -- especially since her recent outing at the Golden Globes -- in a metallic Vivienne Westwood dress and two different-colored shoes -- earned her the scorn of the self-appointed fashion police. (For the record, our own fashion critic, Booth Moore, called her choice ‘fearless.’)
But, with Atwood’s win Sunday, Bonham Carter’s wardrobe choice Sunday was clearly on the right side of academy voters -- if not public opinion.
I guess we should feel lucky she didn’t decide to turn up on the red carpet sporting the outsize noggin and nasty demeanor of her Red Queen character from the film.
-- Adam Tschorn
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