‘50s Costumes Pass the Test

The Movie: “Quiz Show.”

The Setup: Popular and attractive quiz-show champion Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) becomes the central figure in real-life ‘50s “Twenty-One” show scandal, directed by Robert Redford.

The Costume Designer: Kathy O’Rear, who designed costumes (with Bernie Pollack) for Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” and television’s “Anything but Love.”

Hit: Ralph Lauren should be the first in line to see this film, which faithfully glorifies the wonders of preppy chic as it appeared in 1958. It’s right up his alley. A Columbia University English instructor, Van Doren is a fetching sight in his Donegal tweed blazers, knit ties, soft gray flannel suits and button-down-collar shirts. So tasteful in that old, rah-rah college way. His father, prize-winning poet Mark Van Doren (Paul Scofield), is even tweedier, if you can imagine. His faultless texture-on-texture layers (wool plaid ties, windowpane check shirts, tweed suits) are the epitome of East Coast academic style.

Triumph: A gathering of the whole Van Doren clan for a summer picnic provides an opportunity for a clever prep prank--every man, woman and child wears plaid or check.

Everyone Else: How to separate the Van Dorens from the film’s other leads, all men? Or as O’Rear put it, “I’ve got a movie with a bunch of men in suits--how do I make them distinctive?”

The solution was to create sharp fashion delineations. Herbert Stempel (John Turturro), a disgruntled “Twenty-One” contestant, is the geek who won’t keep his mouth shut, dressing in noisy colors and prints, including an Indian blanket bathrobe. (By contrast, the senior Van Doren’s bathrobe is cashmere camel’s hair.) The dogged congressional investigator, Richard Goodwin (Rob Morrow), agonizes the scandal in rumpled, dingy shirts and serious suits. Game-show producer Dan Enright (David Paymer) looks slick in golf-themed ties, loud vests and shiny, silk Shantung suits.

You Should Know: Fiennes came to the production directly from “Schindler’s List”--and about 25 pounds overweight. “He literally came from Poland,” said O’Rear, who added that the actor dropped the weight as the production progressed. Fortunately, the first scenes were shot waist up in the game-show control booth. In subsequent scenes, O’Rear cut Fiennes’ suits to fit, plus a tiny bit larger so that they appeared loose, to give Fiennes the illusion of slimness. Then as he lost weight, his clothes were re-altered every other week.

Inspiration: “Twenty-One” kinescopes from the Museum of Broadcasting in New York, news magazines, old Columbia and Barnard College yearbooks.

Sources: Principals’ clothes were custom-made by several tailors. Button-down-collar shirts were from Brooks Brothers. Stempel’s Indian blanket bathrobe is from Jet Rag on La Brea Avenue; Mark Van Doren’s cashmere bathrobe is from Paul Stuart, New York. Supporting actors and about 3,000 extras were dressed in rentals and vintage clothes.