DESIGN LEGACY
I’ve always thought L.A.’s fine arts and academic institutions should do more to promote and preserve Hollywood costume design, which is as much a part of our cultural history as anything from 7th Avenue. And last week, UCLA took a huge step in the right direction by naming Deborah Nadoolman Landis the first David C. Copley Chair for the study of costume design at the School of Theater, Film and Television.
Landis, an Oscar-nominated costume designer whose credits include “The Blues Brothers,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” is a past president of the Costume Designers Guild, a teacher and an author, most recently of “Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design.”
We chatted for a few minutes last week.
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What do you think is the biggest misconception about costume design?
The terrible thing about costume design is the word “costume,” because reflexively we think of Halloween and artifice. But what costume designers do is much more profound, because we are building character from the inside out. I love what Ann Roth said about working with Meryl Streep, that when they are in the fitting room, they are always waiting for the third person to arrive -- the character.
Another misconception is that costume design has something to do with clothes. We didn’t buy everything we are wearing today. Each of us is wearing things we inherited, things we were given as gifts. We are wearing an amalgam of stories. All characters are supposed to have lives before the movie starts, just like real people. This is what costume designers create.
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What are some of your favorite films for costume design?
It’s more about a costume designer’s body of work than an individual film. I love “Barry Lyndon,” and “Out of Africa” has unsurpassed beauty. And I can’t believe they were both designed, along with “A Clockwork Orange,” by Milena Canonero. And I can’t believe Jim Acheson designed “Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life” and “Brazil” and “Spider-Man” and “Dangerous Liaisons.” It’s their contributions to our shared culture of the movies that means so much to me, both the wacky and the sublime.
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latimes.com/alltherage
See more of Booth Moore’s interview with Deborah Nadoolman Landis on the All the Rage blog.
