Customer Reviews

Costume Design in the Movies: An Illustrated Guide to the Work of 157 Great Designers (Dover Fashion and Costumes)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a costume designer and have had this book in my research collection for about 10 years. It is one of my top favorites. I have turned to this book for inspiration countless times. They just don't make clothing like this anymore! The hair and makeup styles are also well represented.

OK. So, you already know who designed the costumes for My Fair Lady. But, you find yourself watching AMC one day and they're playing "The Manchurian Candidate" and halfway through the movie you remember that you forgot to look at the costuming credits. Well, you open the index to this nifty little reference book and find out that Moss Mabry not only designed the costumes for this movie but quite a few more. That he co-designed with Marjorie Best for Giant to win an Academy Award nomination, and so on...

There are some nifty pictures that accent this reference guide. So, in addition to the listings, you get photos of older and newer stars (I could swear that the photo of Norma Shearer from "The Waning Sex" is a Hurrell), and reproductions of designer illustrations.

I think I'll keep this one close to the VCR.

One of my favorite things about watching classic films is seeing all the amazing fashions! This book is a great collection of photos of classic stars wearing classic costumes. Lots of stars are in here including Bette Davis, Norma Shearer, Carole Landis, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, and Irene Dunne. You will learn who designed each outfit and there is a little biographical information about the designers too.

While the photos are beautiful, the book was rather disapointing to me. First, as one other reviewer pointed out, it is not really a history or discussion. It is a list.... a lengthy list of names, with a paragraph or two for each designer, followed by another list of their films. This list is sometimes lengthy and sometimes only 1 or 2 films. Very British in the selections, too, since the editor was British. Second, it was published quite a while ago (Originally published in 1987, corrected and updated in 1991....though what motivated them to omit major designers like Motley at that point is very unclear.) and it does not even have an epilogue to bring us closer to the present. But I should have caught that it was a Dover publication. Otherwise I would have known that it was published 'as is' or more accurately 'as it was' at that time. Fine for some things, but a disappointment here. However, the phots are super, and for the most part extremely sharp, clear images.

Good book! Lots of black-n-white photos of famous movie stars wearing wonderful designer fashions!

This book was originally written in 1988,thus,the 157 famous Hollywood Fashion Designers listed in this book are all here --- from the very beginning of Hollywood's Fashion movie Era , and then all the way up to 1988.

(NOTE: The reason the copyright on this book is 1991, is because the author added an information page in 1991. However, this book was really written in the 1980's).

Anyhow, this book lists all the Academy Award Fashion winners and also all British Award Fashion winners (in regards to Hollywood FASHIONS), from the late 1800's up until 1988!

I love fashion & many great designs were done by the designers for the old movie studios. It was interesting reading about how designers came up with ideas of an outfit to cover flaws or accent a movie star (i.e. Barbara Stanwycks low butt, Crawfords shoulder pads).

Excellent reference book with biographies of the most famous designers at the different studios. Nominations and Academy Awards are also referenced. There is an index that makes it easy to look up a film and find out who designed the costumes. I use it frequently. In some cases more than one designer worked on the same film. There are photographs of the designers and also their designs, however, I would like to see even more photographs...especially for the period 1930 through 1970. I would rate this book 4.5. It is also a good value for the price.

This book is basically an ancyclopedia of costume designers, their films and the dates.
The author did a magnificent research being this probably the first book written on the subject but it's definitely not a book "to read" (only the preface and introduction have some very interesting and "readable" data) as the book in itself is just a succession of names, dates and movie tittles.
It's a reference book.
The pictures though are really good.

Thank you for the fast ship and the book is great it is being donated to the Motion Picture and Theater Arts Museum of Costume Design for their library.

This book is full of information about an astonishing selection of film costume designers.
An absolute gem of a book, i recommend it to anyone interested in costume and glamour.