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Designing Hollywood
Studio Wardrobe in the Golden Age
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Book Presentation:
Since the 1920s, fashion has played a central role in Hollywood. As the movie-going population consisted largely of women, studios made a concerted effort to attract a female audience by foregrounding fashion. Magazines featured actresses like Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford bedecked in luxurious gowns, selling their glamour as enthusiastically as the film itself. Whereas actors and actresses previously wore their own clothing, major studios hired costume designers and wardrobe staff to fabricate bespoke costumes for their film stars. Designers from a variety of backgrounds, including haute couture and art design, were offered long-term contracts to work on multiple movies. Though their work typically went uncredited, they were charged with creating an image for each star that would help define an actor both on- and off-screen. The practice of working long-term with a single studio disappeared when the studio system began unraveling in the 1950s. By the 1970s, studios had disbanded their wardrobe departments and auctioned off their costumes and props. In Designing Hollywood: Studio Wardrobe in the Golden Age, Christian Esquevin showcases the designers who dressed Hollywood's stars from the late 1910s through the 1960s and the unique symbiosis they developed with their studios in creating iconic looks. Studio by studio, Esquevin details the careers of designers like Vera West, who worked on Universal productions such as Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dracula (1931), and Bride of Frankenstein (1931); William Travilla, the talent behind Marilyn Monroe's dresses in Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955); and Walter Plunkett, the Oscar-winning designer for film classics like Gone with the Wind (1939) and An American in Paris (1951). Featuring black and white photographs of leading ladies in their iconic looks as well as captivating original color sketches, Designing Hollywood takes the reader on a journey from drawing board to silver screen.
About the Author:
Christian Esquevin is a writer, collector, blogger, and researcher of Hollywood costume design history. His collection of classic film costume design sketches has been featured by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum in Los Angeles. He is the author of Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label.
Press Reviews:
Christian Esquevin's name is synonymous with Hollywood. He has now written the definitive book on the history of film fashion and those who created it. Designing Hollywood is fascinating, illuminating, entertaining and informative. Costume design is a glorious and collaborative art from and it takes a masterful writer to weave together the stories, history and observations. Christian Esquevin is that writer who brings it all to beautiful cinematic life. Designing Hollywood is a MUST read! -Susan Claassen—Creator and star of the award-winning production "A Conversation with Edith Head"
This is a very informative and detailed compendium of the "Golden Era's" major studios and the echelon of costumes designers that passed through their costume departments over fifty plus years. It is a great go-to book about how and when movies were made and how they were designed, piecing together many forgotten stories that create a distinct picture of how the business originated and why costume design became so important. -Jean-Pierre Dorléac—Somewhere in Time, Quantum Leap
Christian Esquevin has documented the most comprehensive look into the world of costume designers, their creative teams and the great costume departments of Hollywood. I was fascinated with every detail in this book – something I've looked forward to for years! A remarkable achievement. -Randall Thropp, Paramount Pictures Archive
Anyone who is curious about costume design in the golden age of Hollywood and beyond will find this fact-filled book extremely useful. It's a cavalcade of famous names and their equally famous fashion creations. -Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
Designing Hollywood is a history of costume design through the end of the studio era. Author Christian Esquevin has chosen to devote a chapter to each of the Hollywood Studios. Within each chapter, Esquevin offers information on the most noteworthy films in terms of design. In the process, he tracks the careers of the most important designers. -John M. Clum, New York Journal of Books
Christian Esquevin has authored what might be the first book-length study of costume designs from all the major studios. Designing Hollywood is beautifully designed with high quality photo reproduction and attractive fonts as well as full-color reproductions of costume sketches. -Shepherd Express
Designing Hollywood: Studio Wardrobe in the Golden Age is a comprehensive look at costumes and gowns created by designers who worked at movie studios during Hollywood's Golden Age from the 1920s to the '60s. It also includes designs from the early silent-film era and tidbits about the movies the costumes were made for. Meticulously researched with behind-the-scenes stories that reflect Esquevin's passion for Hollywood design. -Coronado 365
See the publisher website: University Press of Kentucky
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Creating the Illusion (2015)
A Fashionable History of Hollywood Costume Designers
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