FIDM to Showcase Television Costume Design Exhibit
“The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design” will be featured July 10–Sept. 9 at the FIDM Museum & Galleries in downtown Los Angeles. The free exhibit will display costumes from current programs, as well as a retrospective of 40 years of awardwinning television costume design.
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are hosting the first-ever event, which pays tribute to the 2006 Emmy Awards. Noted costume designer Mary Rose, who also sits on the academy’s board of governors, is the guest curator for the exhibit.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” Rose said. “There are so many wonderful costume designers in television, and for many years they have been overshadowed by film.”
Museum director Robert Nelson said the school hoped to make the exhibit an annual event. FIDM has been displaying costumes from Academy Award nominees for the past 14 years, as well as special exhibits such as a recent show featuring costumes from the “Star Wars” trilogy.
The TV costume design exhibit will include more than 140 costumes from about 70 designers of programs broadcast from 1966 to the present. Virtually every genre will be covered—Westerns, science fiction, prime-time soaps, sitcoms, comedy/variety, miniseries and movies of the week.
Costumes from this year’s Emmy nominees include those from “Elizabeth I,” “The Sopranos,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Mrs. Harris” and “Rome.” A Golden Era display will include outfits from “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” the “Sonny and Cher Show,” “The Wild, Wild West,” “Solid Gold,” “Knots Landing” and “Dynasty.”
Also featured are this year’s Costume Design Guild Awards, including costumes from “Desperate Housewives,” “Alias,” “Cold Case” and “Nip/Tuck.”
Another display will include three TV costumes designed by FIDM grads Wendy Benbrook (“MADtv”), Jill Ohanneson (“Six Feet Under”) and Greg La Voi (“The Closer”).
Rose said the world of television costume design had opened up over the years with more cable programs such as “The Sopranos” and elaborate network-produced movies such as HBO’s “Elizabeth I.”
“The television designers are even more challenged because they work on tighter deadlines, and yet the details and craftsmanship can be just as good, if not better than film costumes,” Rose said. She noted that as many as 30 percent of TV costume designers also cross over to film.
“We’re the only place in the world where you can see all this,” museum director Nelson said. “We’ve honored film. Now we’re honoring great television costume designers.”
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has been presenting Emmys to costume designers since 1970. The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony will take place Aug. 27.
Hours for the FIDM museum exhibit will be 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (213) 624- 1200, Ext. 2224.
—Robert McAllister
