Hollywood Costume

 

During the Christmas vacation I was lucky enough to visit the Hollywood Costume exhibition at London’s V&A museum. The exhibition occupies 3 display halls and houses over 100 of the most iconic costumes from almost a century of cinematic history. The themed halls explore various aspects of costume design and its impact on cinema storytelling. Some of the costumes on show have been painstakingly restored and are on public display for the very first time. There are costumes from the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood such as Dorothy’s blue gingham dress and ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (my personal favourite!), Marilyn Monroe’s infamous white dress from the Seven Year Itch, along with classic costumes from Cleopatra and Gone with the Wind as worn by Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh. If that doesn’t take your fancy there are also contemporary classics from films such as Superman (it took me a while to spot that one…as it was above our heads!), Twilight, and the Bond movies.

 

 

The exhibition runs from 20^th October 2012 until 27^th January 2013 so there’s still time for you to pay a visit…but if London is too far to travel, I have a solution – get yourself along to the Griffith library at our Dynevor campus because we have a copy of the fantastic exhibition book! You can find it at shelfmark 791.43026/HOL (I enjoyed the exhibition so much I bought the book for myself in the museum gift shop afterwards!).