Highlights Archives
Dressed to Impress: Oscar Fashions
The 79th annual Academy Awards will be presented this Sunday, February 25, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and while some will be watching anxiously to see who takes home the biggest awards, many others around the world will be watching to see what their favorite Hollywood stars are wearing. The fashion displayed on Oscar night, as well the clothes worn in the movies themselves, have long been a part of the allure of Hollywood, with the biggest names in the world of fashion — Yves St. Laurent, Christian Dior, Valentino — represented on the red carpet. Setting the stage for this media-fashion blitz was Charles Frederick Worth, whose designs for wealthy 19th-century women made the careers of his successors possible and earned him the title, the "father of haute couture." A Worth gown, designed for the wife of Governor Lucius Fairchild is in our Museum's collections.
Born in England, Charles Frederick Worth came to dominate Parisian fashion in the late 19th century. He was the first man to design and make clothes for well-to-do women, and his designs were notable for lavish fabrics and trimmings and his strict attention to fit. He was also the first to use live models to show his gowns and is credited with a number of fashion innovations such as a system of interchangeable pattern pieces and the walking skirt. Winning the patronage of France's Empress Eugenie ensured his success as a dressmaker, and made a Worth gown the dream of most wealthy American women — women like Frances Fairchild.
Living in Europe where her husband Lucius Fairchild served as a diplomat, Frances Fairchild ordered her gown from the House of Worth in 1880 after learning that they would be moving to Madrid, where she would be presented to the King and Queen of Spain. Worth designed a gown out of her favorite fabric, purple silk velvet, combined with lavender satin. The dress cost 1900 francs, more than $15,000 in today's currency, and Fairchild cherished it until her death in 1924.
Worth was also popular among stars of the theater and concert stage, designing costumes and personal wardrobes for leading actresses and singers of the late 19th-and early-20th centuries, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Lillie Langtry and Jenny Lind. The first globally famous designer, Worth's creations helped to lay the groundwork for the internationalization and influence of fashion design in the 20th century, a trend brought to new heights on the movie screen by Edith Head (PDF 432KB)
Head created some of the most enduring images in American cinema in a career that spanned more than 50 years and garnered her more than 34 Oscar nominations. Among her famous designs were the simple black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, the golden ballgown worn by Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, and the daytime coat worn by Hepburn in Sabrina. Her designs inspired some of the most popular trends in American fashion and are preserved in the archives in the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, housed at the Society, is one of the world's major archives of research materials relating to the entertainment industry, and is co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
:: Posted February 23, 2007
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