FIDM's 17th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition opens on January 28 at the FIDM Museum & Galleries. The popular exhibition features actual costumes from the previous year's most memorable films. This year, the costumes are from a host of fabulous movies, including The Dark Knight, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, The Duchess, and so many more--over 22 movies in all!
We sat down with Michael Black, the Exhibition Coordinator, to find out more:
How did the annual exhibition come about?
Michael: The first FIDM Museum & Galleries Director, Maggie Murray, had many good connections with costume designers, the studios, and costume rental companies. It was her idea that showcasing the work of all these talented people was a natural tie-in with FIDM.
This was initially planned as a one-time only exhibition, but proved so successful, we have now been putting it on for seventeen years. In the beginning, we showcased both current and vintage film costumes, and have expanded from one small
gallery to three galleries of over 10,000 square feet.
Sixteen out of seventeen exhibitions have featured costumes from all five Academy Award(R) nominated films, which is quite a feat, as we are set up before the nominations are announced.
When do you start preparing for the exhibition?
Michael: We start planning the new exhibition as soon as new films
start coming out in January. Making lists of possible films to pursue goes on all year long. Generally, we start contacting the studios around October, reminding them that our exhibition is coming up, and getting their feedback on what costumes they have available.
What is the most interesting/unusual piece in the exhibition?
Michael: Probably the elf costumes from The Spiderwick Chronicles. They are examples of work that gets done for a production but for any number of reasons do not actually make it into the final film. These costumes were requested for scenes in the film, but then as filming got under way, it was decided to go with CGI (Computer Generated Images) instead.
Are there any interesting stories you can relate about procuring the costumes or getting them ready for exhibition?
Michael: It is always a gamble going after costumes for this exhibition. Many production companies no longer have the budgets or facilities to store every costume from every film, or even key costumes from major films.
Many times, the costumes get auctioned off before we get a chance to display them. In the case of very popular films, there is increasing interest to display the costumes, so other venues may get items we would like to show and vice versa. We are very popular with the costume designers themselves, so a lot of them will work on our behalf to get what we need.
The free exhibition runs through March 29, 2009. Group Tours are available. Visit the FIDM Museum & Galleries online for more information. --Kim