The Costume Queen

What do “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” “Titanic” and “Moulin Rouge!” have in common?

All of them have won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

This prestigious award for the most cohesive costume collection has been handed to a variety of hot-ticket costume designers. Edith Head, a costume design extraordinaire, has won eight times for “The Heiress,” “Sabrina,” and “The Facts of Life.”

Costume design is a difficult art. These fashion designers have to create costumes that fit the character, the overall design of the movie, and their personal design aesthetics.

For “The Great Gatsby,” Academy Award costume design winner Catherine Martin was also a producer for the movie, so she had a lot of creative control over her costumes. She designed some, and sometimes, she used pieces from Prada. Costume design isn’t just about sewing, it can sometimes be more about costume coordination. It’s a work of art, and whether the costumes are homemade or store bought, they tell part of the story.

Take one nominee for this year’s Academy Award, Mary Zophres for “La La Land.” Zophres used mostly primary-colored basics in the beginning of the movie, and as the romance blossomed, the costumes became more detailed and the color scheme evolved from primary colors to a color explosion. The costumes told the story.

But “La La Land” didn’t take the Academy Award for Best Costume Design this year, as it lost to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (this was the first Oscar for a Wizarding World movie). Colleen Atwood recreated the 1920s through her costumes, and she worked to tell the story of a lifetime.

The costumes reflected a part of each character’s identity. The main character, Newt Scamander, wore a very whimsical ensemble, clearly taking on the role of the traveler. The flirt of the film, Queenie, wore all pink, which was incredibly flirtatious for the time, and her sister, the working flapper, wore masculine-inspired clothing.

Each costume reflected an aspect of the character’s personality.

This wasn’t Colleen Atwood’s first win. She has won for “Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and now “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” That’s four wins, but she’s had 12 nominations. She’s a costume design connoisseur, and clearly she’s good at it.

Her next mission? “Tomb Raider.” She’s halfway to Edith Head’s record, and she may be the one to break that barrier.

Congratulations Colleen Atwood on win number four.