It's officially Oscar season! The nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards were only just announced this morning but there's already buzz about possible winners. Here at the Image section there's only one award that we're biting our nails over, stressing out about and placing bets for -- just kidding about that last part -- but we're seriously excited about who will take home the Oscar in costume design. Among other places, the films nominated took viewers on an adventure to Wonderland, back in time to visit King George VI and out to the cowboy gunslinging of the West. Here are the nominees in the costume design category: "True Grit" (costumes by Mary Zophres), "The King's Speech" (costumes by Jenny Beavan), “Alice in Wonderland” (costumes by Colleen Atwood), "I Am Love" (costumes by Antonella Cannarozzi) and "The Tempest" (costumes by Sandy Powell). And the Oscar goes to.... Well, we won't know until Feb. 27 but I've always wanted to say that.

-- Jenn Harris

Top photo: A scene from the movie "Alice and Wonderland," nominated for costume design. Credit: Disney Enterprises.

Bottom photo: Jeff Bridges in "True Grit," also nominated for costume design. Credit: Sebastian Lorey / Associated Press.

As the Oscars were being announced Tuesday morning, we waited breathlessly for our favorite category: best costume design. After all, how could Jeff Bridges have pulled off the Rooster Cogburn character without the right clothes, much less Colin Firth have made a convincing King George VI without the royal look? Sure enough, both "True Grit" (Mary Zophres) and "The King's Speech" (Jenny Beavan) were among the nominees. The others were “Alice in Wonderland” (Colleen Atwood), "I Am Love" (Antonella Cannarozzi) and "The Tempest" (Sandy Powell). But there was no Oscar costume design love for "Black Swan," which had received a lot of pre-Oscar attention because some of the costumes were by L.A.-based designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte. [LAT]

Five American designers trumped their French counterparts in a legendary showdown at the Palace of Versailles in 1973, and the Americans are still celebrating. The competition's two surviving U.S. designers, Steven Burrows and Oscar de la Renta, hosted a luncheon Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to toast the models who helped them to victory. "It wasn't the designers; it was the girls in this room," said Donna Karan (who worked the original event as a dresser for Anne Klein) of the eight original models who attended: Billie Blair, Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, Norma Jean Darden, Charlene Dash, Bethann Hardison, China Machado and Amina Warsuma. [WWD]

Designers' spring couture shows are underway in Paris [TheCut], and Chanel's biggest fans turned out in force for Karl Lagerfeld's couture show. Current and former brand ambassadors Inès de la Fressange, Diane Kruger, Vanessa Paradis, Anna Mouglalis, Baptiste Giabiconi and Gaspard Ulliel joined celebrity guests including Jerry Hall, Pedro Almodovar, Kirsten Dunst, Alexa Chung, Karen Elson and Janelle Monae. [WWD]

Meanwhile, John Galliano was in fine feather with his mesmerizing Christian Dior show, where the word "clothes" may have been too mundane to apply to what walked down the runway. [WWD] (Subscription required.) 

Vivienne Westwood is getting ready to open on Melrose in Los Angeles. [Mondette]

And New York-based hairstylist Sally Hershberger is planning a Feb. 1 opening for her new salon in the SLS Hotel's Ciel Spa in West Hollywood. She's also expanding her existing salon here. [Mondette]

Seattle-based Butter London is issuing a nail polish in honor of Kate Middleton. The name of the gray-blue shade? "No More Waity, Katie," a reference to the princess-to-be's cheeky pre-engagement nickname in British tabloids. [StyleList]

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife in "The King's Speech." Credit: Laurie Sparham / The Weinstein Company

The great Broadway and film costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, who won an Oscar in 1975 for "The Great Gatsby," died on Friday. She was 78.

Aldredge's career spanned from the 1950s to the late 1990s, but it is the costumes she designed for films in the 1970s that are the most memorable and the most resonant now that the disco era has returned to the fashion runways at Marc Jacobs, Celine, Michael Kors, Aquilano e Rimondi and elsewhere.

Her costumes have inspired a great many fashion designers, including Ralph Lauren, who assisted on "Gatsby." The lavish, 1920s-influenced designs for that film -- including Robert Redford's dapper white suits, and Mia Farrow's romantic, drop-waist dresses -- jumped off the screen. They were so popular, they were even adapted for a clothing line sold at Bloomingdales at the time.

Aldredge also designed costumes for the 1978 thriller "The Eyes of Laura Mars," in which Faye Dunaway plays a fashion photographer. A shaggy-haired Tommy Lee Jones in a black turtleneck; Faye Dunaway in a split skirt, tall boots and a bow-front blouse, a plaid cape and fedora; models in furs dancing around a flaming car wreck -- it's a trip.

"Laura Mars" has become such a cult fashion film that designer Marios Schwab cited it as an influence for his fall 2010 collection for Halston. Which is funny, because Halston the man, whose heyday was the 1970s, no doubt influenced Aldredge.

Aldredge's range was incredible. Her film credits also include "The Rose," "Annie," "Ghostbusters," "Moonstruck" and "The First Wives Club." On Broadway, her work could be seen in "Barnum," "Gypsy," "A Chorus Line," "Dreamgirls" and "42nd Street."

-- Booth Moore

Upper photo: The 1974 version of "The Great Gatsby," starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford. Credit: Paramount Pictures

Lower photo: In "The Eyes of Laura Mars," Faye Dunaway's high-fashion outfits are a standout in the film beloved by designers. Credit: Columbia / Kobal Collection

It’s difficult to imagine a film so well-suited to the talents of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the Los Angeles-based designers behind the blockbuster fashion label Rodarte. “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller set in a New York professional ballet company, is a tale of good and evil, and dark and light, the same themes that have informed so many Rodarte collections.

The film centers on the rivalry between veteran dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis). Nina is chosen to lead a production of “Swan Lake,” which traditionally calls for playing both the white and black swans. But it is Lily who exhibits the sensuality needed to pull off the role of the black swan; she forces Nina to confront her limitations and get to know her dark side.

I talked to Laura Mulleavy recently about her first film gig. 

How did you get involved in this project?
This secret script was going around L.A. with no name attached to it. It was about dueling ballerinas, and everyone kept mentioning it to us and saying we’d be perfect to do the costumes for the film. Of course that’s out of my mind in two seconds, then we saw Natalie (Portman) and she said we’d be great for it. We met Darren in Brooklyn in August and brought our research and we all got along. So by September, we started working together.

 
 
In Julie Taymor’s version of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the lead character Prospero has been transformed into a woman, Prospera (Helen Mirren), a queen who is banished to a deserted island with her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones), where she uses her sorceress’ powers to shipwreck the members of court who sent her there, and seek vengeance against them.

The story is a mix of magic, romance and redemption. And this being Shakespeare, there is also lots of mischief, thanks to marauding merrymakers Trinculo (Russell Brand) and Stephano (Alfred Molina).   

 
Taymor charged Sandy Powell with designing the costumes, which are extraordinary. Many of them look as if they could have emanated from the landscape (the film was shot on the craggy island of Lanai). I talked to Powell recently about her imaginative work on the film.

The glimmering cloak worn by Prospera in the opening shot was incredible looking. How did you make it?

That was described in Julie’s script as shards of glass and light. So it was quite a challenge to make. We even thought about using fiber optics but decided against it because we were shooting a lot in the daylight.  We decided to draw on the idea of volcanic rock and lava flow. We wanted her to look as if she came out of the rock. So we had a basic cloak shape made of mesh onto which we sewed over 3,000 shard-like things to look like jagged crystal.

They were actually very lightweight plastic pieces in about a dozen sizes and shapes, sewn on irregularly and painted diferently so that they would look iridescent. It took forever and once it was all done, we realized the thing didn’t fold up. It was this massive piece of sculpture that had to be transported from London in a giant, coffin-like custom box.

At its best, “The Tourist” recalls elegant 1950s-era Grace Kelly/Hitchcock films such as “To Catch a Thief.” At its worst, it’s reminiscent of the kind of slick perfume commercials you see on TV this time of year. But there’s no denying that the costumes, in the hands of Colleen Atwood, are resplendent.

The film follows Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), an American tourist in Italy caught in a web of mistaken identity and international espionage. He’s a hapless math teacher from the Midwest, and Elise Ward (Angelina Jolie) is his glamorous heroine, who first appears on screen in a camel cashmere stole, long suede gloves and a tight skirt with an orange sash in back that swishes as she walks (see left).

Jolie’s sleek look, all neutral colors and rich fabrics, was inspired by Kelly, says Atwood, as well as the fashion photographs of Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolf. The sash was pure seduction. “It reminded me of wild animals, how they have a flash of color.”

 

All of Jolie’s costumes were designed and made by hand, except for a 1950s Charles James dress (right) that Atwood found at Los Angeles vintage store Paper Bag Princess. (“I couldn’t resist,” Atwood says. "When she put it on, it fit her perfectly. I don't know if anyone else could wear it like she does.") 

The costume designer collaborated with Salvatore Ferragamo on Jolie’s shoe wardrobe, including a pair of gold metal heels ($750) that was produced for Ferragamo boutiques.

The antique diamond choker Jolie wears with her Belle Epoque-inspired black tulle ballgown was adapted from a tiara from Robert Procop’s private collection.

A former Asprey executive, Procop has been making pieces for Jolie for years. And it was Asprey, of course, that tapped Jolie to design a line of fine jewelry last year. It should come as no surprise that there are several Asprey clutches and jewels in the film as well.

That’s synergy for you.

-- Booth Moore

Photos of Angelina Jolie in "The Tourist" are courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Photo of Ferragamo shoe is courtesy of Ferragamo.

 

Opening Dec. 22, "True Grit" is Joel and Ethan Coen’s envisioning of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel of the same name, about a headstrong young girl named Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) who sets out to avenge her father's murder in 1870s-era western Arkansas and Indian Territory. She hires one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), and much to his chagrin joins him on the trail.

Cutting a wide swath through the wild frontier, they cross paths with outlaws, snakes and a cocksure Texas Ranger named LaBeouf (Matt Damon). Thanks to costume designer Mary Zophres, the look of the characters along the dusty trail is intoxicating. I caught up with her for a few minutes recently to talk duster coats and 10-gallon hats.

I’m assuming you didn’t look at costumes from the original film, because this project is based on the novel, right?
I didn’t watch the film on purpose, because I didn’t want to be influenced by it. But I read the book twice.

How did you research the project?
I was very rusty on this time period, so I had to start from scratch, because it wasn’t like this was a book or a script that had a lot of details about the costumes. I spent two months at the research library at Western Costume in North Hollywood. I looked at lots of photos from the time period, except that you have to interpret every one. Because what people wore when they went to the photo studio wasn’t necessarily what they wore in real life. They probably only had one photo taken during their entire life, so they might borrow something, or wear something from the studio.

I also looked at a lot of written research from diaries and books. “Calico Chronicles: Texas Women and Their Fashions 1830-1910” was an invaluable book. It has a lot of original writing about fabric and clothing and undergarments. One entry talked about how a woman rotated her three dresses. Because people didn’t change their clothes very often. And men didn’t wear any underwear until much later. Their shirts were just longer and tucked into their pants. Gross, right?

How did you want Rooster Cogburn to look?
Iconic without being fancy. One thing that bothers me about some westerns is that they are too slick. If somebody has four garments they have been wearing for 10 years, imagine the wear. Rooster doesn’t have a lot of money; he even says that he lives in the back of a Chinese grocery. So I asked myself what he would have.

 
Skin-tight, motocross-inspired suits that light up, negative heel platform shoes and men in corsets. I'm not talking a runway show in Paris, I'm talking "Tron: Legacy." The film's costumes are a stylish thrill a minute, sure to be studied, rewound and replayed for years to come by fanboys and girls, and fashion designers alike. 
 
The film follows Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the 27-year-old tech savant son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), as he looks into his father's disappearance on "the grid." It's the same digital universe of tyrants and blood sports that filmgoers were introduced to back in the 1982 original "Tron." And yet it's completely different in the same way that video games are different than they were 30 years ago.

When it comes to iconic looks, the film -- which opens Dec. 17 -- should rank up there with sci-fashion fantasies "Barbarella," "Mad Max," Bladerunner," "Star Wars" and "The Matrix." It's no wonder Disney Consumer Products is in fashion collaboration overdrive, introducing everything from a colorblocked clothing collection designed by Opening Ceremony to cyber-chic jewelry designed by Tom Tom.
 
I talked to Christine Clark, co-costume designer* for the film, about how faithful the "Tron: Legacy" costumes are to those in the original, and what exactly went into designing the garb worn on and off the grid.
 
How do you begin a project as enormous as this? Did you start with sketches, images from the original film or some kind of brief from the director?
All of it. When [costume designer] Michael Wilkinson and I began there was the original film, which we watched as a refresher course, and also the Comic-Con teaser, and some preliminary costume concepts done for the studio. So we had great inspiration to set the tone, then we started researching like crazy -- fashion, military uniforms and classic films such as "Blade Runner" and "Resident Evil." 
 
Did you look at any specific designers for inspiration, such as Gareth Pugh, Olivier Theyskens or Nicolas Ghesquiere?
Gareth Pugh's name comes up a lot, and there is a conncetion to his edgy vibe. But there was no one specific. 
 
How many costumes did you design for the film?
Hundreds. There were times I would walk into the room and have loss of breath. We did about 150 super suits which you see on all principals, and about 154 suits for the supporting cast that had a more economical lighting system, more than 60 helmets and about 65 real-world costumes too. 
 

 

Were you given parameters, like no natural fibers?
We definitely wanted to create a synthetic world, so we used nothing organic. Even for Jeff Bridges' character, who was meant to be Zen-like, we wanted his clothing to have an organic, rough linen look. But it's still polyester. 
 
When it came to designing the super suits, form followed function, yes?
Absolutely. [Director Joseph Kosinski] said he didn't want them to feel like Batman suits. He wanted things cut close to the body and action-oriented. Nothing too clunky. Motocross is always a great place to look when you are going for something industrial-looking.
 
How did they differ from the suits in the original 1982 "Tron?"
I actually visited one of those original suits in person, and because all of the special effects of the original movie were digital, and done afterward, the actual costumes are underwhelming. They are really just Spandex form-fitting suits with white lines that would later become lights. Although the line work and artistry is certainly beautiful.
 
How did you light the new suits?
From the beginning, we knew we had to do practical lighting on the suits, so we reached out to three special effects houses in the Los Angeles area. And one of them, Quantum Creation FX, found a sample that had just been developed, and had only been used on Japanese security vests. It was a thin vinyl sheeting, flexible and pliable. The technical name for it is a polymer-based elastomeric electro luminescent lamp.

We worked with them to develop the technology for "Tron." So it doesn't exist except on the grid! We wanted all the power and lighting to be self-contained to the actors, and to fit into the hubs of the disk on their backs. The lighting was powered by lithium batteries. And they didn't last long. We could only get about 12 minutes out of Sam Flynn's suit before the battery died. We had a remote control station so we could monitor the power of all the suits and we knew who was about to die. Normally on a set, you hear them say, "sound speeding, camera speeding, action!" We also had "light 'em up."
 
The suits themselves were designed digitally in 3-D, right?
We worked with an application called ZBrush to digitally sculpt the suits. So we took an actor's digital scans, then sculpted on top of the scans using the program. The material is foam latex with a little Spandex. 
 
 
Were they difficult to get into?
To get one on is so much worse than putting on Spanx. We called it an "interactive dressing experience." The actor would have to participate resisting. The pants went on first and the top next. 
 
How is Quorra's (Olivia Wilde's) costume different?
She may come across looking sexy, but we didn't want to hypersexualize her. She is an intelligent warrior woman. She wears a female version of the grid suit, and her costume tells a story about her being different. It is asymmetrical, and all the other costumes have symmetry in the light design. Initially, the skirt was longer. But I like how it ended up. It echoes the line of her hairdo, which is also  asymmetrical. I think she looks adorable. It was a fresh idea to give her that pixie elfin charm. 

There's a great fashion scene in the film, when Sam Flynn first enters the grid, and a group of sexy Sirens dresses him. Was that in the original script?
It was not as specific as it ends up playing out on camera. It was developed in rehearsals, and choreographed into this whole robotic scene. It's one of my favorites. 

The shoes the Sirens wear are incredible -- platforms with cutout heels.
From the beginning, we liked the idea that there would be substance to the shoes and not just stilettos. All of the patterns in the suits screamed for cutout heels, so we played wth the geometry of the grid even in the shoes, using positive and negative space. 

Zuse (Michael Sheen), the proprieter of the End of Line club, is quite fun to look at, very Ziggy Stardust in his corset and high-heeled boots.
Definitely. There was an androgyny to the character, even in the way it's written. When we were discussing preliminary research, Ziggy Stardust was tossed out. And Michael Sheen lit up like a Christmas tree. He mixed in some Joel Grey and Mae West too.  
 
Although futuristic, at times the costumes felt quite retro. Was that intentional?
I'm excited to hear people are picking up on that. We wanted to create Kevin Flynn's synthesized reality of a world he once knew. and play on time periods he would have been touched by. 
 
Do you see the costumes influencing fashion?
I feel like it's already happening. Versace did a collection recently that looked a little "Tron" inspired. And people have been so excited about the illumination, I think it's only a mater of time before the application becomes affordable and everyone will want it.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Top to bottom, Quorra (Olivia Wilde); Quorra and Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund); Gem (Beau Garrett); Zuse (Michael Sheen). Courtesy of Disney Studios.  

For more coverage of "Tron: Legacy," check out the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex blog here.

[*UPDATED 12/09/10 9:40 a.m.: In an earlier version of this post, Christine Clark was incorrectly identified. She is co-costume designer for "Tron: Legacy," not assistant costume designer.]

[UPDATED 12/14/10 2 p.m. In an earlier version of this post, Joey Grey's last name was incorrectly spelled as Gray.]

 

It seems unthinkable that the costumes from one of Hollywood's most legendary films, "Gone with the Wind," aren't displayed securely at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or some other venerable house of history.

But alas, the key costumes worn by actress Vivien Leigh as the tempestuous Scarlett O'Hara in that 1939 opus are actually in peril.

The famous green "curtain dress," among others, have been languishing for years in a back room of the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin -- lacking the funds to be restored to exhibition-ready condition.

But now the center has launched a public initiative to raise $30,000 to restore and preserve five original costumes from the film.

The dresses were part of the collection of David O. Selznick, a well-known Hollywood producer in the 1930s and 1940s, which included over 5,000 boxes of Hollywood memorabilia. 

All five sweeping gowns -- most of which are currently too fragile to be exhibited -- were worn by Leigh.

There's the green curtain dress, which O'Hara made to fool Rhett Butler into thinking she was still well-off after the war; the green velvet dressing gown; the burgundy ball gown; the blue velvet peignoir and the wedding dress she wore when she married Charles Hamilton to spite her true love, Ashley Wilkes.

Donations, which can be made online, will allow for the restoration of the original dresses and the purchase of protective housing and custom-fitted mannequins to allow for proper exhibition.

The center hopes to display the costumes in 2014 as part of an exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of "Gone With The Wind," and to be able to loan the dresses to museums internationally.

-- Emili Vesilind

Photos: From top: The green curtain dress and burgundy party dress worn by Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind." Credit: The Harry Ransom Center

No one was smoking Lucky Strikes indoors or drinking highballs, but plenty of guests turned up in "Mad Men"-inspired ensembles for a presentation featuring Janie Bryant, the show's much-lauded costume designer, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wednesday night.

The fashion presentation and live interview -- moderated by Monica Corcoran Harel, who cowrote a "Mad Men" style book with Bryant, out this November -- was hosted by the museum's Costume Council and sponsored by Mattel, which recently debuted Barbie versions of the show's main characters.

Bryant, dressed in a smart metallic brocade A-line dress that jibed with the night's '60s fashion theme, shared an avalanche of details pertaining to her work on the show -- from designing and shopping for costumes to fitting and creating color palettes for the actors.

Inspiration for each episode, she said, "starts with getting the script. It's like reading a book where images are conjured in the brain." Bryant references a litany of sources, such as old family photos and back issues of Look, Time, Elegance and Ladies' Home Journal magazines, to make sure she's staying period-specific.

The designer said the show's actors "don't really say much" when it comes to their wardrobes, though she recalled the moment actor Jon Hamm pulled up his first pair of high-waisted trousers. "He said, 'Man, Janie, that's the longest zipper I've ever seen!' "

The costume designer also revealed that the undergarments worn by the female cast members on the show, which include reproductions of "bullet" bras and girdles, are key to achieving that early 1960s silhouette. "It's essential," she said. "It helps the actors transport back into time."

As for "Mad Men's" influence on modern fashion (designers including Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors have admitted to being inspired by the show), Bryant chalks it up to a pendulum swing back to feminine dressing.

"I think that period is so flattering to a woman's body," she said. "And [the show] hearkens back to a time when people really got dressed."

The event ended with a fashion show of recognizable looks from the show -- including form-fitting wool sheaths, circle-skirted floral dresses, boxy men's suits and enough metallic brocade to light up a few stages.

-- Emili Vesilind

Photo: Janie Bryant and "Mad Men" series creator Matthew Weiner at LACMA. Credit: David Crotty/PatrickMcMullen.com.

As with the fashion industry, the restaurant world gets a kick from a throwback. Which is why we weren't surprised when L.A. Weekly's Squid Ink blog showcased the classic old-school stylings of the staff uniforms at supper clubs First & Hope and Tar Pit.

So are we really at all surprised that the First & Hope outfits were designed by Allison Leach, whose day job is assistant costume designer on trend-setting "Mad Men"? For his offering, L.A.-based designer Martin Zepeda offers a form-fitting sexy black dress at Tar Pit.

One thing we're definitely not shocked about: Squid Ink goes on to say that female patrons at both haunts often ask where they can buy the outfits. What do you think? Would you wear one of these home? 

-- Whitney Friedlander

RELATED:

"Mad Men's" Allison Leach designs gorgeous uniforms for First & Hope; Local designer Martin Zepeda creates LBD for Tar Pit

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Photo: Staff at First & Hope model their uniforms: From left, a dining room assistant/runner uniform, a floor-length hostess gown, a bartender/server uniform, a cocktail server mini-dress, another bartender/server uniform, a server dress and a female bartender dress. Credit: First & Hope.

Lace crowns, harem pants, monogrammed train cases, vintage turbans and painted fans. Despite mixed reviews, the costumes alone make "Sex and the City 2" worth seeing.

In the story, Carrie Bradshaw and her pals have moved on from thirtysomething single-girl angst to fortysomething married-girl angst (relationship malaise, career-family balance, hot nannies and hot flashes — depressing stuff). How to escape? An all expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi, and a fantasy wardrobe to go with it.

Unlike the costumes in the first film, this time, the look is more motivated by style than fashion. Not that there aren't a lot of big-name designers represented on-screen, including plenty of Halston (not surprising since Sarah Jessica Parker is chief creative officer for the Harvey Weinstein-owned fashion brand).

But there are also vintage finds, cheap chic basics from Zara and lots of discoveries from lesser-known designers, all of which made the series must-see fashion TV way back when. And this time, there's a book, "Sex and the City 2: The Stories. The Fashion. The Adventure" (Running Press), to document every head-turning look.

Costume designer Patricia Field and her team spent nearly a year doing fashion footwork — scouring markets in Dubai, sitting at runway shows, pulling from designer archives, visiting showrooms and working the late-night fashion party circuit, all in search of the perfect eye candy. The visual spectacle they create is its own kind of escape.

I spoke to Molly Rogers, Field's longtime collaborator and assistant costume designer on the film, about the process.