Hollywood Costumes at The V&A

Throughout the festive season, London’s V&A museum plays host to Hollywood’s finest costumes.  As sponsored by red carpet jewelers, Harry Winston, The Hollywood Costume exhibition landed at the V&A back in October and brings the best of iconic on screen costumes to the capital.

Taking 5 years to collate and organise, the exhibition features costumes from all corners of the globe and all genres of cinematic history. The exhibition comprises a bounty of our much loved screen characters; from highflying heroes and dancing queens, to vindictive villains and comedy classics.

For arguably the first and last time Margret Thatcher sits alongside Darth Vader, Marilyn Monroe alongside John Travolta, Indiana Jones and Holly Golightly, Sweeny Todd and Jack Sparrow, Rose Dewitt Bukater and Cruella Deville, Spiderman and The Queen.

Clips from which the costumes made their name and facial projections of the character accompany each costume. Alongside detailed insights from the designers of the elaborate and often defining costumes which also stand beside each mannequin.

From the classic to the contemporary, the oldest costume on display is that of Charlie Chaplin from the 1933 film, The Tramp; for the first time is seen in colour. Many of the great classics are on display for the first time; Marilyn Monroe's iconic billowing white subway gown, Audrey Hepburn's black satin gown made famous from the scene in which she enjoys breakfast at Tiffany's, the characteristically scarlet gown worn by Vivienne Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, to name but a few of the great classics. 

As for contemporaries, John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever Suit and Natalie Portman's Black Swan, Uma Thurman's Kill Bill, The Adam's Family, the Brokeback Mountain Cowboys and Dreamgirls alike add to the gliteratti of character costumes on display.  

  

Forming the crescendo of the exhibition is Dorothy’s classic costume from The Wizard of Oz. Reunited for the first time since the filming The Wizard of Oz in 1939, the unforgettable gingham dress and glittering ruby red slippers sit side by side once again. Brought together, the dress salvaged from a Fleet Street private collection and slippers from the Washington Smithsonian Institution. 

An opportunity not to be missed for any film or fashion fanatic!

Tickets are priced at £14 (Concession discounts do apply)

The exhibition closes on 27^th January 2013

For more information visit The V&A website.