This was the greatest exhibition that I have ever been to.
Being a film fan I went with the expectation that I would enjoy it, but that it might appeal to lovers of costume design more. I have never been more wrong.
Image from http://www.vandashop.com/Hollywood-Costume-Exhibition-Poster-EVAEX/dp/B009UXALVQ
The exhibition itself was split into 3 sections: the first dealt more with the script and the transition from this to a costume, looking at areas that have to be considered, like what time period the character is in and their personality and job. Featured here were costumes from Fight Club, The Dude's dressing gown from The Big Lebowski, Charlie Chaplin's Tramp costume (which is tiny!) and Indiana Jones' legendary costume. What was great here was seeing a sketch by Steven Spielberg depicting how he thought Indys' costume should look right next to the actual piece. Plus there were often screens in front of the costumes which showed sections of the relevant script, highlighting sections like when a character trait, motion or costume description were mentioned. I love seeing modern elements in exhibitions - it shows that they're really trying to push the exhibition experience and utilise every possible opportunity.
The second section was my favourite. It was in two parts, the first looked at the long term collaborations between directors, like Hitchcock, Scorsese and Tim Burton and their costume designers. This involved the use of videos and projections of scripts or notes onto a large table that you could sit around while the directors and costume designers talked. It was an amazing way to hear their opinions straight from them.
The second part dealt with genres really, moving from sci-fi costumes like Darth Vader's (which looks incredibly cheap and almost plastic-y up close) to classic black and white era costumes. I think I learnt the most in this part as I didn't even consider that before colour designers had to think more about pattern, but that too much pattern can be too distracting for the audience. The best area though was the surprising inclusion of an animation section which looked at how motion capture can be used to create 'costumes' like in Avatar or how costumes are actually made for the animators to study (the example there was a costume and model from John Carter), so that they can see how the material might behave. I'd never considered this but it made complete sense, after all the best way to get a sense of something is to observe it. It completely changed my way of thinking about costumes in relation to animation.
The third section was more of a selection of truly iconic costumes, like the Spiderman and Batman suits, Dorothy's dress from The Wizard of Oz and Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter Hogwarts costume (so small!). This section really was like a quick trip through cinema history, especially as it was incredibly busy and the V&A was shutting imminently.
The stand out aspect for me though was the ingenious use of layers of coloured paper making up the (often equally iconic) hair styles instead of leaving the mannequins bald or using wigs. I'm not sure if it's been done before, but they were art works themselves. They were so interesting to look at, but they didn't distract from the costumes, rather they helped to complete them and make them feel like they were being worn, not hung.
The down side? Tickets were so limited that we could only get late afternoon tickets and so we only got 1 hour at the exhibition, which wasn't nearly enough time to read all about the costumes, particularly as it was so busy as well. Plus you couldn't take photos, which was a shame.
In the end I left with a totally different view on costume design. It made me realise the amount of work that goes into them, but also the application of them and their importance to the film. If given the chance, I'd probably be content with living in that exhibition surrounded by those costumes. You could feel the work and love that went into it at every stage, so that you left infected with this same sense of joy and enthusiasm. Simply magical.
Hollywood Costume is on at the V&A until the 27th January.
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