The Art of Costume Design in Film Exhibition at FIDM Museum

An escape, an enrichment, or just plain enjoyable is what movies have meant to so many across the world.

A part of that dream is being presented to us at FIDM Museum by displaying 23 costumes of the 2022 year movies, including all five up for an Oscar.

FIDM is presenting “Art of Costume Design in Film” Exhibition at its museum from Tuesday March 7, 2023 to Saturday May 6, 2023. The Museum is located on the campus of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Downtown Los Angeles at 919 S. Grand Avenue. Admission is free. www.fidmmuseum.org

Nick Verreos, FIDM Co-Chair of Fashion Design, told me, “The FIDM Museum has been presenting the Art of Costume Design in Film exhibition for over 30 years! This unique presentation is the only one of its kind and offers visitors an opportunity to review their favorite films and characters, highlighting a variety of film genres…from period and contemporary, to Sci-Fi and fantasy. This year’s exhibition is genuinely one of my favorites to date!”

Two of the designers who are up for Oscars gave me a little insight into their work. One is Mary Zophres, Oscar-nominated costume designer for Babylon, who said: “We needed in the neighborhood of 10,000 costumes, and a lot of them were made to order. It had a gigantic, gargantuan, epic scale…the film had the widest scope of any I have ever tackled. We did have limited resources, but I am really proud of how it looks. We also shot on film, which I prefer – I think it looks beautiful.”

The other is Shirley Kurata, Oscar-nominated costume designer for Everything Everywhere All at Once, who said: “The biggest challenge is that I only had six weeks to prep for the movie, and then we shot in 38 days. The money was the hardest… I would have loved to have made complete looks from scratch, but I just didn’t have the time or the budget. I had to make do with what I could get. I borrowed from designers, shopped inexpensively, but then I also spent money to get some things made that I really knew I needed.”

The other three nominated costume designers include:

The FIDM Museum has one of the nation’s finest costume collections, with more than 15,000 fashion objects dating from the 18th century to the present, and 200,000 special collections.

In addition to the museum, FIDM is an internationally recognized college with more than 70,000 graduates. It offers Bachelor and Master’s degree programs, among others, preparing students for the global industries of fashion, visual arts, interior design and entertainment.

What I find amazing about the event is that you can see the actual fabric and details used. The photographs of the Oscar nominated costumes are courtesy of Susie Goodman.

P.S. FIDM has been presenting this exhibition for more than 30 years. I have been happily covering it for many years, but not that long.

P.P.S. Susie’s prediction to win the Oscar for costume design was Catherine Martin, for “Elvis.” Martin has won 4 Oscars and is married to Baz Luhrmann. My prediction to win was Ruth E. Carter for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

P.P.S. Sheila won! Ruth E. Carter won the Oscar for her work on “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” making her the first African-American woman in history to win two Academy Awards.

Backstage with the Buzz is written by Sheila Tepper, Producer Cultural Programming. Sheila has lived in the Larchmont area for fifty years, among her passions have been passing legislation for children with disabilities and interviewing outstanding artists appearing in the Los Angeles area.