Hollywood comes to Arizona in the form of the Hollywood Costume exhibit and Hollywood Red Carpet exhibit at Phoenix Art Museum. Movie buffs and fashion enthusiasts alike will thoroughly enjoy this traveling exhibit. There truly is something for everyone with features from movies like Wizard of Oz, Batman, Chicago, Austin Powers, James Bond and more!
We were so honored when Phoenix Art Museum contacted us about coming down to experience the exhibit so we could share with our fabulous readers exactly why Hollywood Costume and Hollywood Red Carpet were oh so special.
Normally, photographs are absolutely not allowed, but we received special permission to snap some pictures of our favorite parts of the exhibit to share with you all. Check out our photo galleries here: Hollywood Costume & Hollywood Red Carpet
However, as fabulous as these photos are, they don’t come close to experiencing all the wonder for yourself, so be sure to still stop by Phoenix Art Museum from now until July 6th. Tickets are only $20 / adult and $10 / youth and also include access to the rest of the museum. (And let us say, that $20 to experience Hollywood in your home town is nothing!). Visit their website, Phxart.org to order tickets now!
Dream Girls
One of the most interesting parts of Hollywood Costume Exhibit is the journey the visitor gets to go on. You start by understanding What is Costume Design? and continue the educational journey along the way. Each piece also has a placard that tells you the movie, the costume designer, and the actor/actress wearing the costume. There’s also a quote from one of these people giving you some extra insight into why the piece was created the way it was.
Spiderman
All in all, the visitor learns so much more about the behind the scenes world of Hollywood as it relates to costumes. For any student interested in costume design or even films in general, the Hollywood Costume Exhibit is a must see.
The further you go into the museum, the more opportunities you have to learn from the who’s who of Hollywood. One of our favorite features was the interviews they had playing on screens with costume designers like Edith Head and actors and actresses like Robert Dinero and Meryl Streep.
Our trip to the museum wasn’t over yet though! We also had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with the fashion curator of Phoenix Art Museum, Dennita Sewell, to learn even more behind the scenes secrets of the Hollywood Costume and Hollywood Red Carpet Exhibit.
CitS: Why was Phoenix Art Museum the perfect location for this exhibit?
DS: The fact that we have a long-standing fashion design department and program made us well-suited to host a major fashion/costume related exhibition like this. Like the Victorian Albert Museum, which organized it, we were able to have that kind of team here, and interest from the long-standing supporters here. Through this program is how I’ve known Deborah Landis, who is the senior guest curator of the exhibition. She has been out here several times.
I knew about the show for a long time, and when I learned that it was picked up by the Victorian Albert Museum, I was very excited for her, because it is a tremendous, tremendous institution great deal of respect and I knew that and I knew that they would do a fantastic job and that is was going to be really something special. Because of Deborah’s reputation and her work that she had already done, the books she had written, really put her in a position to realize a major project like this.
CitS: How long did it take to put the exhibit together at the Phoenix Art Museum? How many people were involved?
DS: The conversation had been going on for years about us being interested but the official first meeting at the Victorian Albert was in 2012. At that time, we met with other venues as well. It was very exciting to be a part of this national tour for this show that had such a successful run.
We began having meetings here at the museum as early as last fall to prepare for a show of this magnitude. A lot of things had to be put in place to handle a show this size. The installation had to be worked out. At the Victorian Albert Museum, you have a 19th century building where the exhibition was in three different rooms and here we have one large modern space. So, putting the platforms in and the story together in our space, that was started well back last summer. Throughout the process, the whole staff has worked on this show in some way or another, and many outside vendors as well. We had people who came in to build walls, people who came in to install curtains, people printing graphics. It was something that touched not just our own staff, but people in the community.
CitS: Were you able to put any of your own spin on the exhibit because the space was so different from other places?
DS: Well, the exhibition designer, Richard Jensen, did a great job I think of creating a pathway through the space that will help the visitor experience the show and let it unfold and come to discover each new component at their new pace.
In terms of the objects, we added some pieces like American Hustle to amplify the interest, and create buzz around the new pieces that were added.
CitS: Speaking of the pieces in the exhibit, which one is your favorite?
DS: If I had to pick just one to look at, it would probably be Dorothy’s pinafore from the Wizard of Oz. I watched the movie over and over and over when I was a kid and really always thought it was an interesting and touching movie. I can’t imagine American culture without that movie. When you say Dorothy, everyone knows who you’re talking about. Seeing that piece really brought back a nice round of memories for me.
CitS: Were there any pieces you were surprised they included in the exhibit?
DS: Well, I don’t know if I was surprised that it was included, but for me, seeing Darth Vader was interesting. I hadn’t really watched that for a very long time. It seemed so futuristic at the time, and then you see the real costume. Technology has moved forward so fast, it’s funny to look back at it now. It’s very interesting.
I was surprised at some of the great treasures that Deborah Landis was able to find. There’s over 62 lenders participating in the show, and they’re drawn from all across the world. So, I’m really excited by that and how it impacted the quality of things she was able to find; so many iconic things.
CitS: How does this exhibit tie into the other fashion exhibits that come through Phoenix Art Museum? What do you think this show will do to impact fashion exhibits in the future?
DS: Well, one thing that I think is particularly interesting is that it captures the interest in technology. Fashion has especially lent itself to the use of technology. Having the opportunity to work on a show like that is really interesting, and you learn a lot and get a lot of great ideas.
I’m really hoping that the success of this show will prompt the other large exhibits to be offered to us, like the Yves Saint Laurent or Gauthier that had traveled. I’m excited for this much attention on the fashion department.
CitS: Are there any upcoming exhibits that you can give us a special preview of?
DS: Well, there’s currently Hollywood Red Carpet, which is the counter point to Hollywood Costume. It’s gowns worn by nominees for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress to the Academy Awards. It was organized by Phoenix Art Museum, but Deborah Landis and I worked on it together. She wrote the descriptions about costume designers, I wrote the descriptions of fashion designers.
Basically, it looks at the transformation of the actress from her role in the movie as the character, to the red carpet. And it draws attention to the ideas that everyone looks at the red carpet. It’s really the critical issue when you’re talking about Hollywood and fashion. I think the ideas for that are so, almost like it’s another world, like it’s not real people and the real world.
But they are real people. And the reason they’re there, if you peel back some of the hype, is because of their work. They’re all excellent at what they do. The costume designer was chosen to do the designs for the movie because of their work. The actress was chosen to play the role because of their work. They are honored on the red carpet because they excelled at it. And, the fashion designer was chosen because of his work, who has also excelled over others.
CitS: Do you have a favorite piece from Hollywood Red Carpet?
DS: Well, we got June Squibb’s {dress}. She was honored for Nebraska just this last Oscars in March.
I think that was really fun to include that because it kind of points out to me again that we’re really looking at the work. What goes in, what the designers were thinking about, producing excellence. It rounds it out, you learn all about the costume designer, then you have a chance to learn the difference between costume designer and fashion designer.
If you’ve enjoyed this story, we know you will enjoy seeing the Hollywood Costume and Hollywood Red Carpet exhibits for yourself. For more information about museum hours and to purchase tickets, please visit Tickets.PhxArt.Org.
Phoenix Art Museum, with the help of Dennita Sewell, is one of the major forces putting Arizona on the map for fashion, and so of course supporting them means the world to us! Thanks in advance for doing your part to foster the fashion scene in Arizona.
Photos from this post are not authorized to be used unless granted permission by both Couture in the Suburbs and Phoenix Art Museum.
