I fell in love with Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame and her extravagant clothes by Orry Kelly. When I discovered he also designed dresses and hats for Ingmar Bergman in Casablanca and Bette Davis in Now, Voyager, I became a complete fan. In Some Like It Hot, Kelly combined sexuality with innocence in Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane. Check out Orry Kelly: The Women He Undressed, both the book and documentary. Then read up on everything about the Aussie rebel, after viewing his remarkable work..

She convinced Yul Brynner to shave his head. When she used Thai silk for costumes, it became that country’s number one export. Irene Sharaff designed the costumes for many classic films, including The King and I, Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, and West Side Story. One of the few designers to work simultaneously for film and Broadway (Funny Girl and Flower Drum Song), Sharaff designed Leslie Caron’s period clothes for the ballet number at the close of An American in Paris. She also created sketches for the sets. She was told to craft George Gershwin’s libretto, choosing painters to reflect the music. Since she studied and worked in Paris, Sharaff chose Dufy, Utrillo, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Rousseau, and Van Gogh for her drawings, which were enthusiastically approved by the filmmakers. She later said it was like staging a full Broadway show.

Sometimes the costume designers themselves created headlines. The Catholic Church condemned Michael Woulfe’s cut-out design for Jane Russell in The French Line. In Top Hat, Fred Astaire was hit in the face by feathers on Bernard Newman’s “cheek-to-cheek” gown for Ginger Rogers. Jean Louis gave us censor-free sex with Rita Hayworth’s strapless black dress in Gilda. Theadora Von Runkle made guns and gangsters hot with Bonnie and Clyde.