UCLA Fashion & Costume Design
Spotlight on Fashion & Costume Design at UCLA
"Endowed in 2009 by a gift from newspaper publisher and philanthropist David C. Copley, with Oscar-nominated costume designer, author and Distinguished Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis as founding director, the David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design at UCLA is the first institution of its kind worldwide. Through bold research and a robust program of publishing, exhibitions and teaching, the scholarly activities of the Copley Center serves UCLA TFT students, the university, the international community of historians, filmmakers and professional costume designers. The Center provides a home for the study of costume design history, genre research, costume illustration as an art form, and the influence of costume design on fashion and popular culture."
Further information can be found on The David C. Copley Center of Costume Design Website.
Sketch to Screen 2020 Panel - The David C. Copley Center for Costume Design at UCLA
On February 8th, 2020, all six Academy Award-nominated costume designers appeared at the David C. Copley Center's 10th Annual Sketch to Screen Panel. The panelists: Mark Bridges (Joker), Jacqueline Durran (Little Women), Christopher Peterson (The Irishman), Arianne Phillips (Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood), Sandy Powell (The Irishman) and Mayes Rubeo (Jojo Rabbit). The panel was moderated by Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Director of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design at UCLA TFT.
Listed as one of the top ten costume design programs by Hollywood Reporter (Whitlock, 2020), the UCLA TFT costume design program offers a holistic approach to design, construction, research and storytelling for both undergraduate and graduate level students. Led by Costume Designers Deborah Nadoolman Landis and Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko, the costume design program engages students with many different narrative art forms including theater, opera, film and television.
Program information can be found on the UCLA TFT - Theater Department Design Program Website. Recent student work and events hosted by UCLA can be found on the UCLA Costume Design Instagram.
Design Showcase West 2022 – WandaVision Salon
Watch Production Designer Mark Worthington and Costume Designer Mayes Rubeo from the groundbreaking Disney+ show WandaVision in conversation with UCLA Professor Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko about their work on this popular show.
Costume Special Collections Materials at UCLA
For more information on contacting and accessing UCLA Library Special Collections, please visit the LSC website and FAQ pages.
- Bonnie Cashin collection of fashion, theater and film costume design, 1913-2000.Call Number: SRLF Non-Circ Request at UCLA YRL Special Collections ; Collection 440Also available through UCLA Library Digital Collections.
Collection consists of Cashin's design illustrations, writings on design, contractual paperwork, photographs of her clothing designs, and press materials including press releases and editorial coverage of her work. Personal photographs and letters to Cashin are also included. Examples of Cashin's fashion and accessory designs in the library's collection are not from the Cashin estate, but were given to the library anonymously in 2005. - David C. Copley collection of costume designs.Call Number: YRL Special Collections Stacks ; Collection 2210David C. Copley's collection consists of approximately 502 costume sketches representing designs for film, television, and theatre productions (possibly community theatre). Represented are the designs of many talented costume designers such as: Adrian, Cecil Beaton, Donfeld, Morton Haack, Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Elois Jenssen, Charles LeMaire, Jean Louis, Bob Mackie, Walter Plunkett, Helen Rose, Anthea Sylbert, Travilla, and Theadora Van Runkle.
- Dorothy Jeakins costume design archive, 1932-1975.Call Number: SRLF Non-Circ Request at UCLA Perf Arts Spec Coll ; Collection PASC 124 [Barcode:F0001107804]Collection consists of costume designs, preparatory sketches, textile swatches, and designer notes related to the career of costume designer Dorothy Jeakins. The bulk of the costume designs are original color works documenting precise details of buttons, bows, trim, hair styles, and, occasionally, props. Additionally there are pencil sketches that were probably not intended to function as exact costume drawings; instead, it is likely they were created to capture the characters' collective persona. Many of the renderings include swatches of fabric representing the designer's ideas for color, texture, and/or fabrics, and some contain her handwritten annotations documenting a project title, scene, actor and/or character name, measurements, or other notes about the character.
- Eiko Ishioka papers.Call Number: SRLF Non-Circ Request at UCLA YRL Special Collections ; Collection 2288Material in the Eiko Ishioka papers relates to nearly every aspect of the designer's multi-faceted career. Her work in the performing arts is documented through costume drawings and sketches, set design drawings, research material, production records and photographs, fabric samples, and audiovisual material for numerous stage projects, especially the Broadway productions M. Butterfly (1988) and David Copperfield: Dreams & Nightmares (1996), the operas Chushingura (1997) and The Ring of the Nibelung (1997-1998), and Cirque du Soleil's Varekai (2002). Although this collection holds little material relating to her work in film, it does contain original costume design drawings and sketches for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), as well as several posters designed by Ishioka for the Japanese releases of that film, Apocalypse Now, and others.
- Student project, press, and event files, 1937-1985. University of California, Los Angeles. College of Fine Arts.Call Number: SRLF Non-Circ Request at UCLA YRL Special Collections ; Rec Ser 0122Record Series 122 contains art project, press, and event files of students at the College of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, generated between 1937-1985. Project files feature the artistic work of students. Included work is primarily that of original fashion and costume design sketches, but also includes booklets, slides, and photographs of student work. Press files include clippings, event invitations, and some correspondence regarding the work and recognition of graduate students and alumni. Event files include clippings, photographs, and organizational materials of events staged by or involving graduate students.