The Movie Costume Sketch

Original film costumes have traditionally been started by the designer making a costume sketch, much like fashion designers still do today. But multiple needs had to be met in films - like style, fashion, story, and the personality of the star. The movie costume had to develop characterization as well as advance the movie plot. In the old studio system, the costume sketch itself was passed around as part of the approval process. The producer, director and star would all review them, marking their initials on the drawing as a method of showing approval. The costume designer may have done the drawing themselves - or a sketch artist may have made them. Either way, the sketch needed to convey beauty, vivacity, and the role of the actor. Along the way the combination of star and costume launched many fashion trends.

Beautiful as a sketch may have been, it was a tool. In the old studio system, the Wardrobe Department included pattern-makers (cutter-fitters), seamstresses, beaders, embroiderers, tailors, dyers, and all the other skilled workers needed to produce costumes from scratch. The cutter-fitter would get the sketch next and make a master pattern and cut the fabrics in the appropriate shapes for sewing into the costume as depicted. Each important star had a dress- form made to their measurements. The cutter-fitters had real skill since historical dress as well a glamour gowns were sketched - with more or less dimensional accuracy. Sometimes the final costume was made exactly as drawn, sometimes they were changed. Once completed though, costume sketches were considered dispensable. They were not treated as art. Those still surviving are treasured artifacts of Hollywood's past - relics of their time and place in the world of film and fashion.