The Studio Wardrobe Departments of Golden Age Hollywood

As the Hollywood movie studios expanded their film-making capacity in the 1920s, movie costumes became an integral part of the movie-making process. Getting away from renting costumes, or having actors provide their own wardobes, the studio heads developed their own costume production facility. This system not only became more efficient as individual studios began producing 40 or more movies a year, but the fashion publicity that resulted from star wardrobes became a big part of promoting the movies themselves. To capitalize on star fashion publicity, every studio hired their own newsworthy costume designers and set up complete wardrobe departments capable of making virtually every costume required. The wardrobe departments had their own skilled garment makers such as cutter-fitters, tailors, embroiderers, beaders, dyers, and seamstresses. When big costume productions were in process, the ranks of the wardrobe department could swell to several hundred people making thousands of costumes. And of course all manner of fine fabrics were in stock, or could be ordered from the reps of the best manufacturers.

In this photo RKO's Head Cutter-Fitter Marie Ree fits an embroidered sequined leaf on the bodice of a costume for an actress, circa 1936.

Each major female star would have a dress form made to their measurements. These measurements were usually pencilled on the dress form, though they were rarely ever disclosed. Amazingly, all those costumes in the black & white movies were made of the most colorful fabrics. Costumes helped the actors transform themselves into their roles, and the appropriate colors were very important in the total costume design. While excellent costume designing is still done today, the studio wardrobe workrooms are a thing of the past.

The photo above shows a cutter-fitter at work at the MGM studio in the 1930s. The photo below shows MGM's huge Wardrobe Department warehouse in the 1950s. It was all auctioned off in 1970.

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.

Where glamour began

Classic Hollywood costume design is perpetually fascinating, as a world of fashion, a window of time, and a view on one of the several arts that made up the old studio system. Its world is lost, but its images remain iconic. It was business, but it was created by artists. The costume designs were created for a partucular star and role, but then as now, still influence fashion. One can look at its classic images but never grasp its world. But like frames on a reel of film, they constantly entertain - and they have a back story. We'll focus on the stars and the studios where the designer's work was made. Stay tuned and we'll see lots more.