Watch
I Wear
In a new book, fashion historian
Sandy Schreier raids Hollywood's
closets for an entertaining look at
film costuming.
fashion exhibits, lectures and lends her
expertise to TV and radio shows.
"There hasn't been a day that's gone
by over many, many years without
people suggesting I write a book about
my experiences with Hollywood cos-
turning," says Schreier, who spent
almost two years working on the man-
uscript and assembling vintage stills.
Schreier consistently seeks knowl-
edge beyond the volumes filling her
home library and has found friends
among the designers and stellar people
who have met with her.
"I feel great passion about high-
couture clothing as an art form, and I
want people to understand the differ-
ence between designing to make a,
style statement and designing to bring
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News
Illir hen Mona May designed
the costumes for Romy
and Michele's High School
Reunion, the 1997 film
starring Mira Sorvino and Lisa
Kudrow, her biggest challenge was to
foresee what teens would deem "cool
and hip" a year later.
Irene Sharaff, who dressed
Elizabeth Taylor in the 1966 movie
Who Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, made
the star's clothes fit poorly to give the
actress a matronly look.
And when Ellen Mirojnick planned
Michael Douglas' power suit, dress
shirt and suspenders worn in the 1987
motion picture Will Street, she set a
new standard of dress for men.
These anecdotes, relayed by fashion
historian Sandy Schreier, are found
among hundreds of others in her new
and first book, Hollywood Dressed 6 -
JACK LEMMON, TONY CURTIS:
"Some Like It Hot," 1959, Orry-Kelly
"Tony and Jack looked incredible in
their flapper dresses, but buxom co-star
, Marilyn Monroe (she was pregnant at
the time) did not look like an authentic
flapper in her costumes. Her hair and
makeup reflected the '50s while the
'girls,' Jac and Tony, with their cupid-
bow lips and marcelled hair, were just
perfect for the 20s.'' Unlike the film, the
movie stills were shot in color
Undressed: A Century of Cinema Style
(Rizzoli; October 1998, S35).
"I'm really a storyteller," says
Schreier, a Detroit-area resident who's
spent a lifetime researching and teach-
ing about designer clothing. "This
book contains the facts, fiction and
fantasy of Hollywood as told to me by
many of the great designers and. stars."
The tales enliven all the chapters,
which together chronicle the history of
wardrobe in Hollywood. Narrative and
photos — some 250 — dramatize the
trends and other issues of dress in an
entertaining account of cinema fashion.
The writing project adds a dimen-
sion to Schreier's extensive career.
Besides amassing a collection of
10,000 pieces of 20th-century couture
and Hollywood costumes, she curates
9/4
1998
78 Detroit Jewish News
On The %ME Cover
Sandy Schreier's book, Hollywood Dressed and Undressed: A Century of
Cinema Style (Rizzoli, October 1998; $35), contains introductions by
screen legend Loretta Young, entertainer Bette Midler and fashion designer
Isaac Mizrahi, with whom she is pictured. The book's cover photo is of a
famous — and Jewish — film star of the 1920s, Louise Brooks, whose
look, says Schreier, "is being copied today."
KATE CAPSHAW "Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom," 1984, Anthony
Powell.
"Kate Capshaw, playing a night-club
singer, travels through muck and mire
carrying her gown on her back, slinging
it over an elephant;- trunk and diving
out of a plane with it: she risks her life
to save her beaded dress."