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."