NYWIFT Blog

A Look Back at Designing Women: Costume Legends Patricia Field and Ann Roth

By Katie Chambers

In the coming weeks, we will reminisce about Designing Women’s past with photos, videos and anecdotes here on the NYWIFT blog while we gear up for this year’s event on June 13th! Now in its 17th year, Designing Women, co-presented by Variety, has become a staple of the NYC entertainment industry’s spring calendar, celebrating the creative alchemy of design, character and story…

They say “clothes make the man” – or woman – which is one reason why every year NYWIFT honors costume designers at our Designing Women awards. When a character appears on screen, his or her clothes are often the first thing we see. Costume designers don’t just make actors look pretty (though they sometimes do that too) – they pack a wealth of information into every thread.

IMG_6553

Designer Ann Roth chats with a guest in front of her costume display at Designing Women 2015

Unlike other award shows, which honor a person for work on one particular project, Designing Women celebrates a designer’s entire body of work.

At the very first Designing Women in 2000 (then called Designing Hollywood) we started at the top by honoring costume designer – and fashion visionary –  Patricia Field. According to IMDB, Field was the consulting costume designer on a whopping 1,421 episodes of the soap Guiding Light. While that series called for a lot of “everyday” costumes for its cast, Field is perhaps best known for her work on some knockout glam projects. At the time of her award she was the costume designer for Sex and the City so yes, you can thank her for Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes. And six years after receiving her Designing Hollywood trophy Field went on to work with fashion maven Miranda Priestly herself, designing the costumes for The Devil Wears Pradain addition to costuming the fashionistas of Ugly Betty.

patricia field

Meryl Streep and Patricia Field on the set of The Devil Wears Prada

Field brought her wild style into people’s homes with her own eponymous collection of shoes, boots and clutches for Payless. She also owned a popular boutique in the East Village, which just closed last year. Her styles are still available for purchase online.

17 years after her NYWIFT honor, Field is still very active in the business – she’s currently the costume consultant on the TV Land series Younger and will design the costumes for Fear of Flying, the film adaptation of Erica Jong’s controversial 1973 novel which was infamous for its portrayal of female sexuality and figured in the development of second-wave feminism. How cool is that?

27FIELDSJP1-master675

Sex and the City

Fast forward to 2015: we honored another legend, Ann Roth. Roth started her career painting scenery for the Pittsburgh Opera as a Carnegie Mellon undergrad before segueing into costume design. She is a legend in the entertainment industry — name a classic, and Ann Roth designed the costumes. Midnight Cowboy. The Talented Mr. Ripley. Hair. Working Girl. Cold Mountain. The Birdcage. The English Patient. Angels in America. Most recently, she costumed Meryl Streep’s rocker chick in Ricki in the Flash, and just completed work on the feature film adaptation of the smash hit Gone Girl-esque novel The Girl on the Train.

While Field and Roth have both created iconic looks, Roth explained in her Designing Women highlight reel that a costume designer is not a stylist. Some of the most interesting characters have no style at all. Design is about creating what that real, full, interesting character would wear.

“You have to know how much money [the character] has. Where did these clothes come from? How old are they? Who made them? When she takes them off at night, is she sober? Does she throw them on the floor?” Roth said. Roth’s daughter, Hannah Sorkin, quoted her mother’s frequent collaborator, the late Mike Nichols, as she presented the award. He said Roth’s ruthlessly detailed designs can project “awkwardness in a button. Hope in a shiny skirt.”

You can watch the reel and see then 83-year-old Roth – quite the character herself – accept her award here:

 

ARVE Error: need id and provider

In just a few weeks we will honor another costume designer with a Designing Women “lifetime achievement” award. Sarah Edwards will get this year’s honors – you can see her designs in theaters now in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (starring Arrested Development‘s Will Arnett, who will join us as a presenter). Edwards also designed the wildly inventive costumes for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and suspenseful films including The Interpreter, Salt and Michael Clayton.

the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-1024

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Join us! Buy your tickets for Designing Women – June 13th at 7 PM at the CUNY Graduate Center. $75 for NYWIFT members; $150 for nonmembers.

And stay tuned to the blog in the coming weeks for our exclusive look back at Designing Women’s 17 year history!

PUBLISHED BY

Katie Chambers

Katie Chambers Katie Chambers is the Senior Director of Community & Public Relations at New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). She is also a regular contributing writer for From Day One, an outlet focused on innovations in HR. She serves on othe Board of Directors of the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs and is a freelance writer, copyeditor, and digital marketing strategist. Follow her @KatieGChambers.

View all posts by Katie Chambers

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

Related Posts

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Becky Morrison

Let’s all welcome new NYWIFT member Becky Morrison! Becky is the Founder & CEO of The Light, an award-winning production company that produces films, series and high-end commercials. Becky kicked-off her career on the Hollywood blockbuster I Am Legend, dabbled in animation on Disney’s The Wild, then entered the world of rock n’ roll as visual content producer for U2’s world tour. In the span of her career, Becky has produced hundreds of projects for clients such as Netflix, Apple, NBC, A&E, Hulu and Disney. She has spent years studying the history of Hollywood and uses her research to inform a new framework for conscious production. She spoke to us about how she is using her creative work to inspire positive change.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Cathy Perifimos

Meet NYWIFT new member Cathy Perifimos! Cathy is an entertainment attorney, Of Counsel at Thompson LLC, consulting with the firm on entertainment and media transactions. Previously, she was Vice President at Paramount Global, where she managed the business and legal affairs of Smithsonian Channel and worked on documentaries and unscripted projects across the MTV Entertainment Group brands. Prior to joining Smithsonian Channel in 2014, Cathy was an Associate at the boutique entertainment law firm of Dembitzer & Dembitzer LLP. She was also an Associate Agent in the dramatic rights department of the Curtis Brown literary agency. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Cathy is a founding board member of Barnard Women in Entertainment, and at Cardozo is a member of the Filmmakers Legal Clinic Board and the FAME Advisory Board. Cathy resides in New Jersey with her husband and their cat. Recently, we asked Cathy about her impressive legal career in the entertainment industry.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Michelle de la Rosa

Let's all give a warm welcome to Michelle de la Rosa! Michelle is a freelance theatre and film director based in New York City. She is a native New Yorker with Puerto Rican and Jewish heritage. As a director, she has participated in several NYC theatre festivals. She studied directing under the mentorship of John Grabowski at the Acting Studio in New York. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and now NYWIFT! As a playwright, her short play Spell It (2021) was produced by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Continue reading to learn more about Michelle and how she got to where she is today as an artist.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Val Dowd

We’re thrilled to welcome our new NYWIFT member, Val Dowd! Val is a film sales manager with a passion for highlighting underrepresented voices. Some of her career highlights thus far include doing outreach for Matthew Heineman’s documentary The First Wave and working with her team on Hulu’s The Jewel Thief. She’s very motivated by community and finding films that can open doors for people and offer fresh perspectives. Read our interview with Val to learn more about the role of a film sales manager, how she approaches selling and distributing projects, and her love for film.

READ MORE
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
css.php