OOTP costumes on display at LA Costume Design Exhibition

UPDATE: Kneazle sent in a very detailed report of her visit, having seen us report about it here. Check it out on the "Read More..." link below!

Thanks to MuggleNet reader Rose for letting us know that the 16th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition is ending on April 12th, and may be of interest to Potter fans. On display from Order of the Phoenix are Tonks’ final battle outfit, Umbridge’s pink skirt/suit outfit, Lucius Malfoy’s outfit, a Death Eater outfit, and Voldemort’s cloak.

The display is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to the public. Several costumes from other films are also on display, including Sweeney Todd, Beowulf, Enchanted, and Hairspray. Find more information at their website! Thanks again to Rose for the tip.

Report from Kneazle:
I saw the post about the FIDM exhibit of movie costumes on Mugglenet this morning, and decided to go to it this afternoon. This is a report of what I saw, focused on the HP costumes, of course. We drove down to LA from the OC, and for some reason we didn't have to pay for parking. (The attendant never came out...) The event itself is free, and it's entirely worth it. Unfortunately they didn't allow cameras, so I couldn't take pictures.

Throughout the exhibit, there are lots of small rooms, and all the clothes are up on curvy platforms around the edges of small rooms (leaving a wide curving path through all the rooms), and there is low lighting to keep from damaging the clothing. By each costume, there is a sign with the actor or actress' name and their character, and in each grouping there is a sign with the name of the movie and a small biography on the designer. At the far end of the exhibit path, there was a small room with chairs and a TV playing trailers for the movies, so you could get an idea for the settings of each movie.

When you walk in, you see lots of dresses - but around the corner from Sweeney Todd and the romance movies was the Harry Potter section. The first one visible was the bright pink and fuzzy Umbridge suit, that she wore when the Ministry tried to arrest Dumbledore in his office and when she broke into the Room of Requirement with her Inquisitorial Squad. It was truly, horribly, pink - looked just like in the pictures, obviously, but it was surprising only because I have never seen costumes up close before. It looked like it was a knitted fabric, which explains the fuzziness, and there was a small silver and pink brooch on the right upper bodice with a cat picture on it (like her plates, of course), with a matching ring on the mannequin's hand.

There was a pink pseudo-leather purse, and a hot-pink hankerchief in the other hand, with embroidery around the edges, and light-pink patent leather shoes to match the suit. I couldn't believe this was actually the clothing Imelda Staunton wore, but the shoes were actually small enough to be her size, and the sleeves were short for the mannequin, so it made sense, because she is slightly shorter and stouter than a mannequin. :-) The costume behind Umbridge was the outfit Tonks wore in the battle at the Ministry. The jacket was the big attraction, I think - it was made of a dark reddish-brown reptile-skin fabric, probably meant to look like dragon skin, with lots of flaps and pockets all over. It was really cool. The shirt underneath was layered and lacy, sort of a camisole-tank-top kind of thing, with a couple of layers underneath visible at the neck, and there were dark black (or brown?) tights underneath a pair of cropped dark grey pants.

Next visible was a suit for Sirius. Black/grey pinstriped pants, a maroon waistcoat with a chain, dark brown pinstriped jacket, striped shirt, brown shoes - I'm not entirely sure when he wore it, I think it was a generic "Sirius suit". Nothing really exciting there except for the fact that Gary Oldman wore it! The next thing that caught my eye was green. I mean, a really pretty green, very eye-catching. Voldemort's robes, from the battle at the Ministry - they were long, flowing, all one color, no ornamentation - but they didn't need any extra, because the deep Slytherin emerald green was so beautiful. The sleeves were long and pointed at the bottom, sort of the classical wizard-robe style, and the robe was closed with small snaps along the front edge, creating a wraparound look. The most interesting part was the hemline, oddly enough - they had left it unhemmed, so the fabric was raw, and it had frayed, I'm assuming from the wear and tear of the wind in the battle scene while they filmed it. So it was neat to realize, again, that these were the actual costumes, not imitations.

Behind these four were the Death Eater costumes - one was specifically Lucius Malfoy's costume, while the other was just labeled "Death Eater". Both had the creepy masks on, which were made of metal with cutouts for the eyes and vents for the nose and mouth, and the robes had hoods going over the back of the masks. I found the boots interesting - they looked as if they had been wrapped in strips of black cloth or tarpaper or something, all the way from the toe up the leg, so you couldn't tell where boots ended and pants began.

I was a bit disappointed, there were no robes for Bellatrix or Dumbledore (his are always pretty elaborate), and they didn't have any of the wands there in the mannequins' hands. That would have been even cooler. But I'm not complaining - it was incredible to see the costumes in person, as they were.

Full list of represented movies, other than Harry Potter (OotP): Atonement (six or seven costumes) Lust, Caution (four or five costumes) Silk (four costumes) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (five costumes) Enchanted (three costumes) the Golden Compass (six, incl. Mrs. Coulter's gold dress) Marie Antoinette (two costumes) Stardust (four costumes) 300 (five?) Beowulf (four?) Blades of Glory (five) Eklavya: The Royal Guard (four?) 3:10 to Yuma (six?) Across the Universe (cartoonish costumes, six?) Hairspray (five - there was no plus-size mannequin for Tracy's outfit so it looked sort of baggy!) Love in the Time of Cholera (two) Shooter (two) Youth Without Youth (three) A rather impressive collection! It's only going another week, though, so come quick..

Posted by Andrew on Apr 4th | 66 Comments