Basinger Reviews Hollywood Sketchbook in Wall Street Journal

On Jan. 11, Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, reviewed a new book, Hollywood Sketchbook, by Deborah Nadoolman Landis in The Wall Street Journal. Landis, a costume designer herself, “defines the difference between the designer’s costuming goal and the role of the sketch artist. Costume sketches were never intended to be fashion drawings: Kinetic, emotional and drawn for a specific personality or character, they were about much more than clothes,” writes Basinger.

The book contains commentaries and reproduced sketches for 61 designers, including such famous names as Adrian (known for The Wizard of Oz, Camille, and Marie Antoinette, among others), Travis Banton (Blonde Venus) and Walter Plunkett (Gone with the Wind). In her review, Basinger notes flaws in the book, such as incomplete filmographies for each designer and missing identifying information on sketches, yet concludes, “… given the beautiful reproduction, on elegant paper, of so many original sketches impossible to find anywhere else, it is hard to complain. Who wouldn’t want to sip a coffee contemplating Travilla’s design for the hot pink dress, with a large bow across the rear, so famously worn by Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?”