Sandy Powell’s First U.S Costume Exhibition Opens at SCAD Museum in Atlanta

A costume exhibit dedicated to over four decades of costume designer Sandy Powell’s career has opened at SCAD’s Museum of Fashion and Film in Atlanta.

Powell, whose credits include “Orlando,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Far From Heaven” was on hand for the exhibit’s opening. “It been a very strange experience,” Powell told Variety. “It is an emotional one because I’m not just looking at the work. Each one of those pieces, each one of those vignettes brings me back to where I was in my life at those times. So it’s like I’ve seen the last 40 years of my life in one room.”

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The exhibit titled Sandy Powell’s Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film is curated by Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH museums. On display are a vast array of genres, periods, and realities, showcasing Powell’s dynamic work for films including “Shakespeare in Love,” “The Favourite,” “Cinderella,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties.”

Paula Wallace, SCAD president and founder said, “With 15 Academy Award nominations and three wins to her name, designer Sandy Powell has masterfully costumed iconic films from ‘Shakespeare in Love’ to ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’ Sandy is no stranger to SCAD — have honored her at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, and I’ve welcomed her as a guest on my series On Creativity. Now, we bring our friendship full circle with Sandy Powell’s Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film. SCAD provides the perfect set for her award-winning oeuvre in her first U.S. exhibition.”

Also on display and sure to be favorites is the fur coat and hat from “Carol” worn by Cate Blanchett.

Said Powell, “I am very excited that SCAD FASH has given me the opportunity to exhibit my first ever retrospective in the university’s amazing museum in Atlanta. I hope that the carefully curated collection will serve to inspire students and aspiring costume designers in the same way I have been inspired by the
ingenuity and creativity of the designers I have admired throughout my career.”

SCAD Atlanta – Fall 2024 – Exhibitions – Sandy Powell – ”Sandy Powell: Dressing the Part” – Teaser Documentation – SCAD Fash – Photography Courtesy of SCAD
“Interview with the Vampire” costumes showcase outfits worn by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst.

Powell is one of the few costume designers who has kept a collection of her creations. Asked when she began keeping her costumes, Powell told an audience that the tradition dated back to her first film, “Caravaggio.” “That was in the days when I was making the costumes myself. At the end of the film, no one really knew what to do with them. So I took some of them.”

As Powell continued to work, she continued to collect. “As I got into bigger films, I realized that I wasn’t allowed. I couldn’t take them because they’re technically the property of the people who pay for the films.” Powell admitted she gets attached to some items and to the costumes and items from her bigger films. “I did ask permission to get some key items,” she laughed.

SCAD Atlanta – Fall 2024 – Exhibitions – Sandy Powell – ”Sandy Powell: Dressing the Part” – Teaser Documentation – SCAD Fash – Photography Courtesy of SCAD
Costumes from “Gangs of New York”

Sandy Powell’s Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film is on view Oct. 11 through March 16.

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