Greatest Film Costume Designers

[Tim]

Criteria: These costume designers were ranked according to their influence on design of costumes in films, the acclaim they received for their costume design, and, to a lesser degree, the greatness (influence, acclaim, popularity) of the films they provided costumes for.

Disclaimer: This list is strongly influenced by the Western canon of films. This means that in the broader scope of a global cinema certain regions may be underrepresented, among them Russia, India, China, Africa and Latin America

1. Edith Head (Notorious, Samson and Delilah, All About Eve, Roman Holiday)
2. Adrian (Romeo and Juliet, The Great Ziegfeld, The Women, The Wizard of Oz)
3. Irene Sharaff (An American in Paris, The King and I, West Side Story, Cleopatra)
4. Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, The Young Victoria, The Favourite)
5. Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice in Wonderland, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
6. Milena Canonero (Barry Lyndon, Chariots of Fire, Marie Antoinette, The Grand Budapest Hotel)
7. Jenny Beavan (A Room with a View, Gosford Park, Mad Max: Fury Road, Cruella)
8. Dorothy Jeakins (Joan of Arc, The Music Man, The Night of the Iguana, The Sound of Music)
9. Orry-Kelly (Casablanca, An American in Paris, Les Girls, Some Like It Hot)
10. Walter Plunkett (Little Women, The Gay Divorcee, Gone With the Wind, Singin' in the Rain)
11. Travis Banton (Wings, Shanghai Express, Letter from an Unknown Woman)
12. Clare West (The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Ten Commandments)
13. Jean Louis (Gilda, A Star is Born, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
14. Anthony Powell (Travels with My Aunt, Death on the Nile, Tess)
15. Helen Rose (The Bad and the Beautiful, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
16. Danilo Donati (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Romeo and Juliet, Fellini's Casanova)
17. Piero Tosi (The Leopard, Death in Venice, La Cage aux Folles)
18. René Hubert (Lifeboat, My Darling Clementine, Désirée)
19. Robert Kalloch (Only Angels Have Wings, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, His Girl Friday)
20. Jacqueline Durran (Vera Drake, Anna Karenina, Little Women)
21. Charles LeMaire (All About Eve, The Robe, An Affair to Remember)
22. Howard Greer (Hell's Angels, Bringing Up Baby, Love Affair)
23. Albert Wolsky (All That Jazz, Sophie's Choice, Bugsy)
24. Patricia Norris (Days of Heaven, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet)
25. James Acheson (The Last Emperor, Dangerous Liaisons, Restoration)
26. Bernard Newman (Top Hat, Swing Time, You Can't Take It with You)
27. Piero Gherardi (Nights of Cabiria, La dolce vita, 8½)
28. Natacha Rambova (Why Change Your Wife?, Camille, Salomé)
29. Travilla (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch)
30. Gabriella Pescucci (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Age of Innocence, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
31. Bill Thomas (Spartacus, Ship of Fools, Logan's Run)
32. Edward Stevenson (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, It's a Wonderful Life)
33. Anna Hill Johnstone (East of Eden, The Godfather, Ragtime)
34. Theadora Van Runkle (Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather Part II, Peggy Sue Got Married)
35. Marik Vos-Lundh (The Virgin Spring, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander)
36. Renié (Kitty Foyle, Cleopatra, Body Heat)
37. Ruth Morley (The Miracle Worker, Annie Hall, Tootsie)
38. Vera West (Dracula, The Wolf Man, Shadow of a Doubt)
39. Irene (To Be or Not to Be, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Postman Always Rings Twice)
40. Milo Anderson (The Adventures of Robin Hood, To Have and Have Not, Mildred Pierce)
41. Alexandra Byrne (Hamlet, Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age)
42. Margaret Furse (Becket, The Lion in Winter, Anne of the Thousand Days)
43. John Bright (The Bostonians, A Room with a View, Sense and Sensibility)
44. Ngila Dickson (& Richard Taylor) (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/The Two Towers/The Return of the King)
45. Yvonne Blake (Nicholas and Alexandra, Superman, Superman II)
46. John Mollo (Star Wars, Alien, Gandhi)
47. Phyllis Dalton (Doctor Zhivago, Oliver!, Henry V)
48. Rosine Delamare (The Earrings of Madame de..., Rififi, The Day of the Jackal)
49. Elizabeth Haffenden (& Joan Bridge) (Ben-Hur, A Man for All Seasons, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
50. Mayo (Children of Paradise, Gates of the Night, Casque d'or)
51. Ann Roth (Places in the Heart, The English Patient, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)
52. Ruth E. Carter (Malcolm X, Amistad, Black Panther)
53. Mark Bridges (There Will Be Blood, The Artist, Phantom Thread)
54. William Chang (In the Mood for Love, 2046, The Grandmaster)
55. Catherine Martin (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby, Elvis)
56. Theodor Pištěk (Amadeus, Valmont, The People vs. Larry Flynt)
57. Carlo Simi (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America)
58. Emi Wada (Ran, Hero, House of Flying Daggers)
59. Georges Annenkov (Faust, The Earrings of Madame de..., Lola Montès)
60. Eiko Ishioka (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Cell)
61. Gile Steele (Marie-Antoinette, The Heiress, The Merry Widow)
62. Marcel Escoffier (Beauty and the Beast, Orpheus, Senso)
63. Moss Mabry (Dial M for Murder, Giant, The Way We Were)
64. Vittorio Nino Novarese (Cleopatra, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Cromwell)
65. Gitt Magrini (La notte, The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris)
66. Jacqueline West (Quills, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Dune)
67. Howard Shoup (The Young Philadelphians, Ocean's 11, Cool Hand Luke)
68. Hein Heckroth (A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes)
69. Anna B. Sheppard (Schindler's List, The Pianist, Maleficent)
70. Judianna Makovsky (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Hunger Games, Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
71. Bob Ringwood (Dune, Empire of the Sun, Batman)
72. Anthony Mendleson (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers)
73. Shirley Ann Russell (Women in Love, Agatha, Reds)
74. Mary Zophres (True Grit, La La Land, Babylon)
75. Arianne Phillips (Walk the Line, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, A Complete Unknown)
76. Janet Patterson (The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady, Bright Star)
77. Valles (National Velvet, That Forsyte Woman, Spartacus)
78. Deborah Lynn Scott (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Titanic, Avatar)
79. Donfield (Days of Wine and Roses, Prizzi's Honor, Spaceballs)
80. Florence Lawrence (Lady Helen’s Escapade, Resurrection, The Broken Oath)
81. Dolly Tree (The Thin Man, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities)
82. William Ware Theiss (Spartacus, Harold and Maude, Bound for Glory)
83. Ulla-Britt Söderlund (The Emigrants, The New Land, Barry Lyndon)
84. Janty Yates (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, House of Gucci)
85. Gwen Wakeling (The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, Samson and Delilah)
86. Joanna Johnston (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Lincoln, Allied)
87. Morton Haack (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Planet of the Apes, What's the Matter with Helen?)
88. Tony Walton (Mary Poppins, Murder on the Orient Express, The Wiz)
89. Marjorie Best (Adventures of Don Juan, Giant, The Greatest Story Ever Told)
90. Yvonne Sassinot de Nesle (Swann in Love, The Lover, Vatel)
91. Marit Allen (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Eyes Wide Shut, La Vie En Rose)
92. Mitchell Leisen (Robin Hood, Rosita, The Thief of Bagdad)
93. Norman Norell (Zaza, A Sainted Devil)
94. Richard Hornung (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink)
95. Elizabeth McBride (Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma & Louise, The Shawshank Redemption)
96. Theoni V. Aldredge (The Great Gatsby, Ghostbusters, Addams Family Values)
97. Hubert de Givenchy (Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade)
98. Cecil Beaton (Gigi, My Fair Lady)
99. Barbara Karinska (Joan of Arc, Hans Christian Andersen)
100. Franca Squarciapino (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Horseman on the Roof)
101. Mary Wills (Hans Christian Andersen, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm)
102. Norma Koch (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Lady Sings the Blues)
103. Jeffrey Kurland (Bullets Over Broadway, Inception, Dunkirk)
104. Ruth Myers (The Addams Family, Emma, L.A. Confidential)
105. Anthea Sylbert (Chinatown, Julia)
106. Julie Weiss (American Beauty, 12 Monkeys, Frida)
107. Maurizio Millenotti (Otello, Hamlet, The Passion of the Christ)
108. Massimo Cantini Parrini (Dogman, Pinocchio, Cyrano)
109. Judy Moorcroft (The Europeans, A Passage to India, The Dressmaker)
110. Paco Delgado (The Skin I Live In, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl)
111. Lisy Christl (Anonymous, All Quiet on the Western Front, Conclave)
112. Dave Crossman (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Batman, Napoleon)
113. Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Red Cliff)
114. Sharen Davis (Ray, Dreamgirls, The Help)
115. Michael O'Connor (The Duchess, Jane Eyre, The Invisible Woman)
116. Consolata Boyle (The Queen, Florence Foster Jenkins, Victoria & Abdul)
117. Joe I. Tompkins (Cross Creek, Harlem Nights)
118. Ellen Mirojnick (Starship Troopers, The Greatest Showman, Oppenheimer)
119. Lala Huete (Belle Époque, Pan's Labyrinth)
120. Coco Chanel (Port of Shadows, The Rules of the Game)
121. Luis Sequeira (The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley)
122. Jean Paul Gaultier (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Fifth Element)
123. Dien van Straalen (Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Libertine)
124. Herschel McCoy (Joan of Arc, Quo Vadis, Dream Wife)
125. Paul Zastupnevich (The Poseidon Adventure, The Swarm, When Time Ran Out)

[Dubrow555]

Looks great! Another impressive list - is production design next??

[Tim]

Thanks, Dubrow. Hah, yeah, I have it (production designers/art directors list) in my notes but it still needs a lot of work before I'd be down for posting it here on ddd.

[pauldrach]

Looks great! Another impressive list - is production design next??

Caterers!

[pauldrach]

Anyway, what about Florence Lawrence, who may just have been the first of them all?

[Tim]

That's an unfortunate oversight. Where do you see her paul?

[pauldrach]

That's an unfortunate oversight. Where do you see her paul?

I don't know anything about any of the people on this list so I'll have to refer this question back to you. Besides being one of their biggest stars, she worked as a costume seamstress for D. W. Griffith's Vitagraph.

(A few years later, writers would credit her,
and specifically “Lady Helen’s Escapade,” with introducing the concept of costume design to movies.)

(https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/nat ... _helen.pdf)

[pauldrach]

Gaily, Gaily, Lady Sings the Blues, Funny Lady

I like to imagine this as a single film title.

[Tim]

That's an unfortunate oversight. Where do you see her paul?

I don't know anything about any of the people on this list so I'll have to refer this question back to you.

I take it you haven't seen The Incredibles.

[Tim]

Inserted Florence Lawrence at #78, just above Dolly Tree.

[pauldrach]

That's an unfortunate oversight. Where do you see her paul?

I don't know anything about any of the people on this list so I'll have to refer this question back to you.

I take it you haven't seen The Incredibles.

I have seen The Incredibles once but I admit to not understanding what you are referring to.

[Tim]

A joke about Edna Mode (The Incredibles character) being an Edith Head (#1 on this list) pastiche.

[pauldrach]

A joke about Edna Mode (The Incredibles character) being an Edith Head (#1 on this list) pastiche.

Ahhhh! Well, I remember Edna at least.

[ManPerson]

A joke about Edna Mode (The Incredibles character) being an Edith Head (#1 on this list) pastiche.

TIL.

[Tim]

Added William Chang (In the Mood for Love, 2046, The Grandmaster), Coco Chanel (Port of Shadows, The Rules of the Game), Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Red Cliff), Carlo Simi (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America).