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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Colleen Atwood Quotes

I grew up in a small town in Washington State, so I wasn’t really aware of costume design as a career growing up, but I loved clothes. I remember I saved all my money, and the first thing that I bought was a white blazer, which was to the horror to my parents. But I have always had a strange connection with clothing.

– Colleen Atwood

It’s fun conjuring what people will be wearing in the future. We exist in this world today, and yet there are people walking around who still look like they’re in the ’60s.

– Colleen Atwood

In Chicago, I walked in knowing what the dancers were going to need.

– Colleen Atwood

It’s great fun that my grandkids get to see the costumes in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or a doll with grandma’s dress, but then they also let me know they’re bummed I didn’t do any of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies.

– Colleen Atwood

I’d say probably the most expensive costumes I’ve ever made were the costumes in ‘The Planet of the Apes,’ because of the research and development that went into them and the amount of layers.

– Colleen Atwood

The costumes had to serve the choreography.

– Colleen Atwood

I have watched ‘Project Runway,’ but I’m not a devout watcher of it. But I think it’s a great show, what I’ve seen of it, and I think Tim Gunn is a very positive, amazing guy.

– Colleen Atwood

People like to stir up the fashion vs. costume world, and I think what they mean by ‘too costumey’ is that it’s too much, or not real enough for everyday wear. You couldn’t say that about John Galliano’s shows, right? I mean, they’re awesome, and they’re total costume.

– Colleen Atwood

I always have a moment when I know I’m designing the last costume that gets made for a movie, and it’s always been floating up there, but it’s kind of the last one. That’s always probably the hardest one for me.

– Colleen Atwood

I always loved clothes, just not clothes that were appropriate to the place I grew up in.

– Colleen Atwood

One thing about costume design – and I think design in general – but especially costume design, is people have a misconception that it’s very glamorous work.

– Colleen Atwood

Costumes are the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth-it really does establish who they are.

– Colleen Atwood

As a designer, you have to solve a lot of problems. Even though people are wearing clothes that are supposed to look beautiful, they’ll have to do all kinds of things.

– Colleen Atwood

When I do period work, I really like to read about the period as much as I like to look at pictures because sometimes the written word is much better at conveying what their lives were really like and how much they had and where their clothes came from. Because, a lot of time, people dressed in their Sunday best to pose for a picture.

– Colleen Atwood

Some of the kimonos took as long as four to five months to make, with all the layers that go into it.

– Colleen Atwood

I’d seen the current stage production and the 1975 production of Chicago. I liked them both very much, but I didn’t use them necessarily as inspiration.

– Colleen Atwood

Planet of the Apes was a gigantic challenge, making the clothes work so people could do stunts and action in the clothes. I really learned a lot about that in that movie.

– Colleen Atwood

I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the ’70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for.

– Colleen Atwood

It’s true that I’m not cozy. I’m more reserved.

– Colleen Atwood

The reward is that you can actually create a world separate from reality with a story, actors, music, and camera design. When it works it can entertain, move people and teach us all.

– Colleen Atwood

I can create clothes for so many different time periods. I’ve always tried to avoid being pigeonholed. Plus, everything I learn about design and costume from one movie somehow works its way into something else.

– Colleen Atwood

The designs were based on quite a lot of research of what a movie musical is, filtered through the eyes of today. If we’d gone strictly with the ’20s, the movement would have been impaired.

– Colleen Atwood

I don’t design my own clothes. It’s so not what I think about.

– Colleen Atwood

In real life, a lot of people at that level will have their kimonos made especially for them.

– Colleen Atwood

I design for the movie and the character as well as the person wearing the costume. I show the ideas to the actor, then do fittings for shape and technical things such as movement in the costume. Once the costume in this form is on the actor, you have a sense of their connection with it. I then take it to the next level with the final fit.

– Colleen Atwood

I’ve always loved movies, art and clothes.

– Colleen Atwood

I grew up in the age of polyester. When I got to touch real silk, cotton and velvet, the feel of nonsynthetic fabrics blew me away. I know it’s important how clothing looks, but it’s equally important how it feels on your skin.

– Colleen Atwood

On Planet of the Apes, I had a very knowledgeable team who knew good materials, but I had one main source person who worked online and on the street continually looking for the proper materials.

– Colleen Atwood

Knowing who the actors were as you were designing them helped, with Catherine’s beauty and Renee’s frailty, they directed me visually just by who they were.

– Colleen Atwood

I am always looking for ideas, whether it is in art on the street or in my world travels. It comes to me randomly and unexpectedly.

– Colleen Atwood

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