Designs on the Past by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Author:Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Figure 3.6

Like mother like daughter: ever the fashionable sophisticate, Claudette Colbert takes time between shooting scenes to chat with her mother who was visiting the set. Cleopatra (1934). Studio publicity still.

Colbert insisted too on working only alongside Travis Banton, the one costume designer whom she truly trusted to create clothing which flattered her (Figure 3.7). But this still did not rule out clashes between the designer and the star. For her role as Cleopatra, for instance, Colbert asked Banton to create gowns which would bare as much of her bosom as possible, focusing attention above her waist, which she considered to be too thick, and drawing attention away from her neck which she claimed was too short. Banton indulged her, as far as the censorship regulations would allow. When she saw the sketches and prototype garments she obtusely refused to accept any of the costume designs he had created for her and flew into a rage when she realised that the costume sketches had been rendered by another artist. With disapproving comments written all over the beautiful designs, Colbert departed for home. Banton sent a second set of costume sketches for her approval, with instructions that she had better either like them or slit her wrists. The next day Banton waited and waited, only to have them returned streaked with dried blood. Furious, Banton left the studio and went on a drinking binge, not returning until several days later when studio head, Adolph Zukor, called him personally and mediated the situation.

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