Colleen Atwood: "Be strong, be right, be fair"

On this new post, after many days ago, I'll go write about one of my favourite costume designers, this woman called Colleen Atwood.

She was born in Yakima, Washington, the same day that I, on September 25th, but fifty years before in 1945.

In the 11970s, Colleen  studied painting at Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, Washington,  and later worked many places, including the Yves Saint Laurent boutique.

She moved to New York in 1980, where she studied art Iin the New York University,  and started with her movie career as Production Assistant on the movie "Ragtime". "A Little Sex" (1982) was her first film credit.

In 1990, she met the director Tim Burton, and they worked together in eight films: "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Ed Wood" (1994), "Cabin Boy" (1994), "Mars Attack!" (1996), "Sleepy Hollow" (1999), "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Big Fish" (20013), "Nine" (2009), "Alice In Wonderland" (2010), "Dark Shadows" (2012) and "Big Eyes" (2014).

Colleen Atwood has worked in more than sixty films and series. Some of the most famous are "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991),  "Chicago" (2002),  "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" (2004), "The Tourist" (2010), "Snow White and the Hunstman" (2012) and "Into the Woods" (2014).

Also, for the music band My Chemical Romance designed "The Black Parade" band uniforms for the video and the costumes for the album "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys"

She has been nominated as Best Achievement in Costume Design for eleven Academy Awards, but she won only three for "Chicago" (2002), "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005) and "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" (2010).

Two years ago, she made her first Broadway Production with "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

Her career adivice, and one of my favourite motivation quote: "Be strong, be right, be fair". She loves read becuse relax her, just like me.

I appreciate her work cause I think that without her designs a movie doesn't be the same. I admire that her inspirations and referents for the costumes can be so different between one film and other, but the results are always amazing and she had a own style.

Here's my Pinterest's board with pictures of part of her work:

Follow Lizzy Alice Lawrence's board Colleen Atwood on Pinterest.