Fashioning Hitchcock: Costume and Suspense

Explore the contribution of costume designers to Hitchcock's illustrious film career. 

Alfred Hitchcock’s genius as a director includes his collaboration with some of the most celebrated costume designers. In particular, his work with Edith Head highlights how clothing can be a marvellous tool for suspense. In Fashioning Hitchcock, film and fashion historian Caroline Young describes how his artist’s eye shaped the style of his heroes and villains – whether Cary Grant in a glen-check suit in North by Northwest or Kim Novak in her ghost-grey suit in Vertigo. Young’s insightful exploration of the use of costume in Hitchcock's movies, and his key relationships with designers, producers, and actors, delves into the visual language, the obsessions, and the quest for beauty that defined his six-decade career.

Caroline Young is an author from Edinburgh, who specializes in film, fashion and popular culture. Her previous works include The It Girls: Glamor, Celebrity, and Scandal, Hitchcock's Heroines, Living with Coco Chanel, Audrey in Paris, The Fabulous Frances Farquharson: The Colourful Life of an American in the Highlands, and Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror, which was nominated for both a Rondo Hatton Award 2023 and the 2022 Richard Wall Memorial Award.

Tickets £15 (includes entry to Costume Couture: 60 Years of Cosprop from 5pm before the talk)

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