Costumes are always an important ingredient in making a successful play or musical. Meet Irene Sharraff.
Irene trained in fashion illustration and excelled in colour and historical details, employing these to brilliant effect in musicals such as West Side Story and Call Me Madam. Her work was recognised in 1993 when she was awarded the Theatre Development Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award, having costumed more than fifty Broadway musicals and plays, and and an Oscar for West Side Story with 14 other Oscar nominations. Have a look at the fabulous pieces she designed for Hello Dolly Her influence was considerable; the use of silk from Thailand in The King and I‘s costumes and furnishings led to a huge increase in demand for the material and led to a revival of the Thai silk industry.
Irene Sharraff nor her partner, Mai-Mai Sze, mention the other in their autobiographies or published works but in recent years their loving same-sex relationship has been explored and celebrated. This article looks at how their relationship allowed them to succeed at a difficult time, while this article on Wikipedia has more information about the Chinese-American painter and writer. The Smithsonian has a painting by Mai-Mai from a series called The United Nations.https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/china-united-nations-series-23591
Read more:
http://chimericaneyes.blogspot.com/2014/09/mai-mai-sze.html
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Google image search – Irene Sharraff costumes
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