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Video: Preview the Costumes of 'The Wondrous Willa Kim' at the Library for the Performing Arts
Feb 24, 2023
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center celebrates the long and colorful career of costume designer Willa Kim in her first-ever major retrospective exhibition, The Wondrous Willa Kim: Costume Designs for Actors and Dancers. In this video, Richard Ridge gives us a sneak peek at the new exhibit.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Willa Kim, who is one of the entertainment industry's most revered costume designers
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is being honored here at the Near Public Library for the Performing Arts
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with a gorgeous new exhibit called The Wondrous Willa Kim, costume designs for actors and dancers
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and giving us a sneak peek is the show's curator, costume historian
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and Professor Emerita, Bobby Owen. So we are in the Aster Gallery, which is one of the two large galleries we have here at the library
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It's actually on Lincoln Center Plaza. It's in the same building as the Vivian Beaumont Theater
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So if you're here to see a show to see Camelot, you can just pop right over and come see us at the library
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This is an exhibition that's a long time in the making, actually. It was one of the very first collections that I acquired as a curator, the Will of the Kevin Collection
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and we immediately knew we had to do an exhibition with it
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So we were planning to do the exhibition, actually, in March of 2020, and well, things happened. And so we're very happy that we're at last able to showcase this really marvelous work by Willa Kim
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We knew that we wanted to hire someone who had real expertise in costume design
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and who also really knew Willa Kim's work. And so I began to think of who we should get, and the first name that came to mind was Bobby Owen
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who literally wrote the book on Willa Kim. Willa Kim never used a piece of fabric that came directly from a fabric store
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It always had to be dyed or painted or washed a thousand times
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or beaded or embroidered or applicate I mean you could go to a fabric store The great fabric stores that used to be in the garment district and the few that are still there now
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and buy a piece of magenta creptosheen, but it wouldn't be nearly as vibrant
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as one that she would have dyed, and she would be saying it has to be exactly that color
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So when you look at this wall of swatches, it kind of starts with what came from the fabric store at the bottom
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and as you move your way up, it gets more and more embellished
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more and more covered with the kinds of things that she would be thinking about
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until you get to the very top. And there she is with her great maker, Sally Ann Parsons
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It doesn't matter how good a costume designer is. If there's not a good maker, they're not going to come alive on stage
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And Willa and Sally Ann worked together wonderfully to be able to create these things
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Now this is a Peter Allen sketch, of course, from Legs Diamond, one of my favorite musicals
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That's stunning. Isn't it amazing? And again, that had to have been painted
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So that you're not going to find fabric that looks like that, nor are you going to find a hat that looks like that
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It's got to be put in exactly the right place. Just beautiful
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Can I show you some more Legs Diamond? Let's see Some More Legs Diamond. So I don't think Legs Diamond was particularly a successful show, although everybody who is a
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Associated loved it. Like you've told you before, this is one of my all-time favorite broad-wide musicals at the Mar-Calinger Theater
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I adored this show. Peter Allen was really in his element doing this, and so was Willa Kim
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The costumes for Legs Diamond I think show her at her best There a huge range of things that are here You can see that there are feathers there are beads there is a cupid doll that when you look at it from the front looks one way
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and the back looks completely different. Because she was showing her artistry, but also she was
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enhancing what was happening on stage. This is New York. This embodies New York. And so it's skyscrapers
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It is, well, you can see the lights in the windows of the skyscrapers, which are all rhinestones and other kinds of beads
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And you can see the most beautiful Mylar-colored airplanes circling the island of Manhattan
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This is from Papillon, which is an Elliott Feld ballet. And what you see here is the Mama Butterfly
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Willa Kim did both the sets and the costumes for this ballet
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And what it was was a background that was really painted sky colors with a spider web on the top
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I just love that she did the sets and costumes. Yeah. Like Rall Pentebwa before her, she did sets and costumes
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Not as often did she do the scenery, but she had her hands in that
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Willa Kim won her first Tony Award for sophisticated ladies. And when you look at the things that are here, you understand why
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Judith Jamieson's suit that's here. When she danced, you saw that there was red inside the pleats of her skirt
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and it was so beautiful as she went across the stage. When Willa Kim read a script, she doodled all over
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She started making lists of things and her attention to detail was so great that when she found something in the script she didn think was accurate she wrote it down And Legs Diamond it says as the character
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comes back on stage, he can't get his zipper closed, and she's written in the margins
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zippers weren't invented until 1930s. So it wouldn't be right to have them in the play
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That's the brilliance of Willa Kim. That's the brilliance of Willa Kim
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We're at Victor Victoria, aren't we? This is Willa Kim's last Broadway show
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and what a wonderful Broadway show to have to be your last one
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So you see lots of the sketches as Victoria turns into Victor
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and then turns back into Victoria that's here in the case. And the headdress, which actually is a hat
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because it was part of something for a fast change that Julie Andrews actually wore
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You're standing in front of one of four salad costumes that Willa Kim designed for a Regina wine vinegar commercial
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It showed only once at the 1989 Super Bowl. You can see slices of red onion, you can see mushrooms
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you can see different kinds of pasta because this is a pasta salad
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How proud are you standing in this room where this exhibit opens on February 23rd and runs through August 19th
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I hope that Willa is smiling. I hope that she likes this
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but I also hope that all of her friends who come to see this like it
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I hope that some young people come are inspired by what they see here
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and want to become custom designers. Thank you for a glorious walk-through for Broadway World
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This has been wonderful. Thank you
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