Irene Sharaff

Nominated for fifteen Academy Awards, charismatic costumer Irene Sharaff once declared "you can acquire chic and elegance, but style itself is a a rare thing" (NY Times, August 17, 1993). During her long and distinguished career, Sharaff became known as much for her meticulous attention to detail and her sense of colour as for her versatility in adapting to many genres and periods. For this, she drew inspiration from a wide variety of sources, which included impressionist and post-impressionist painting. Irene Sharaff received her training from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, the Arts Student League and at La Grande Chaumiere in Paris. Her first work in the world of fashion was as illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She then served a two-year apprenticeship as assistant designer under Aline Bernstein at the Civic Repertory Theatre Company.

Won Broadway's 1952 Tony Award for Best Costumes for "The King and I." This was followed by six additional Tony nominations as Best Costume Designer: in 1957 for "Candide, "" Happy Hunting," "Shangri-La," and "Small War On Murray Hill;" in 1958 for "West Side Story;" in 1959 for "Flower Drum Song," in 1964 for "The Girl Who Came to Supper;" in 1966 for "Sweet Charity," and in 1968 for "Hallelujah, Baby!".

Sharaff did her best designs in the 1950's on Meet Me in St.

From the late 1950's, Sharaff often alternated work on the same production for both Broadway and Hollywood, notably West Side Story (1961)(stage version, 1964) , Flower Drum Song (1961) (stage version, 1958) and Funny Girl (1968) (stage version, 1964).

Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), Guys and Dolls (1955) and King and I, The (1956). For the latter, she created history twice: first, by convincing Yul Brynner to shave his head; secondly, for her prodigious use of Thai silk, which created such a stir in the world of high fashion that the product ended up becoming Thailand's number one export.

However, she would only spend a total of four years under contract: at MGM, for the Arthur Freed unit, between 1943 and 1945; and at RKO from 1946 to 1948. The rest of her time in Hollywood was strictly free-lance. At MGM, her use of vibrant colours (she was fond of saying, that she saw everything "in blocks of colour"), became ideally suited to the new Technicolor process. An understanding of movement in the design of dresses also became a key element in her work on musicals.

Sharaff was nothing, if not prolific on Broadway, beginning with the musical revue "As Thousands Cheer" (1934), for which she created an entire ensemble of sepia-toned costumes to resemble early rotogravure pictures. Her versatility also encompassed designing for the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet. Her private time was spent sculpting and painting. Sharaff eventually attracted the attention of Hollywood producers.

Her first own creations appeared in Broadway by 1932.

She also added scenery design to her portfolio for Eva Le Gallienne's production of "Alice in Wonderland" (1932) and for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. Further accolades came her way for her costuming of Gertrude Lawrence, who played a fashion designer in "Lady in the Dark".

Was assistant to legendary designer Aline Bernstein in the 1930s at New York's famed Civic Repertory Theatre run by actress Eva Le Gallienne.