Costumes from over a century of film-making

100 Hollywood Costume is a major new exhibition launching in autumn (20 October 2012 – 27 January 2013) at the V&A museum, London. The exhibition will gather together over 100 of the most iconic costumes designed for unforgettable cinema characters over a century of film-making. To celebrate the launch of the exhibition, we take a look at some of the most iconic costumes that will be featured in the display and the history behind them.

The Birds (1963)

Costume Designer – Edith Head

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren)

Edith Head, whose long career in Hollywood garnered her more Academy Awards than any other woman in history, extensively collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock. In The Birds, the character of Melanie Daniels spends the majority of the film in an omnipresent pale green suit, reminiscent of the style of previous Hitchcock heroines. Head’s challenge was making sure the action of the movie could take place in just one versatile outfit, which Hitchcock had clearly instructed to be green.