Raissa Bretaña (CFA’13) (left), Chris Sorensen; and Coleen Scott (CFA’04), Ben Trivett

Conversation

Fashion Historians Raissa Bretaña (CFA’13) and Coleen Scott (CFA’04) on the Golden Age of Hollywood and their lifelong passion for costume design

Many of those costume designers—people like Gilbert Adrian, Edith Head, Irene Sharaff, and Orry-Kelly—were nearly as famous as the stars they dressed. At one time, their costumes were so popular, they were often copied and sold in department stores around the world.

Today, fashion historians Coleen Scott (’04) and Raissa Bretaña (’13) are working to keep the legacy of Hollywood’s costume designers alive. Scott, who earned an MFA in costume design at the School of Theatre, is a costume designer, head of costume technology and makeup at Santa Rosa Junior College, and the coauthor of The Costumes of Hollywood: Highlights from the Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design (Routledge, 2025). Bretaña, who earned her undergraduate degree in costume design at the School of Theatre, is a staff member at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and has lectured widely on historical fashion and costume design. She is the coauthor of Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood (Abbeville Press, 2024) and the forthcoming Fashion of the Gilded Age (Abbeville Press, 2026).

The two met for the first time when CFA magazine brought them together to discuss how the school helped them hone their craft and perspective and their favorite designers, stars, and outfits from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The Conversation

Coleen Scott: Raissa, how did you become interested in fashion and costume design?

Raissa Bretaña: I’ve always had an ardent love for classic film and did a lot of theater in high school [where] I designed a lot of the costumes for those productions. I grew up in Los Angeles idolizing the work of Colleen Atwood (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator). I used to get my parents to drop me off at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising when they would have costume exhibits, and I would stand in front of the costumes and just marvel at them. What about you, what sparked your interest?

CS: I was also involved in theater as a young person, and I also always liked dressing up,and the idea of playing a character with the clothes. I went to UC Santa Cruz for undergrad, and I was recruited into their costume department when they saw I could draw. I also worked as a costume studio and design assistant with their professional theater company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Then I worked as an assistant costume director at a theater company in the Bay Area before coming to grad school at BU for my MFA. What was your experience like at BU?

RB: It was the costume history class I took that woke me up to this discipline of fashion history. So many of our classes took frequent field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts, and seeing the fashion exhibits there steered me into the path I’m on now. My favorite class at BU was the millinery course taught by Denise Wallace-Spriggs (’16). That class kept me employed when I moved to New York. I survived by working at a theatrical millinery shop, making hats for musicals like Wicked and Aladdin.

Left: Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro wearing costumes designed by Gilbert Adrian in Mata Hari (1931). PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy. Right: Marlene Dietrich wearing her iconic tuxedo in Morocco (1930). Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy

CS: I’m teaching millinery right now, and Denise’s hats are always a part of my presentations. I loved the fabric dyeing class too. The program is really special in that way. We’ve both written about Hollywood’s Golden Age. Who do you think were the most iconic stars from the period?

RB: Joan Crawford is my main girl—she epitomized glamour and movie stardom. But from a historian’s perspective, I love that she was able to adapt to each decade of her career. You think of her as Joan Crawford with the broad shoulders from the 1940s, but she also really codified what the cinematic flappers looked like in the 1920s. What about you?

CS: Dietrich is a really big one for me. But Marilyn Monroe has to be in there as well and then, a little bit later, Natalie Wood. What about designers from that period?

RB: As a fashion historian, I love Adrian because he went on to have a career as a couturier after he left MGM. I love that he really exists in both spaces. I love watching the fashion show sequence from The Women and recognizing elements that were present in the latest collections from Elsa Schiaparelli.

CS: You can’t mention that period without bringing up Edith Head, because she was so prolific, but I have a real affinity for Irene Sharaff because she crossed over from doing Broadway musicals to doing the film version of the musical. I love the idea of being able to design for the live performance of a show and then translate it again for screen.

RB: Edith Head is her own greatest work. I find her particularly fascinating because she was one of the few designers who wasn’t interested in pursuing a career in fashion. She just wanted to tell a good story onscreen, and I have to respect her for that.

CS: What about current designers?

RB: Right now, I’ve got to say, Paul Tazewell (Wicked) is my absolute favorite.

CS: Paul’s really leading the costume design parade right now.

RB: He’s so meticulous. He does really detailed research, and I marvel at the breadth of his career. I feel lucky to be on this earth at the same time that he’s working. How about you?

CS: Colleen Atwood was a huge influence. Sandy Powell has done brilliant things. And Ruth Carter (Black Panther, Sinners) is at the tippy top right now. She’s made such a mark on culture, for her Afrofuturism. I love her. What about designers working in television right now?

RB: I’ve had the great honor of working with Lou Eyrich (Glee, American Horror Story) on quite a few shows. She’s brilliant. To my knowledge, she’s the only costume designer who’s been elevated to the rank of producer. In addition to being so kind, she’s so prolific and invested in research. Whenever she does a period show, I usually get a call. She’s one of my favorite people to work with.

CS: She’s a force in Hollywood with the work she’s doing with Ryan Murphy. And, thinking about Paul Tazewell—the refinement and detail in his work and the depth of his research—he’s amazing. Even the tailoring in the uniforms in Wicked was impeccable. I couldn’t stop looking at all the details.

Left: Paul Tazewell, who designed the costumes for John M. Chu’s screen adaptation of Wicked, is one of Scott and Bretaña’s favorite contemporary Hollywood designers. Tracy Nguyen/The New York Times/Redux. Right:The Afrofuturistic costumes for Black Panther (2018) designed by Ruth Carter. Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures Album Alamy

RB: When you think about current fashion icons, who comes to mind?

CS: I think Colman Domingo is killing it everywhere he goes. I adore all of his looks.

RB: I don’t think anybody would fight me when I say Zendaya is the fashion icon of our moment, but what I think has made her such a fashion icon on the red carpet is the work of her stylist, Law Roach. He tells stories on the red carpet; what he does overlaps a lot with the work costume designers do.

CS: What are your thoughts about designers taking liberties when creating costumes for period pieces?

RB: People think that I am a huge stickler for accuracy because I hosted a video series for Glamour in which I fact-checked period costumes, but I actually love historical anachronisms! I find that deviation from accuracy can be more interesting than accuracy itself.

CS: The point is that it has to be a choice, not an accident because you didn’t do your research, right? It has to be “I know as much as I possibly can about this and now I’m choosing to put a spin on it.”

RB: That’s why I love the costumes on HBO’s The Gilded Age so much. Even though some of the costumes are really wild, you can tell the designers did their research. I can look at one of the show’s costumes and I know that they are reinterpreting a real historical artifact.

CS: If there was one Hollywood costume you could have in your closet, what would it be?

RB: My gut answer is the eyeball blouse that Rosalind Russell wears at the beginning of The Women. That whole ensemble is one of my favorite cinematic looks.

CS: I’d probably pick something that’s head-to-toe sparkly. The red gown that Julia Roberts wears in Pretty Woman is so beautiful. And there’s the gold gown Barbra Streisand wears in Hello, Dolly! That’s a pretty great one.