FIDM Annual Motion Picture Costumes Exhibit

The Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit is one of Downtown LA's most anticipated annual exhibits displayed every year at the FIDM Museum. The ExperienceLA Project had the chance to take photographs during the opening reception for the exhibit, and you can see the entire set here. Since this exhibit is organized before the Academy announce their Oscar nominations for costume design, there is never a guarantee that all of the nominated costume designers will have their productions on display. For the record here are the 2009 Oscar nominations and the costumer designer announced in mid-January:

Australia - Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Jacqueline West on display at FIDM (and shown as the lead to this posting)
The Duchess - Michael O’Connor on display at FIDM
Milk - Danny Glicker on display at FIDM
Revolutionary Road - Albert Wolsky

In addition to these nominated costumers, the 2008 Oscar winner, Alexandra Byrne has her award winning costumes from Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Two of this year's displayed costume sets are graduates of FIDM, Marlene Stewart from Stop Loss (who also did the costumes from Tropic Thunder) and Mona May from the House Bunny.

Last year the pictures I took became very popular as many of the costume bloggers linked to those 2008 FIDM pictures on flickr attracting over 3,000 views, as there were many popular pictures in 2007 that had captured the imagination of the audience. The costumes likely to be of interest to the general public will mostly likely be from the Dark Knight andIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You can also see the costumes from Best Picture Oscar nominated films of Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Doubt.

FIDM is only a few blocks from the Blue Line station at Pico/Chick Hearn, or a little big longer walk from the 7th/Metro Station for the Red/Purple Lines. In the morning, I always see FIDM students walking from the Metro public transit stations to school, and I recommend this as a great transit destination for those wanting to go downtown and do something different on the weekend. It is only in 2008 that FIDM opened their Museum on Sundays. The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday and the exhibit runs from January 28, 2009 to March 20, 2009. While visiting the museum, a must see is the FIDM Museum shop which features a range of items for FIDM current and former students along with costume related books. The jewelry is fabulous. A great place to shop for Valentine's Day for that unique gift.

A visit to FIDM can also be a visit to the Grammy Museum and the new restaurants at LA Live where there are a range of restaurants from affordable to very expensive. With discounted airfares starting to show up, think about a visit to Downtown LA to see these two museums and stay at one of the many downtown hotels. Take the time to explore the rest of downtown LA, and you will be surprised at all of the things to do along with many destination restaurant around the downtown area. The FIDM Motion Picture Costume exhibit is worth a visit to LA. The FIDM Museum will also be open during the evening of the February 12th Downtown Art Walk

Watch for additional blog postings on this FIDM exhibit over the next 2 months.