Recipient of the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship, Sandy Powell is a formidable force in the filmmaking industry. Her work is continually recognized and celebrated among her peers, earning the highest honors for achievement in costume design, including three Academy Awards. Her longstanding collaborations with directors Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, and Neil Jordan and actors Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett have encouraged Powell to design costumes that become characters of their own and vehicles of discovery for those who embody them.

In the debut exhibition of her work, visitors bear witness to Powell’s 40-year career of storytelling within a series of vignettes featuring more than 70 costumes from nearly 30 films, including Shakespeare in Love, The Wolf of Wall Street, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties. Experiencing Powell’s practice across an array of genres, periods, and realities, viewers are immersed in her legacy of worldbuilding.

Sandy Powell's Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film is curated by Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH museums.

About the artist
Taught to use a sewing machine at a young age, Sandy Powell developed an early infatuation with fashion when she began making clothes for her dolls. Seduced by the aesthetics of film and stage as a teen, Powell realized her love of design could be combined with her interest in storytelling. Following her secondary education, she briefly attended Saint Martin’s School of Art before entering the world of theater in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Lindsay Kemp. After branching into music videos, Powell designed costumes for Caravaggio, her first film with Derek Jarman, in 1986.

Throughout her career, Powell has designed for more than 50 films, from large-scale commercial ventures such as Disney’s Cinderella and Mary Poppins Returns to period films The Young Victoria and The Favourite and indie productions Velvet Goldmine and Living. Across her career, Powell has received numerous awards, including three BAFTAs (Velvet Goldmine, The Young Victoria, The Favourite), three Academy Awards (Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, The Young Victoria), and the Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award. In 2011 Powell was honored with the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Photo by Tim Walker