On the Runway Blog: Exhibition on Katharine Hepburn

“A STAR practically always asks for a designer, if she has any sense,” Katharine Hepburn said in an unpublished interview from the mid 1970s. No one would dispute that Hepburn had heaps of sense, or be surprised that she had a lot to say about her legendary style. That is the subject of an exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center until Jan. 12.



Organized by the Kent State University Museum, which acquired her performance clothes (as well as personal items like khakis, shoes and makeup) after her death in 2003, “Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen” includes more than 40 costumes and other pieces she wore in plays and movies like “The Philadelphia Story,” “Adam’s Rib” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Also on display are letters, scripts and research notes that Hepburn made, and which are part of the library’s collection of her stage papers.

The actress was a great pack rat; she seemingly saved everything, according to Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, the curator of exhibitions at the library. In addition to somewhat peculiar items like a Russian military uniform from “The Iron Petticoat,” a 1956 comedy she made with Bob Hope, she also kept opening-night telegrams and floral cards. “Rebel Chic,” a companion book published by Skira Rizzoli, has essays by Ms. Cohen-Stratyner and Jean Druesedow, the director of the Kent State museum, as well as by Kohle Yohannan, who helped organize a terrific show years ago on Valentina, the Russian émigré designer who was a favorite of Hepburn’s. It was Valentina who designed the pink organza and crepe wedding gown that she wore in 1939 on Broadway in “The Philadelphia Story” and reused in 1973 as Amanda in “The Glass Menagerie.”

“Her waist went from 20 inches to 26 over her 96 years,” Ms. Druesedow said in an interview. When Ms. Druesedow visited a Connecticut warehouse, around 2008, where Hepburn’s clothing was stored, she was a little stunned by the depth: costumes by Muriel King, Howard Greer and Walter Plunkett, who was responsible for the gorgeous black draped evening dress in “Adam’s Rib.”

“And, of course, there were a lot of beige slacks,” said Ms. Druesedow, noting that Hepburn’s pants, like most of her shoes, were custom-made — in the case of the pants by costume houses like Brooks-Van Horn. For “Alice Adams,” she bought some of the costumes herself, like the Hattie Carnegie straw hat she wore in a scene with Fred MacMurray. She learned early to shape her characters through fashion.
Apart from her performances, Hepburn had a style far ahead of its time. Maybe we take that for granted. I loved a picture of Hepburn in “Rebel Chic.” Taken in 1932, around the time she made “A Bill of Divorcement,” she’s on the RKO lot wearing a pair of faded jeans and a mink coat, with a scarf knotted at her neck. That image could have been taken today, with the difference that Hepburn wasn’t trying to be someone cool or chic. She just was.

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