DAZED & CONFUSED recently caught up with none other than Marilyn Vance, the woman who singlehandedly dressed and designed the costumes for nearly every one of John Hughes‘ iconic characters in his classic films from the 1980s. From The Breakfast Club, to Pretty In Pink, to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Marilyn served as Costume Designer on these and other films including: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Weird Science and Pretty Woman.
Among the many highlights of the interview, Vance reveals how much Molly Ringwald hated that infamous pink dress: “She hated that dress! Molly actually hated it with such a passion you have no idea. A lot of her clothing as Andie Walsh I found in thrift stores, so I cut up two dresses to make the prom dress — just like she does in the film. Poor John Hughes, Molly’s in her trailer with her tutor, she hates the dress and he’s whining to me ‘You can’t make her do that, she hates it.’ I said ‘Andie is not going to wear like, a Madonna dress. And she’s not going to dress like the other kids, she’s an individual. She’s pulling clothes apart and making her own style.’ And John decided, OK that’s it, Molly is going to wear it.” You can read the interview in full by visiting DazedDigital.com. To learn more about Marilyn’s work be sure to visit her website at MarilynVance.com.
The interview was inspired by the brand new exhibition at London’s famed Victoria & Albert Museum entitled Hollywood Costume, which runs until January 27, 2013, highlighted by Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard Of Oz (1939), which are on a rare exclusive loan from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in their history (the shoes are the most visited object in the Smithsonian’s entire collection of American historical artifacts, and in the following CBS This Morning feature which you can watch below, the Director of the Smithsonian Institute reveals the biggest part of his job is replacing the carpet around the ruby slippers). To learn more you can visit the exhibition’s website by CLICKING HERE.
