Sharaff, Irene

▪ 1994

      U.S. costume designer (b. 1910, Boston, Mass.—d. Aug. 16, 1993, New York, N.Y.), created stylish and sumptuous fashion designs for some 60 stage productions, 40 motion pictures, and such ballet companies as the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet. In all, she received 15 Academy Award nominations and garnered 5 Oscars for designs for An American in Paris (1951), The King and I (1956), West Side Story (1961), Cleopatra (1963), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966); she also won a Tony award for the stage production of The King and I. Sharaff's leitmotiv was the use of her favourite colours—reds, oranges, and pinks. She created a fashion rage with her brilliant use of Thai silks in The King and I and ignited a boom in Thailand's silk industry. Sharaff initially studied painting at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, the Arts Students League, and the Grande Chaumière in Paris before serving as an illustrator for fashion magazines and securing a reputation for her costume and scenery designs in Eva Le Gallienne's 1932 production of Alice in Wonderland. Sharaff, who enjoyed a more than 50-year career, provided designs for the stage productions of As Thousands Cheer, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Lady in the Dark and for such films as Madame Curie, Meet Me in St. Louis, Guys and Dolls, Porgy and Bess, and Hello, Dolly! Other credits include both the stage and film adaptations of Funny Girl, Flower Drum Song, and West Side Story. Sharaff's last stage designs were created in 1972, and her last film designs were for Mommie Dearest (1981).

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