Elizabeth Haffenden

Elizabeth Haffenden (18 April 1906 – 29 May 1976) was a British costume designer. She is recognized for her prolific work across stage and screen. She is best known for creating costumes for most of the Gainsborough melodramas. Haffenden received two Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design, for ''Ben-Hur'' (1959) and '' A Man for All Seasons'' (1966), winning both times.

Education and Career

Elizabeth Haffenden was born in Croydon to wholesale draper James Wilson-Haffenden and Edith Carruthers. Elizabeth Haffenden trained at Croydon School of Art and the Royal College of Art. After working as a commercial artist she entered theatre costume design working with Laurence Irving.

Haffenden's first film costume designs were for '' Colonel Blood'' (1933, working alongside art directors Laurence Irving and John Bryan. In 1939 she joined Gaumont British film studios, and from 1942–1949 she was in charge of the costume department for the popular cycle of Gainsborough melodramas, produced at Shepherds Bush. These included ''The Man in Grey'' (1943) and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945). Costume historian Pam Cook has described Haffenden's Gainsborough projects as "visually splendid ... and the company promoted several of the films on the basis of their costumes". Haffenden's designs for ''Caravan'' (1944) and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945) anticipated the post-war new look fashion style, and offered "extravagant sexual display" through low cut bodices and translucent fabrics. Costumes from The Wicked Lady were acquired for the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In the 1950s Haffenden worked as resident costume designer for the British branch of MGM-British studios, Elstree.

From the late 1950s Haffenden worked as a freelance costume designer with Joan Bridge, who had worked as a Technicolor consultant at Gainsborough in 1946, where the pair met. Haffenden and Bridge worked together on period dramas, comedies and thrillers, starting with ''Ben Hur'' (1959), which won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Haffenden and Bridge were frequent collaborators with director Fred Zinnemann. They worked on five films for Zinnemann, across a range of periods and locations that required thoughtful costuming, including ''The Sundowners'' (1960), set in 1920s Australia, the Spanish-set ''Behold a Pale Horse'' (1964), Tudor drama ''A Man for All Seasons'' (1966) and the recent history of ''Day of the Jackal'' (1973).

Haffenden and Bridge were jointly nominated for British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) for ''The Amorous'' ''Adventures of Moll Flanders'' (1965) and '' Half a Sixpence'' (1967), and were awarded a BAFTA and Oscar for '' A Man for All Seasons'' (1966).

In subsequent decades Haffenden and Bridge designed costumes for notable films including '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1968) and ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971).

Haffenden died in London on 29 May 1976, while she was prepping costumes for the film ''Julia.''

Selected filmography

* ''The Last Waltz'' (1936)
* '' The Young Mr. Pitt'' (1942)
* ''The Man in Grey'' (1943)
* '' Fanny by Gaslight'' (1944)
* ''Give Us the Moon'' (1944)
* ''Two Thousand Women'' (1944)
* ''Love Story'' (1944)
* ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945)
* '' A Place of One's Own'' (1945)
* ''I'll Be Your Sweetheart'' (1945)
* ''Caravan'' (1946)
* '' Bedelia'' (1946)
* '' The Magic Bow'' (1946)
* '' The Man Within'' (1947)
* '' Jassy'' (1947)
* ''Uncle Silas'' (1947)
* '' The First Gentleman'' (1948)
* ''The Bad Lord Byron'' (1949)
* ''Christopher Columbus'' (1949)
*'' Call of the Blood'' (1949)
* '' The Spider and the Fly'' (1949)
*''Ben-Hur'' (1959)
*'' The Sundowners'' (1960)
*'' A Man for All Seasons'' (1966)
*''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' (1968)
*''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haffenden, Elizabeth
1906 births
1976 deaths
Best Costume Design Academy Award winners
Best Costume Design BAFTA Award winners
British costume designers
British women costume designers
English costume designers
People from Croydon