Julia Squire (1926–1989) was a British costume designer for film. Squire established a career within British period, comedy and melodrama cinema in the 1950s, costuming at least fifteen films within the decade. Born in Surrey, Julia went to St Michael's school, Petworth, then aged 18, she enrolled at Central School of Art, London. Her father was the author and editor J C Squire.

Career

Squire's first film costuming credit was as an assistant to

Orry-Kelly Orry-Kelly was the professional name of Orry George Kelly (31 December 1897 – 27 February 1964), an Australian-American Cinema of the United States, Hollywood costume designer. Until being overtaken by Catherine Martin (designer), Catherin ...

on '' London Town'' (1946). In 1948, she assisted George K. Benda on ''

Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...

'', starring David Niven. And the following year, Squire assisted costume designer

Roger Furse Roger Kemble Furse (11 September 1903 – 19 August 1972) was an English painter who worked as a costume designer and production designer for both stage and film. Career Roger Furse was the son of Lieutenant General Sir William Furse and Jea ...

on the Hitchcock film ''

Under Capricorn ''Under Capricorn'' is a 1949 British historical drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a couple in Australia who started out as lady and stable boy in Ireland, and who are now bound together by a horrible secret. The film is based on t ...

'' (1949). For the whole decade of the 1950s, Squire was busy with a range of British films, working with renowned directors Powell and Pressburger, John Huston, and David Lean, in the "experimental" early days of Technicolor. In '' Gone to Earth'' (1950), Julia and her co-designer Ivy Baker created a period drama that retained the style of the mid-twentieth century. Film historian Jonathan Faiers has described their design of a dress for actor Jennifer Jones as a "shocking shade of yellow... contrasting against the dazzling Technicolor azure sky ... it is otherworldly, exotic, sexual, bewitching and repulsive". ''

The Magic Box ''The Magic Box'' is a 1951 British Technicolor biographical drama film directed by John Boulting. The film stars Robert Donat as William Friese-Greene, with numerous cameo appearances by performers such as Peter Ustinov and Laurence Olivie ...

,'' for which Squire was main costume designer, was made for the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

in 1951, and had a costume budget of £20,000 and a panoply of stars in cameo roles. Interviewed to promote the film, Squire explained she had two months to find the right "faded grey suit" for the star

Robert Donat Friedrich Robert Donat ( ; 18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English actor. Making his breakthrough film role in Alexander Korda's ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933), today he is best remembered for his roles in ''The Count of Monte C ...

, and had a "tricky problem" with

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...

's policeman's tunic. In 1952, working from Berman's costume house, Julia Squire designed and supervised the costumes for ''Moulin Rouge'', a colourful biopic of

Toulouse-Lautrec ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful an ...

, starring

José Ferrer José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hi ...

. Squire's design work on the film went uncredited, with the more famous name of

Elsa Schiaparelli Elsa Schiaparelli ( , , ; 10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian fashion designer from an Italian nobility, aristocratic background. She created the Schiaparelli (fashion house), house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she ...

(who designed a number of

Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor ( , ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialites and actresses Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the ...

's costumes) appearing in the credits, along with

Marcel Vertès Marcel Vertès (born Marcell Vértes, 10 August 1895 – 31 October 1961) was a French costume designer and illustrator of Hungarian-Jewish origins. He won two Academy Awards ( Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design) for his work on the ...

, who took both Art Direction and Costume Design Academy Awards for the film. The ''New York Times'' praised the costumes' contribution to the "vivacious and exciting" movie.

Personal life

On 22 December 1950, Julia Squire married George Baker. Their wedding took place at 7.00pm, after Squire had spent a long day managing fittings with Robert Donat for ''The Magic Box''. They had four children, and were later divorced. Squire died in 1989, in Oxfordshire, England.

Selected filmography

* ''

'' (1949) directed by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

. * '' Gone to Earth'' (1950), directed by

Powell & Pressburger The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. T ...

. * ''

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman ''Pandora and the Flying Dutchman'' is a 1951 British Technicolor Romance film, romantic Fantasy film, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Albert Lewin. The screenplay is based on legend of the Flying Dutchma ...

'' (1951), co-designed with

Beatrice Dawson Beatrice Dawson (26 January 1908 – 16 April 1976), nicknamed "Bumble" in the entertainment world, was a British costume designer. Her accolades include nominations for an Academy Award and three British Academy Film Awards. Dawson's frequent ...

. * ''

'' (1951) * ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952) * ''

Women of Twilight ''Women of Twilight'' is a 1951 play by Sylvia Rayman that became a 1952 film directed by Gordon Parry. Plot "The scene throughout is a semi-basement living room in a house near London, a grim and sordid place inhabited for sleeping and eatin ...

'' (1952) * ''

The Heart of the Matter ''The Heart of the Matter'' (1948) is a novel by English author Graham Greene. The book details a life-changing moral crisis for Henry Scobie. Greene, a former British intelligence officer in Freetown, British Sierra Leone, drew on his exper ...

'' (1953) * '' The Captain's Paradise'' (1953) * ''An Inspector Calls'' (1954) * ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and ...

'' (1954) * ''

Hobson's Choice A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that choices are available. The best known example is "I'll give you a choice: Take it or leave it", wherein "leaving ...

'' (1954), co-designed with John Armstrong. * '' The Man Who Loved Redheads'' (1955) * '' Double Cross'' (1956) * ''

Port Afrique ''Port Afrique'' is a 1956 British drama film directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Pier Angeli, Philip Carey and Dennis Price as Robert Blackton. It was written by John Cresswell based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Bernard Victor Dryer ...

'' (1956) * '' Beyond this Place (US title Web of Evidence)'' (1959) * ''

No Sex Please, We're British ''No Sex Please, We're British'' is a British farce written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, which premiered in London's West End on 3 June 1971 at the Strand Theatre. It was panned by critics, but ran until 5 September 1987, transferr ...

'' (1973)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Squire, Julia British costume designers British women costume designers English costume designers 1926 births 1989 deaths