KENT, Ohio — After traveling the country, the priceless collection of Katharine Hepburn’s costumes has returned home to its permanent place at the Kent State University Museum.
In celebration of the museum’s 25th-anniversary year, “Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen” features costumes from her films and stage productions, movie posters, vintage photographs and playbills.
During her 66-year career, the legendary actress won a record four Academy Awards for best actress and was nominated 12 times.
Hepburn fans will be thrilled to see costumes from the 1939 stage production of “The Philadelphia Story” and the 1969 musical “Coco.” The clothes span the decades, from the sultry black evening gown from the 1949 film “Adam’s Rib” to the blue work shirt Hepburn wore in the 1981 film “On Golden Pond.”
Visitors can get up close to the costumed mannequins, near enough to see the frayed material and imperfect hand stitching on the pale nightgown from “State of the Union,” Hepburn’s 1948 film with Spencer Tracy. Her makeup kit, with original Chanel lipstick and false eyelashes, is an extraordinary treat for fashion historians.
Hepburn, who died in 2003 at the age of 96, worked closely with well-known costume designers like Edith Head. “One does not design for Miss Hepburn, one designs with her,” Head said. Head won eight Academy Awards for costume design, more Oscars than any other woman. The leather hat Head designed for Hepburn for the 1975 film “Rooster Cogburn” is on display.
The exhibition playfully showcases more than 30 pairs of her famous slacks. “I realized long ago that skirts are hopeless … anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try one. Try a skirt,’ ” Hepburn said in the 1993 documentary “All About Me”.
According to the exhibition literature, the museum inherited the treasure trove of Hepburn’s clothes in 2008, when the Estate of Katharine Hepburn donated the costumes they found in her New York City home. Hepburn requested the clothes be donated to an educational institution.
The exhibition is open through Sunday, Sept. 2. For more information, visit: https://www.kent.edu/museum/current-exhibits.
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