Marit Allen, 1941 - 2007.

Sad news via Nathaniel R: "Australian costumer designer Marit Allen died this week. She's the woman who brought you those shirts hanging famously, one inside the other, in Brokeback Mountain as well as that black sheath that the nude backside of Nicole Kidman slipped into in Eyes Wide Shut."

"When I met Allen, she was living in a gorgeous rooftop flat along the Thames in Hammersmith, with a massive 360-degree wraparound terrace teeming with plants," recalls the Oregonian's Shawn Levy. "I'll share a few of the stories she told me to convey something of her spirit and experience..." And you've got to spare a few moments for these.

"Tiny, precise, almost ethereal, Marit Allen burst on to the London fashion scene in the early 60s like a shooting star," writes Sandy Boler in the Independent. "As an editor at Queen and Vogue magazines, she revolutionised fashion journalism, and was responsible for setting up many of the images of Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, Penelope Tree and Marianne Faithfull that came to define the era. She was equally successful in her second career as a costume designer, working with some of the greatest names in the film industry, including Nicolas Roeg, Ang Lee and Stanley Kubrick. The director



Posted by dwhudson at December 5, 2007 1:45 PM