Vera West

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Vera West (born June 28, 1900 in New York City , † June 29, 1947 in Los Angeles ) was an American fashion and costume designer for films. From 1928 to 1947 she was the chief designer of Universal Pictures .

Life

Vera West attended the Philadelphia Institute of Design, where she learned tailoring from Lucile , a fashion designer with a wealthy clientele in London , Paris and New York. After graduating, West designed dresses for a fashion salon on Fifth Avenue in New York, whose customers were high society . In the mid-1920s she was forced to leave New York for personal, unknown reasons. She eventually went to Hollywood, where she found employment at Universal Pictures as a replacement for the over 60-year-old costume designer Lucia Coulter, and in 1928 rose to the position of chief designer at the film studio. The first production for which she made costumes based on her own designs was the Victor Hugo film The Man Who Laughs (1928) by German director Paul Leni . From then on, West was used as a costume designer for countless horror films by the studio. She was primarily responsible for the costumes for the female cast. For scenes that took place during the day, she preferred to dress the female characters in suits made of tweed or wool. Her evening dresses, which were similar to the style of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel, were mostly white. West also appeared as a costume designer for numerous films in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone in the lead role and for productions with the young Deanna Durbin . Stars such as Irene Dunne ( Magnificent Obsession , 1935), Marlene Dietrich ( The Great Bluff , 1939; The Buccaneer , 1942), and María Montez ( Arabian Nights , 1942; Ali Baba and the Forty Robbers , 1944; The Pirates , 1944) also dressed them for the canvas. In early 1947 West left Universal and devoted himself again to haute couture with a fashion collection for a salon in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel .

Vera West was married to the businessman Jack C. West. On June 29, 1947, she was found dead in the pool of her Los Angeles home. Based on two notes she left that indicated she had been blackmailed for years, the police suspected she was suicide by drowning. However, the exact circumstances of death could never be fully clarified. West found her final resting place in the Great Mausoleum in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale .

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • West, Vera . In: Elizabeth Leese: Costume Design in the Movies: An Illustrated Guide to the Work of 157 Great Designers . Dover Publications, 1991, ISBN 0-486-26548-X , p. 124.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ West, Vera . In: Allan R. Ellenberger: Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory . McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub, 2001, p. 76.
  2. ↑ a b c Derek McCormack: Vera West . thefanzine.com, July 21, 2005.
personal data
SURNAME West, Vera
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fashion and costume designer
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1947
Place of death los Angeles