Nominated for fifteen Academy Awards, charismatic costumer Irene Sharaff once declared "you can acquire chic and elegance, but style itself is a a rare thing" (NY Times, August 17, 1993). During her long and distinguished career, Sharaff became known as much for her meticulous attention to detail and her sense of colour as for her versatility in adapting to many genres and periods. For this, she drew inspiration from a wide variety of sources, which included impressionist and post-impressionist painting.
Irene Sharaff received her training from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, the Arts Student League and at La Grande Chaumiere in Paris. Her first work in the world of fashion was as illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She then served a two-year apprenticeship as assistant designer under Aline Bernstein at the Civic Repertory Theatre Company. Her first own creations appeared in Broadway by 1932. She also added scenery design to her portfolio for Eva Le Gallienne's production of "Alice in Wonderland" (1932) and for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. Further accolades came her way for her costuming of Gertrude Lawrence, who played a fashion designer in "Lady in the Dark". Sharaff was nothing, if not prolific on Broadway, beginning with the musical revue "As Thousands Cheer" (1934), for which she created an entire ensemble of sepia-toned costumes to resemble early rotogravure pictures. Her versatility also encompassed designing for the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet. Her private time was spent sculpting and painting.
Sharaff eventually attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. However, she would only spend a total of four years under contract: at MGM, for the Arthur Freed unit, between 1943 and 1945; and at RKO from 1946 to 1948. The rest of her time in Hollywood was strictly free-lance. At MGM, her use of vibrant colours (she was fond of saying, that she saw everything "in blocks of colour"), became ideally suited to the new Technicolor process. An understanding of movement in the design of dresses also became a key element in her work on musicals. Sharaff did her best designs in the 1950's on Le chant du Missouri (1944), Un Américain à Paris (1951), Blanches colombes et vilains messieurs (1955) and Le roi et moi (1956). For the latter, she created history twice: first, by convincing Yul Brynner to shave his head; secondly, for her prodigious use of Thai silk, which created such a stir in the world of high fashion that the product ended up becoming Thailand's number one export.
From the late 1950's, Sharaff often alternated work on the same production for both Broadway and Hollywood, notably West Side Story (1961)(stage version, 1964) , Flower Drum Song (1961) (stage version, 1958) and Funny Girl (1968) (stage version, 1964). She became a favorite costumer of Elizabeth Taylor, designing in starkly contrasting styles the bohemian/swinging sixties outfits she wore in Le chevalier des sables (1965), her flowing, ornate renaissance dress in La mégère apprivoisée (1967) and, in collaboration with Renié, her opulent costumes for Cléopâtre (1963).
