Description: A tribute to and examination of the contributions of costume designers to Hitchcock's illustrious film career.
Brief description: Caroline Young is an author from Edinburgh, Scotland, who specializes in film, fashion and popular culture. Her previous works include The It Girls: Glamor, Celebrity, and Scandal, Hitchcock's Heroines, Living with Coco Chanel, Audrey in Paris, The Fabulous Frances Farquharson: The Colourful Life of an American in the Highlands, and Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror, which was nominated for both a Rondo Hatton Award 2023 and the 2022 Richard Wall Memorial Award.
Review Quotes:
"A shrewd, psychologically clued-in, near-comprehensive investigation." --Kirkus Review
"Young brilliantly proves that these fashion choices elevated the films. A fascinating look at the Golden Age of Hollywood and an essential component of Hitchcock's cinematic toolbox." --Library Journal "Students and fans of film and fashion will obsess over the fascinating stories in this stylish treatment." --Booklist "Caroline Young masterfully reveals the symbolic language of costume in Hitchcock's films, unearthing extraordinary details about the auteur's process and the designers who brought his vision to life. From Edith Head's visual genius to the power of a grey suit, Young shows how every costume choice deepened character and heightened suspense. A must-read for anyone fascinated by Hollywood's Golden Age." --Jennifer O'Callaghan, author, "Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age" "With a passion for fashion matched by rigorous research, Caroline Young follows Hitchcock into the fitting room and out to the soundstage to reveal how essential costuming is to the Hitchcock Touch. For fans and scholars of cinema and style, this book is a perfect fit." --Joel Gunz, host, HitchCon International Alfred Hitchcock Conference and MacGuffin Film Club "Brava to Caroline Young for investigating an often overlooked yet significant area of Hitchcock study, which I have explored in my own work: the director's astute insistence upon visuality and ability to convey the social class, psychology, internal conflicts, motives, moods, and plot function of his female and male characters through such details of costuming as cut, color, fabric, texture, pattern, and finish. What's more, Hitchcock often shared his costume decisions with prospective actors even before signing them, sometimes fostering collaboration, other times igniting conflict. Young diligently explores her subject through Hitchcock's entire career." --Stephen Rebello, author, "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho", "Criss-Cross", and "Hitchcockian Thrillers"