The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-18
MOVIE DRESSES
A BIG PROBLEM
~~y ~ Z. WziS

moving pictures, oiislHatiHs
" styles and then executing them
are part of the duties of Jane
Lewis head designer for the Nitagraph
Company of America. Miss Lewis &C.
cupies a position that is unique In
women's occupations.
Five years ago Miss Lewis under
went the task of providing the dresses
worn in the pictures of her. At that
time she had to work on two dresses,
a small room and advance orders on
what was wanted for the pictures to
be made within a few days. Since
that time Miss Lewis has been filling
the orders of the company. or the
hours that she spends In the workrooni
designing, fitting and changing the
styles Miss Lewis is called on for
many strange orders.
When she opens her desk in the
morning the busy young woman is
likely to find an order from the direc-
tor of one of the eighteen companies
that constantly are engaged In max
inS pictures asking that she furnish
by mot later than o'clock" twenty
live dresses of the Colonial period.
The girls who are to wear them are to
come in to he fitted within an hour
after the order is given. SO Miss
Lewis starts what seems the impossi-
bic task; but ii is accomplished and
when the picture is made in the after
noon the Colonial dresses are COM
pleted.
Through all the hurry and rush of
getting out the hundreds of dresses
that are called for Miss Lewis finds
nvar AZ 80 nj
that are to be produced and to design
costumes for the leading female char
acters.
Sometimes We are stumped," said
Miss Lewis in discussing her work,
out I don't think it ever can equal
the task that faced me when I first
started in to create the costumes for
the company. Two gowns were all
found and one of them was a calico
wrapper. But now we have 5000
gowns, and every one Of them is At to
be worn in a ballroom or at a Fifth
avenue reception.
You know when a picture Is TO be
made the director decides about the
Set and then he tells me the kind OF
costumes that he wants. Only the
other day ! made thirty-one gowns
FOR Anita Stewart To wear in one pic
ture. The average is from eight to
ten frocks for each picture. Some
times too there are twenty or thirty
girls in the one picture and each one
with half a dozen changes.
In moving pictures we show all
times of the day and that makes II
harder than 1t does for the ordinary
theatrical company. Take. for in
stance, one of the recent pictures that
We made. The daily life of the lead
ing woman character was shown. She
was seen in her Doudoir. in the street
IN her auto, at an afternoon tea. n
dinner and reception, on horseb back
and in her camp in the mountains.
Then there were several yachting
dresses, a. we'll as a bathing suit or
TWO and the hats for most every one,
or at any rate a headdress of some
kind
The cry continually is for clothes
that have never been worn in pictures
They always want them 70 be IN style
You can imagine something Of what
We have to contend with when you
know that we sometimes make scenes
for the pictures several months in adj
styles cnange so constantly that I
have to keep just ahead of the
fashions. Then again We are called
on for winter clothes in the summer
time and vice versa.
"All II our picturesque costumes for
European scenes that we make in this
country are made right here too, and
I'm likely TO be called on at any part
Of m" day for sixteenth century
clothes, or to tell somebody Just what
kind Of clothing was worn during the
second dynasty of the Chinese Empire
And TO each gown We have to lend
something of the individuality OF the
player, for the public likes its
favorltes in certain style clothes and
there soon would he tremendous
wave of objection if We didn't conform
10 some of the standards that have
been set up"