Elizabeth Haffenden
{{Short description|British costume designer (1906–1976)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| imagesize =
| name = Elizabeth Haffenden
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|4|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = Croydon, Surrey, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|5|29|1906|4|18|df=y}}
| death_place = London, England
| occupation = Costume designer
| yearsactive = 1934–1975
| spouse =
| children =
}}
Elizabeth Haffenden (18 April 1906 – 29 May 1976) was a British costume designer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards and a BAFTA Award. She is perhaps best known for creating the costumes for most of the Gainsborough melodramas.
Education and Career
Elizabeth Haffenden was born in Croydon to wholesale draper James Wilson-Haffenden and Edith Carruthers. Elizabeth Haffenden trained at Croydon School of Art and the Royal College of Art. After working as a commercial artist she entered theatre costume design working with Laurence Irving.{{Cite web |last=Cook |first=Pam |title=Haffenden [Wilson-Haffenden], Elizabeth (1906–1976), costume designer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-66083 |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |language= |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001|doi-broken-date=5 May 2025 }}
Haffenden's first film costume designs were for Colonel Blood (1933, working alongside art directors Laurence Irving and John Bryan. In 1939 she joined Gaumont British film studios, and from 1942–1949 she was in charge of the costume department for the popular cycle of Gainsborough melodramas, produced at Shepherds Bush. These included The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945). Costume historian Pam Cook has described Haffenden's Gainsborough projects as "visually splendid ... and the company promoted several of the films on the basis of their costumes". Haffenden's designs for Caravan (1944) and The Wicked Lady (1945) anticipated the post-war new look fashion style, and offered "extravagant sexual display" through low cut bodices and translucent fabrics. Costumes from The Wicked Lady were acquired for the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum.{{Citation |last=Haffenden |first=Elizabeth |title=The Wicked Lady |date=1945 |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1314772/the-wicked-lady-costume-haffenden-elizabeth/ |access-date=2025-04-03}}
In the 1950s Haffenden worked as resident costume designer for the British branch of MGM-British studios, Elstree.{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Pam |title=Fashioning the nation: costume and identity in British cinema |date=1996 |publisher=British Film Institute |isbn=978-0-85170-469-2 |edition= |location=London |pages=129–135}}
From the late 1950s Haffenden worked as a freelance costume designer with Joan Bridge, who had worked as a Technicolor consultant at Gainsborough in 1946, where the pair met. Haffenden and Bridge worked together on period dramas, comedies and thrillers, starting with Ben Hur (1959), which won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Haffenden and Bridge were frequent collaborators with director Fred Zinnemann. They worked on five films for Zinnemann, across a range of periods and locations that required thoughtful costuming, including The Sundowners (1960), set in 1920s Australia, the Spanish-set Behold a Pale Horse (1964), Tudor drama A Man for All Seasons (1966) and the recent history of Day of the Jackal (1973).
Haffenden and Bridge were jointly nominated for British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) for The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) and Half a Sixpence (1967), and were awarded a BAFTA and Oscar for A Man for All Seasons (1966).
In subsequent decades Haffenden and Bridge designed costumes for notable films including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
Haffenden died in London on 29 May 1976, while she was prepping costumes for the film Julia.
Selected filmography
File:Debbie Reynolds Auction - "Ben-Hur" costumes (1959) (5851596043).jpg (1959)]]
- The Last Waltz (1936)
- The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
- The Man in Grey (1943)
- Fanny by Gaslight (1944)
- Give Us the Moon (1944)
- Two Thousand Women (1944)
- Love Story (1944)
- Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945)
- A Place of One's Own (1945)
- I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945)
- Caravan (1946)
- Bedelia (1946)
- The Magic Bow (1946)
- The Man Within (1947)
- Jassy (1947)
- Uncle Silas (1947)
- The First Gentleman (1948)
- The Bad Lord Byron (1949)
- Christopher Columbus (1949)
- Call of the Blood (1949)
- The Spider and the Fly (1949)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- The Sundowners (1960)
- A Man for All Seasons (1966)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Awards and nominations
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0353111|name=Elizabeth Haffenden}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Elizabeth Haffenden
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{{AcademyAwardBestCostumeDesign 1948–1960}}
{{BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design}}
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Category:Best Costume Design Academy Award winners
Category:Best Costume Design BAFTA Award winners
Category:British costume designers
Category:British women costume designers