This Rome workshop is behind many Oscars for best costumes. Will “Napoleon” be next?

2024-03-06 07:52:02

ROME (AP) — For nearly six decades, the Tirelli workshop in Rome has been woven into the history of Italian and international cinema, earning the nickname “Oscar tailoring” for its contribution to film costume design.

Founded in November 1964 by the late Umberto Tirelli, the workshop has been behind 17 Academy Awards for best costume design. In their most recent collaboration, their artisans worked with Janty Yates and Dave Crossman to create the costumes for Ridley Scott’s epic “Napoleon.” Hollywood designers are aiming to win an Oscar at this weekend’s awards ceremony.

“Maybe I’ll win! Let’s add another medal to our collection,” said the current head of the business, Dino Trappetti, in an interview. “Of course, the Oscar is not won by the tailoring, the Oscar is won by the costume designer. But the tailoring has the merit and the honor of having participated to make him win.

The origin of the workshop was in Tirelli’s passion for collecting old clothing. He searched for pieces in aristocrats’ attics and flea markets around the world, patiently building a collection that now numbers more than 15,000 authentic pieces dating from between 1750 and 1980.

At first, the business had “one sewing machine, two cutters and two seamstresses,” Trappetti said.

Today, at the Tirelli Costumes headquarters in the Prati neighborhood of the Italian capital there are mannequins dressed in some of the workshop’s most famous creations, such as the delicate pink floral suit that Tom Hulce wore when playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in “Amadeus ”, by Milos Forman, — which earned Theodor Pistek the Oscar for best costume design —, or the red velvet bodice and feather dress worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Age of Innocence” “), for which the designer Gabriella Pescucci also took home the statuette.

When “Amadeus” won that Oscar in 1984, Tirelli could have made the international leap “because the market was immediately interested,” Trapetti said. But Tirelli, who died in 1990, was not convinced.

Trappetti recalled saying: “I’m not going to the United States. If the United States wants, let it come and get me.”

And so it has been.

In 60 years, the atelier has created more than 300,000 outfits that are now stored in a warehouse in Formello, near Rome, where double-height racks loaded with clothes stretch across almost 7,000 square meters (more than 75,000 square feet). Costume designers go there for inspiration, historical information and creations cut and sewn by hand by Tirelli’s team of seamstresses.

“These suits cannot be made in a factory. In a factory you can make movies with robots, futuristic or fantasy. But these things have to be done by hand,” Trappetti said.

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