Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/989249
20 The Costume Designer Spring 2018 pilot season for many years. Nipar says, "Where some Costume Designers turn down pilots because of the fast pace and stress load, I thrive on them. Visually creating the characters is the exciting part!" From the moment she joined, Nipar has been devoted in her service to the Guild, always answering the call when volunteers were needed, from licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, to chairing committees. Presently, she is an 892 IATSE Delegate and our esteemed colleague at the magazine as associate editor. HELEN COLVIG By Louise Harding CD Helen Colvig was born in San Diego in 1922 and grew up in Los Angeles. Her first job in the costume department was on the Shower of Stars, a live musical comedy show that aired during the Golden Era of TV in the '50s. While sitting at home one evening watching The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, she noticed the costumes and she got through to the costume department simply to compliment the designer, Burton Miller. He told her they didn't hire women in the costume department! She replied that she wasn't looking for a job; she was already working on live TV. He took her number "Just in case we ever need a woman in our department." The next day, he called and asked her, "Do you know what a Merry Widow is?" "Of course!" she replied. "Well, Fay Wray wants one and I don't know what it is." So, she found herself on scripted television working on Hitchcock. Her very next task was to design and make a costume for a ventriloquist dummy—a Russian Princess that was manipulated by actor Claude Rains, who apparently became obsessed with the dummy, fell in love with his 'Babushka,' and kept her. "That was a bit weird," she says. Helen went onto be the Costume Designer for Psycho with Hitchcock. "He wanted off-the-rack clothes. He didn't want anything made. The costumes had to slowly develop as the characters revealed themselves. Janet Leigh wore a white bra in the beginning of the film and later, to show how she had fallen, we put her in a black bra. Subtle changes were what Hitchcock wanted. Tony Perkins had to look normal and friendly in the beginning, but we all know how that progressed!" After Psycho, Helen's career took off. She designed costumes for movie star Ida Lupino's direction of The Trouble with Angels, starring Rosalind Russell. "Ida was a terrific woman and very knowledgeable." The sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain really threw her for a loop. "We had no idea what the future looked like back then and I had absolutely no frame of reference. I had to dream it up." She worked with Clint Eastwood on his directorial debut Play Misty for Me. "He insisted on wearing this awful hat throughout the movie," she chuckled. Then there's the fabled Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, for which she did all the illustrations, but they took the production to Germany to save money and she had no say in the building of the costumes at all. She was very disappointed by that. Helen also designed many Westerns. "I loved doing Westerns! As a kid, Tom Mix was my hero, so I was in my element." She says she found her life's dream designing costumes and that it was always a thrill for her each and every day at work. At 96 years old, Helen still has a passion for costumes and film. "It's magic," she says. "It's always magic."