54 The Costume Designer Summer 2020
Photos:
Twentieth
Century
Fox
(left)
Western
Costume
(right)
Cleopatra
Irene Sharaff
Few scenes sear into the memory like Cleopatra's dazzling entrance into Rome atop a sphynx.
The queen, embodied by Elizabeth Taylor, and seen through the lens of Joseph L. Mankiewicz,
was clothed by the wizardry, bravado, and mastery of Irene Sharaff.
Sharaff, an Armenian Costume Designer born in Boston, was one of the few with the for-
titude to contend with the improbable needs of the epic script and Taylor's constant weight
fluctuations. Additional excitement was generated by the tabloid kindling which was Taylor and
Richard Burton's love affair and the stigma of the film being the most expensive production to
date. Sharaff conjured 65 ensembles for the goddess, among the 26,000 costumes in the film. The
most unforgettable is the splendid cape of 24-carat gold cloth fashioned from strips of leather and
beads to resemble the wings of a phoenix, with a towering headdress to match.
When Taylor's head bows in one sharp movement of power and submission, the crowds
erupt in jubilant approval. The energy extended offscreen as well, as shock waves ricocheted
through 1960s fashion and claimed Sharaff one of her five Academy Awards.
SCRAPBOOK
by Anna Wyckoff
Irene Sharaff and head cutter-fitter Lily Fonda at
Western Costume Company in 1962.
