Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/989249
Spring 2018 The Costume Designer 19 LUSTER BAYLESS By Christine Cover Ferro CD Luster Bayless was born into a sharecropper family in Ruleville, along the Mississippi Delta. Often spending hard days with his father in the fields to help make ends meet, a teenage Bayless escaped to the movies whenever he could. His hero, of course, was John Wayne. After a stint in the Navy and playing football in junior college for a year, he knew he wanted a life beyond Ruleville. His childhood friend Jimmy George had already gone out to Hollywood to work at Western Costume Company and was able to get him an interview. Bayless promptly hitchhiked to California and convinced the manager to hire him. Having assisted one of the costumers in prepping for the film McLintock!, Bayless was offered work as John Wayne's costumer. This would be the begin- ning of a lifelong partnership, as well as a deep friendship. Among their projects together were True Grit, The Train Robbers, Cahill U.S. Marshall, and McQ. Bayless credits Wayne and Walt Disney, with whom he worked for five years, with helping him establish his career. In 1977, Bayless had the idea to create a costume company independent of the movie studios. He gathered leftover wardrobe items after filming was com- plete, amassing a collection which began in his garage and ultimately was moved to a warehouse. The United American Costume Corp. was born. Bayless special- ized in a 200-year span of American history, from 1770 to 1970, and continually added to the collection from sources all over the United States while working as a Costume Designer. Bayless has always championed the idea that Costume Designers are film- makers. In the '80s, Bayless turned a dry goods store on Ruleville's Ruby Street into the Hollywood Costume Museum. He hoped to put his hometown on the movie buff's map. There he is able to display prized pieces too valuable to be in circulation, from Lonesome Dove to Django Unchained to items with sentimen- tal value, like the rifle John Wayne gave him. Presently, his daughter Diana Foster runs the company. Bayless is semi- retired, and divides his time between Ruleville and Los Angeles. BONNIE NIPAR By Christine Cover Ferro CD Bonnie Nipar didn't set out to be a Costume Designer; a friend who recog- nized her innate talent recommended her to assist on a small TBS show in 1986, and her path was forever changed. Nipar's hard work, natural eye for style, and diligent networking landed her progressively higher profile jobs, from assisting Theodora Van Runkle, Louise Frogley, Michael Kaplan, and May Routh on big- budget commercials, many for Super Bowl Sunday, to nine years supervising series for Casey-Werner, until she headed up her first series, Townies, in 1996. Though the series only ran for one season, star Jenna Elfman was impressed enough with her work to recommend her for her next series, Dharma & Greg, which remains Nipar's favorite design project. At a time that the industry was shifting into far more elevated TV Costume Design, Nipar was at the crest of that wave, joining the Guild during the first season of Dharma & Greg and getting her first series designer credit. The show would cement lifelong relationships with the shows' writers, all of whom hired her on future pilots and series. She designed two or three every On June 3, the Legacy Honorees and their contribution to Costume Design were celebrated at a luncheon at the Costume Designers Guild.