Dressing Cleopatra: Elizabeth Taylor and Irene Sharaff
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Few names are as big in golden age Hollywood costume design as Irene Sharaff, with a career that spanned decades and resulted in some of the most influential movie looks of all time. By the time she met Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra, the two women were at the top of their fields: Irene was already a decorated designer, having won Oscars for her work on An American in Paris and The King and I. Elizabeth on the other hand, was Hollywood's reigning star, having just signed a record $1 million contract with Fox for her titular role in Cleopatra. It’s no surprise that what these two women created together changed fashion and costume design forever.
Oliver Messel, who had dressed Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra and already worked with Elizabeth on Suddenly, Last Summer, was originally set to design Elizabeth's wardrobe for the film. However, when the famously challenging production stalled, Messel was replaced by Irene Sharaff. Working alongside Renié Conley and Vittorio Nino Novarese, Irene oversaw a wardrobe department that produced a reported 26,000 costumes for the film's cast of extras, while also designing a record-setting 65 individual costume changes for Elizabeth alone. The style was lavish, maximalist, and colorful, with gold-lamé gowns, jewel-encrusted collars, sweeping capes, and elaborate Egyptian-inspired headdresses. These looks, including Cleopatra's 24-karat gold cloth phoenix wing cape, worn for her entrance into Rome, became some of the most defining images of Elizabeth's career and ignited a wave of early-1960’s fashion trends. For her incredible work on Cleopatra, Irene and her co-designers won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Over the following years, Irene and Elizabeth continued working together, with Irene dressing Elizabeth in everything from the loose, bohemian wardrobe of 1965’s The Sandpiper, to the ornate Renaissance costuming of 1967’s The Taming of the Shrew. Irene was, by multiple accounts, Elizabeth's preferred designer during this time in her career. Irene is also credited as costume designer for Elizabeth on 1966’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the film for which Elizabeth won her second Academy Award.
A perfectionist with a reputation for exacting research, Irene understood exactly what looked best on Elizabeth’s petite and feminine frame. As a result, Elizabeth trusted her to style even her most intimate occasions. In 1964, Irene designed Elizabeth's now iconic yellow wedding gown for her first marriage to Richard Burton, which took place in Montreal in March of 1964. Crafted by Vittorio Nino Novarese, the marigold chiffon knee-length babydoll dress with an empire waist echoed an iconic costume that Sharaff had sketched and designed for Elizabeth to wear in Cleopatra a year prior.
Irene Sharaff dressed Elizabeth through some of the most important years of her career, and the two built a working relationship grounded in trust. Sharaff understood how Elizabeth wanted to be seen, and Elizabeth turned to her for the moments that mattered most, on screen and off. From Cleopatra to Elizabeth’s wedding to Richard Burton, the looks they created together remain among the most enduring images in either woman’s body of work.