Deborah Nadoolman Landis, PhD, costume designer, historian, David C. Copley Chair, is a Distinguished Professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. Landis is the Founding Director of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Art History. Her celebrated design career includes Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Trading Places (1983), Three Amigos! (1987), Coming to America (1988), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, and the groundbreaking music video Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983). Now considered ‘classic,’ the characters that she designed, like Indiana Jones, have become international cultural icons. Multiple generations have embraced these characters and they still resonate with audiences. Her costume designs have found their way into the collections of museums including the Smithsonian Museum of American History (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones), the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame (Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and most recently, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Coming to America).
A passionate advocate for her field, Landis has been a union member since 1976. She served as a two-term (2001-2007) president of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, and co-founded and co-chaired the first CDG Awards in 1998. While president, she founded The Costume Designer magazine and revived the CDG Newsletter. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences finally created a Costume Design Branch in 2013, Landis became one of the three Governors. On behalf of the Academy, she has moderated costume designer panels in Mexico City, Rome, Madrid and Paris. In 2022, she founded the annual David C. Copley Lecture in Silent Film Costuming as part of the Cinema Muto film festival in Pordenone, Italy.
Education
M.F.A. in Theater/Costume Design, UCLA
Ph.D. in History of Design, Royal College of Art
Research
the intersection of the anthropology of fashion and dress, textile studies, and material culture.
Books
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- Hollywood Costume
- V&A Publishing: London, 2012
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- Hollywood Sketchbook:
- A Century of Costume Illustration
- HarperCollins: New York, 2012
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- FilmCraft: Costume Design
- Focal Press: London, 2012
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- Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design
- HarperCollins: New York, 2007
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- 50 Costumes / 50 Designers
- Concept to Character
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, (University of California Press: Berkeley)., 2004
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- Screencraft: Costume Design
- Focal Press: London, 2003
Courses
FTV 188A; TH C153E The History of Costume Design in the Movies
TH 448D Deconstructing Glamour, Cinema Media Studies
TH 448C Advanced Costume Design for Film
TH 457D Advanced Historical Costume Interpretation and Construction: Museum Masterworks
TH 143 Global Threads: Fashion and the Politics of Representation
FTV CM 129/229; TH CM 129/229 Topics in Dress: Fashion, Costume and Culture; Sustainabilit and the Eco-System of Fashion
Additional Information
Work-in-Progress
2026-27 Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design, Editor-in-Chief, Three Volumes, (Bloomsbury Press, London)
2028 Dressed: The History and Practice of Hollywood Costume (Bloomsbury Press, London)
Chapters
2000 “Designing Hollywood: Women Costume and Production Designers.” Women Designers in the USA 1900 – 2000, Editor, Pat Kirkham, (Yale University Press: New Haven & London).
2015 “Performance Costume” Swarovski: Celebrating a History of Collaborations in Fashion, Jewelry, Performance, and Design, (Rizzoli: New York).
2018 “Hollywood Begins 1908-1929: Clothes, Costume & Couture.” Italy in Hollywood, Ed. Stefania Ricci, (Skira: Museo Salvatore Ferragamo: Milan, Italy).
2018 “Panavision Pink: Deceptively Demure,” Pink! A History of Pink in Fashion, Art and Culture, Ed. Valerie Steele (Thames & Hudson: London).
2023 “Rene Hubert: Dressing Hollywood.” Rene Hubert – The Man Who Dressed Film Stars and Airplanes, Editor Andres Janser (Lars Müller Publishers: Zurich).
2026 “Born Dressed: Performing Hollywood.” Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film Exhibition Catalog, Editor, Michelle Tolini Finamore (Bard Graduate Center Publications: New York).
Curation:
Hollywood Costume, 2012-2015 (Victoria & Albert Museum, London; traveling: ACMI, Melbourne, Australia; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, CA; Senior Guest Curator
Hollywood Red Carpet (2014), Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, Co-Curator.
Dressed in Color: Technicolor Costumes (2009), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, Curator.
50 Designers/50 Costumes: Concept to Character (2004), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, Co-Curator.
