Orry-Kelly: Dressing Hollywood

Orry-Kelly: Dressing Hollywood celebrates the life and work of one of our most successful exports to Hollywood – the costume designer from the small coastal town of Kiama, NSW, who designed for a staggering 285 films, creating countless magical moments in cinema.

Gifted, garrulous and unapologetic, Orry-Kelly designed gowns for illustrious films including 42^nd Street (1933), Jezebel (1938), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Auntie Mame (1958), and Gypsy (1962). He was also the first Australian to win three Oscars®, for An American in Paris (1951), Les Girls (1957) and Some Like it Hot (1959).

As Chief Costume Designer at Warner Brothers Studio between 1932 and 1944, and then later as a designer for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Universal and RKO, Orry-Kelly was a major factor in the success of Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Errol Flynn, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, among many others.