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Autumn 2016
Putney Academic Focus
Performing Arts edition
Oscar winner, Putney Old Girl and GDST Alumna of the Year, Jenny Beavan is renowned for possessing one of the most creative brains in costume design.
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uring a 30 year career in tv, theatre and film, Jenny has worked on cinema’s most successful period pictures as a costume designer, including Sense and Sensibility, Gosford Park and The King’s Speech. Jenny won a Tony Award nomination for the play Private Lives. She has been nominated for an Oscar no less than 10 times, winning in 1986 with A Room with a View and most recently in 2016 with Mad Max: Fury Road. Her recent win caused a media furore as she defied convention, shunning the glitz of the Hollywood gown and wearing a faux leather jacket from Marks & Spencer instead. After leaving Putney in 1968, Jenny studied Set Design at the Central School of Art and Design, now known as Central Saint Martins. Armed with her degree, she spotted the opportunity to design costumes for a small Merchant Ivory film, Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures. Whilst the work was unpaid, this marked the beginning of her long relationship with Merchant Ivory productions and opened the door to bigger television and film projects. Jenny’s rise to fame didn’t happen without hard work: “I’ve had a fantastic work ethic instilled in me by my parents,” she says. Jenny’s keys to success are passion, hard work, a collaborative approach and luck: “I’ve had lots of luck – meeting the right people at the right time” she says.
Costume designing is “a great job but it isn’t quite the drifty, fun, lofty thing that people seem to think. The actual reality is much less glamorous. You’re storytelling, but you’re doing it by going out and finding clothes or making them or scribbling about them, always trying to do it on a tight budget and to fulfil everybody’s expectations. It is an intensely collaborative job.” In constant demand, Jenny declares: “I work project by project, be it in TV, theatre or film. For me, variety is key. The jobs are the same, in the sense that you’re supporting a character through clothing, but I like each discipline equally for its different thrills.” When she found herself at the centre of a social media storm about her own sense of style, Jenny showed confidence, composure and courage – not just weathering the storm but sailing through it. She said simply:
“I would like my outfit to have a positive effect on what women feel about themselves. You don’t actually have to look like a supermodel to be successful. It is really good to have a positive feeling about yourself, because then you can do anything.”