Irene Sharaff: The Costume Designer Behind Cleopatra, West Side Story & The King and I

Irene Sharaff was one of the most influential costume designers of Hollywood’s Golden Age and Broadway history. A five-time Academy Award winner, she helped shape the visual identity of films such as The King and I, West Side Story, Cleopatra, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, using costume not simply as decoration, but as a form of storytelling. Trained as an artist, Sharaff approached clothing through color, silhouette, movement, and character. Her costumes could define an entire world: the controlled elegance of Deborah Kerr in The King and I, the visual separation of rival groups in West Side Story, or the extraordinary spectacle created for Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. In this video, we follow Irene Sharaff from her early artistic education and Broadway work to Hollywood costume design, her five Academy Awards, and the lasting influence of her approach to color and character. Her career shows how closely fashion, cinema, theater, painting, and visual psychology can intersect. CHAPTERS 00:00 Irene Sharaff: Hollywood Costume Designer and Five-Time Oscar Winner 00:49 Irene Sharaff’s Early Life and Artistic Training 01:50 Broadway Costume Design in the 1930s 03:02 Irene Sharaff Comes to Hollywood 03:55 The King and I: Irene Sharaff’s Oscar-Winning Costumes 05:00 Irene Sharaff and the Psychology of Color 06:04 West Side Story Costumes and Visual Storytelling 06:34 Cleopatra: Elizabeth Taylor and Irene Sharaff 07:21 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Costume Realism