A Life in 3 Acts

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Before Hollywood costume designer and producer Anthea Sylbert ’59 curated the wardrobe that would bring a character to life on the big screen, she conducted extensive research.

Her references were newspapers, paintings, the family photo albums of people she knew, catalogs in museums and libraries — but never fashion magazines.

“I never ever used the fashion magazines to do research because do you know anyone who looks like the pages in a fashion magazine?” she asked the audience at a Q&A during the 2019 Thessaloniki International Film Festival. “No. And if you do, you should get rid of them.”

It was that kind of straight talk and sharp wit that made the Brooklyn-born costume designer a trusted source among Hollywood heavyweights, from Mike Nichols, with whom she worked on Carnal Knowledge and The Fortune, to Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown).

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“She was never intimidated by prominent directors or actors,” said Sakis Lalas, the director of My Life in 3 Acts, a forthcoming documentary about Sylbert. “They sought her advice and held her opinions in the highest regard.”

Sylbert died this past June at her home in Skiathos, Greece, where she and her late husband, actor Richard Romanus (The Sopranos, Mean Streets), had lived for more than two decades.

At Barnard, Sylbert studied art history and was en route to graduate school when a research position with a Broadway costume designer piqued her interest in the profession. She worked Off-Broadway before making her Hollywood debut designing costumes for the 1967 black comedy The Tiger Makes Out, alongside her first husband, Paul Sylbert, a production designer.

Then came the 1968 horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, in which she dressed the film’s wide-eyed protagonist, played by Mia Farrow, in pastel-colored babydoll dresses and ethereal nightgowns embellished with eyelet lace. The outfits she designed for Farrow would be reinterpreted on the runway by fashion designers for years to come.

For the neo-noir mystery Chinatown, set in 1937, Sylbert’s art history background came in handy: She looked to paintings for inspiration for the period wardrobes of the film’s stars, Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson.

“[I learned from] professors like Julius Held at Barnard, who taught you how to look at a painting and determine from what you saw, and what they were wearing, their social status, their economic status, the place, all of that,” the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer told Sam Wasson, author of The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood. “Clothes will tell you all that.”

In 1979, Sylbert left the costume design world behind for the boardroom, taking on executive roles at Warner Bros. and, later, at United Artists. Director Mike Nichols turned to Sylbert for her sharp instinct. While working on the struggling movie Bogart Slept Here, he asked her what she thought of it so far. Sylbert shrugged. Nichols reportedly replied, “You’re right, it is a shrug. But what about the millions of dollars we’ve already spent?” Sylbert shrugged again and said, “But think of all the millions you’ll save.”

Nichols canceled the project. “Shortly afterward, John Calley, one of the studio’s executives, called her and offered her the position of vice president of special projects,” Lalas recalled from his conversation with Sylbert.

Together with a close friend, actress Goldie Hawn, she went on to produce films including Overboard, Wildcats, and the Julia Roberts vehicle Something to Talk About via their production company, Hawn/Sylbert Movie Company.

A recipient of the Costume Designers Guild’s 2005 Career Achievement Award, Sylbert didn’t shy away from opportunities to judge her vitae with fresh eyes.

“There were all sorts of parts of the movie that I didn’t remember, and I saw it just like an audience,” she told a crowd after a screening of Rosemary’s Baby at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece. “I even thought that the costume designer did a good job.”

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