Vera West

Vera West (28 June 1898 – 29 June 1947) was an American fashion designer and film costume designer. From 1928 to 1947, she was the chief costume designer for Universal Pictures.

Life
The details of West's early life are unclear. According to the 1910 census she was 12 year old which makes her birthdate as 28 June 1898, and her birthplace is given as Philadelphia. Her parents were Emer L (of Maryland) and mother was Clara N. Of Philadelphia. She had a younger sister Hazel. She attended the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. After graduation, West designed dresses for a high-end fashion salon on Fifth Avenue in New York. In the mid-1920s, she was forced to leave New York for unknown personal reasons. She eventually went to Hollywood, where she found a job with Universal Pictures and rose to become chief costume designer for the film studio in 1928.



The first production for which she made costumes based on her own designs was the film The Man Who Laughs (1928) by German director Paul Leni, based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. According to IMDb, West has at least 393 film credits. She specialised in gowns, and was not only responsible for dressing the actors, but also saw to their off-film personal styling.

One of West's best-known designs is the gown worn by Ava Gardner in the 1946 film The Killers.

In early 1947, West left Universal to work on a spring fashion collection for a salon in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Vera West was married twice, first to Stephen D. Kille in 1924, and by 1930 to businessman Jack/Jacques C. West. On 29 June 1947, she was found dead in the swimming pool of her Los Angeles home. Based on two notes she had left that suggested that she had been blackmailed for years, the police assumed she committed suicide by drowning. The exact circumstances of her death were never fully established. West is buried in the Western Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Legacy
West is considered one of the early female pioneers of costume design in the Hollywood industry, in that she was one of the first women to be a studio's chief designer.

West was inducted in to the Costume Designers Guild Hall of Fame in 2005.

A rare survival of West's early work is a costumed mannequin of Frankenstein's Monster from the 1935 movie Bride of Frankenstein. This was featured in the BBC1 programme Secrets of the Museum in March 2020, where it was being treated by the Victoria & Albert Museum's conservators.

Filmography (selection)

 * 1928: The Man Who Laughs
 * 1932: The Mummy
 * 1935: Bride of Frankenstein
 * 1935: Diamond Jim
 * 1935: Remember Last Night?
 * 1935: Magnificent Obsession
 * 1936: Next Time We Love
 * 1936: The Magnificent Brute
 * 1938: Mad About Music
 * 1938: The Rage of Paris
 * 1938: That Certain Age
 * 1939: Son of Frankenstein
 * 1939: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
 * 1939: First Love
 * 1939: Tower of London
 * 1939: Destry Rides Again
 * 1940: The Invisible Man Returns
 * 1940: My Little Chickadee
 * 1940: Black Friday
 * 1940: When the Daltons Rode
 * 1940: Spring Parade
 * 1940: The Bank Dick
 * 1940: The Invisible Woman
 * 1940: The House of the Seven Gables
 * 1941: This Woman Is Mine
 * 1941: Hold That Ghost
 * 1941: It Started with Eve
 * 1941: Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
 * 1941: Appointment for Love
 * 1941: The Wolf Man
 * 1941: Hellzapoppin'
 * 1942: The Ghost of Frankenstein
 * 1942: The Spoilers
 * 1942: Invisible Agent
 * 1942: Pardon My Sarong
 * 1942: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
 * 1942: Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
 * 1942: Arabian Nights
 * 1943: Shadow of a Doubt
 * 1943: The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
 * 1943: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
 * 1943: Sherlock Holmes in Washington
 * 1943: Hers to Hold
 * 1943: Phantom of the Opera
 * 1943: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
 * 1943: Flesh and Fantasy
 * 1943: Son of Dracula
 * 1943: His Butler's Sister
 * 1943: Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman
 * 1944: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
 * 1944: Phantom Lady
 * 1944: Follow the Boys
 * 1944: Cobra Woman
 * 1944: Christmas Holiday
 * 1944: The Pearl of Death
 * 1944: The Merry Monahans
 * 1944: The House of Frankenstein
 * 1944: The Suspect
 * 1945: The Woman in Green
 * 1945: Pursuit to Algiers
 * 1945: This Love of Ours
 * 1946: Terror by Night
 * 1946: She-Wolf of London
 * 1946: Dressed to Kill
 * 1946: Black Angel
 * 1946: Magnificent Doll
 * 1947: Pirates of Monterey