Katharine Hepburn's Legacy Celebrated With Stamp, Museum Exhibit

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 25th 2010 at 10:01AM

Legendary actress and fashion icon Katharine Hepburn has gotten her own stamp. The United States Postal Service's newly-issued commemorative stamp on Katharine Hepburn went on sale last week. The stamp portrait is a publicity photograph from Woman of the Year (MGM, 1942), the comedy that first put Hepburn together with her on and off-screen love interest, Spencer Tracy.

The stamp sets the stage for a renewed focus on Hepburn's legacy. At Kent State University this fall, the KSU Museum will be showcasing an exhibition: "Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen," which opens October 2, 2010 and ends September 4, 2011. The exhibit will display many of the costumes designed for Hepburn in her movies and Broadway shows (including her turn as Coco Chanel). The museum has over 1,000 pieces of her belongings including the performance clothes and spans Hepburn's long career. The exhibit may later tour other museums.

As a video on the project (after the jump) reveals, finding mannequins to wear the clothes was no easy task. In her early years the actress had a waist of just 20 inches and some mannequins had to be carved down to fit the clothing.

[via NY Post]

Tags: exhibits, Katharine Hepburn, museum, museum exhibit, museum exhibition

Filed under: Apparel

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patricia pace May 31st 2010 12:48PM

Ms. Hepburn was at my home in 1938 or 39 - after the hurricane of '38. Their Old Saybrook, CT beach home was destroyed by the storm. Dr. Hepburn asked his daughter to visit examples of the work of his friend, architect Carnia Eaglesfield Mortimer. Katharine came here and asked the owners (at the time) if she could purchase the house. They did nit want to sell, so she located the architect and the family commissioned her to build their new house on the CT shore. It is clearly the work of the same architect.