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Creator
Kim, Willa
Call number
*T-Vim 2017-044
Physical description
63.76 linear feet (165 boxes, 10 tubes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Willa Kim designs, *T-Vim 2017-044. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Sponsor
Support for processing and digitization has been provided by the Estate of Willa Kim.
Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Willa Kim was a Korean-American costume designer. She began working in film and theater in the 1940s. Early in her career, she worked as an assistant to set and costume designer Raoul Pène du Bois. This collection includes Willa Kim's sketches, research, costume notebooks and bibles, scripts, programs and correspondence for Broadway, Off-Broadway, ballet, regional productions, international tours and television.

Biographical/historical information

Willa Kim (1917-2016) was a Korean-American costume designer for ballet, stage, film and opera. She studied art at Los Angeles City College and received a scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts: CalArts). After graduating, she worked with costume designers Barbara Karinska and Raoul Pène Du Bois at Paramount Studios. Kim worked on a number of successful Broadway productions with Du Bois, including Gypsy, The Music Man and Bells are Ringing. Her connection with Du Bois, led to her meeting his cousin, and her future husband (1955), William Pène du Bois, a writer and illustrator of children's books.

Kim began her solo designing career in the 1960s and over the course of her life received numerous awards and recognition for her work. She received Drama Desk Awards for Operation Sidewinder (1970), Promenade (1970) and The Screens (1972); and a Drama Desk nomination for Legs Diamond (1989). She received Tony Award nominations for Goodtime Charlie (1975), Dancin' (1978), Song and Dance (1986),and Legs Diamond (1989) and won Tony Awards for Sophisticated Ladies (1981) and The Will Rogers Follies (1991). She received Obies for Robert Lowell's trilogy The Old Glory and Woman Before a Glass, as well as Emmys for Michael Smuin's The Tempest and for Song for Dead Warriors.

Toward the end of her career, she was honored with numerous awards. In 1999 she won the TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2003 FIT's 2003 Patricia Zipprodt Award for Innovative Costume Design, in 2005 the United States Institute for Theater Technology distinguished Achievement Award, and in 2007 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Scope and arrangement

The Willa Kim designs (circa 1950 to 2014) document her seven-decade long career as a costume designer. The bulk of the collection consists of materials for her work as a solo designer for theater and dance productions such as Dancin', Legs Diamond, Papillon, The Consort, Victor/Victoria, The Will Rogers Follies and Sophisticated Ladies. Her early connection with cousin-in-law and costume designer Raoul Pène du Bois on Gypsy, Bells are Ringing, and Music Man, while less represented, is also a part of the collection.

Willa Kim did not limit herself to the world of dance and theater. She also worked in televisior, represented in the collection with the files on the Regina Wine Vinegar Commercial and the Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas television program, and with athletes and singers, most notably ice skaters John Curry and Yuka Sato, and singer Mick Jagger. The documents are organized into nine series: Sketches, Costume Notebooks, Working Files, Costume Bibles, Designs and Models, Scripts, Programs, Calendars and Planners, and Magazines.

Other designs and documents (1905-1979) relate to the work of Raoul Pène du Bois. Some materials related to Kim's husband, writer and illustrator William Pène du Bois, are also present in this collection

The Willa Kim designs are arranged in nine series:

  • Series I: Sketches
    circa 1950-2010
    16.5 linear feet (55 boxes)

    The majority of sketches in this series were created by Willa Kim for her theater and dance productions. There are many costume sketches for the principal and ensemble members of the following theater productions: Dancin', Sophisticated Ladies, Victor/Victoria and The Will Rogers Follies. A minority of sketches are the works of Raoul Pène Du Bois; Willa Kim was his assistant upon starting in the theater business. Most items are mounted on black boards, and quite a few have fabric swatches attached.

  • Series II: Costume Notebooks
    1962-2008
    2.92 linear feet (7 boxes)

    Notebooks used by Kim to jot down images, measurements, and thoughts pertaining to productions. Costume notebooks include a few cast measurements, costume sketches, fabric swatches, production schedules, and photographs.

  • Series III: Working Files
    1905-2014
    16.5 linear feet (32 boxes)

    The Working Files are comprised of contracts, correspondence, and notes for her dance and theater productions. Preliminary sketches not utilized in the Costume Bibles, are also included.

  • Series IV: Costume Bibles
    1966-2011
    12.92 linear feet (31 boxes)

    Costume bibles were filled with the measurement sheets for actors; costume sketches; fabric swatches; production schedules; costume plots; and photographs for her opera, dance and theater productions.

  • Series V: Designs and Models
    1965-2004
    6.5 linear feet (7 boxes, 10 tubes)

    This series contains the set models, measured design drawings, and posters found in the Kim collection.

  • Series VI: Scripts
    1964-2011
    3.33 linear feet (8 boxes)

    This series contains the scripts sent to Willa Kim. The scripts are from theater and film productions that Kim designed costumes for or considered designing costumes for.

  • Series VII: Programs
    1949-2010
    4.58 linear feet (11 boxes)

    This series contains the programs for Willa Kim's productions. Some programs have her handwritten notes on costume adjustments needed.

  • Series VIII: Calendars and Planners
    1954-1999
    2.2 linear feet (7 boxes)

    Calendars and planners found within collection. In addition to appointments, they are filled with invitations, notes, and gift cards.

  • Series IX: Magazines
    1951-2004
    1.25 linear feet (3 boxes)

    This series contains magazines which have articles on Willa Kim or her productions.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The collection was a gift from the Willa Kim Estate through Richard Schurkamp and Joshua Sherman, December 2017.

Revision History

Re-attributed two folders of costume sketches and some of the unidentified designs by Raul Pène du Bois based on new research and rearranged and renumbered folders in Boxes 1 and 2 accordingly. (2022-09)

Processing information

Processed by Thea Constantine in 2019.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

Video recordings and some audio recordings are unavailable pending digitization. Electronic records are currently unavailable.

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.