To prepare ourselves for the 13th Annual Costume Designers Guild (CDG) Awards being held tomorrow night at the Beverly Hills Hilton, we’re listening to very personal song selections from the playlist Alice and Wonderland costumer Colleen Atwood recently created as part of KCRW’s Guest DJ project (listen or download the radio show here).
The Award-Winning Costume Designer’s selections parallel pinpoint moments in her lifetime as well as colorful career. These intimate vignettes include memories of her father and his best friend, a cowboy named Cactus, as well as a car ride with her daughter (who finished off lyrics to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘The Wind Cries Mary’) as a young mother in Seattle.
In the 1960s, she watched her peers turn into flower children, but Atwood faced the harsh reality of teenage pregnancy and raising a child. Drugs and psychedelics were not an option; Jimi Hendrix was a lyrical escape into the era.
Atwood’s ‘Everything I Am’ by Kanye West hip-hop selection may seem odd, but it is actually a family anthem for herself and her two daughters. “It [is] so about people, like myself, that maybe didn’t do everything right at one point in their life, but you just kind of soldier through it and get on with it,” Atwood admits.
Atwood’s success story captivates the listener as she reveals her favorite morning song for early call times, U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’, or the illustration of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ “drifting through the rafters” of her workroom which was constructed in an abandoned adobe structure in a colonial Mexican town while shooting ‘The Mexican’.
Atwood’s illustrious career can barely be summarized in this blog post. But we will say her accolades include a major industry award nomination or achievement almost every year since 1995. This award season, Atwood has a CDG Award nomination for Excellence in Fantasy Film as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Costume Design for her work on Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
Enjoy the easy listening. It’s as inspiring as a TED video!
