Academy Award-nominated costume designer and author of Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, was named the newly endowed David C. Copley Chair for the Study of Costume Design at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. The David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design is the first of it’s kind and Landis will also serve as the founding director. Hear more from Landis aobut this “honor and priceless opportunity” in her Los Angeles Times interview.

“Deborah Landis has made the point on many occasions that costume designers are first and foremost storytellers,” says Robert Rosen, dean of the school. Iconic pieces like Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Judy Garland’s red shoes in The Wizard of Oz are as memorable as the stories and actors themselves. When you think of any of your favorite movies, can’t you also remember exactly what the actors wore?

Landis will be a busy lady this year, in addition to this honor, she is also working on her biggest motion picture costume exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, “ICONS: 100 Years of Film Costume.” She’ll certainly have a lot to talk about! She’s already given sold-out talks at the Henry Ford Museum and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.