Video: Preview the Costumes of 'The Wondrous Willa Kim' at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Beginning tomorrow, February 23, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center will celebrate the long and colorful career of costume designer Willa Kim in her first-ever major retrospective exhibition, The Wondrous Willa Kim: Costume Designs for Actors and Dancers. Kim's archive was acquired by the Library in 2017. The show features an assortment of designs and costumes from her long and prolific career, including work from productions like Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, The Will Rogers Follies, and her final Broadway show, Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews.

From her earliest designs to her very last production, Kim demonstrated her gift for creating whimsical costumes by using extraordinary combinations of color and texture. Born in 1917 to Korean immigrant parents, Kim began her professional life as a painter in Los Angeles, California, where she grew up. After studying at what would later become CalArts, she found a job as an assistant to Barbara Karinska, working under Raoul Pène du Bois, who was designing costumes for the Ginger Rogers 1944 film Lady in the Dark.

Following her mentors to New York, Kim began designing costumes for Broadway and off-Broadway productions, such as The Red Eye of Love, and Goodtime Charley, Song & Dance, Dancin', Tommy Tune Tonite! She designed costumes for some of the leading choreographers and dancers, like Eliot Feld and Michael Smuin, and production companies like Ballet Hispánico and American Ballet Theatre, as well as opera performances, figure skaters, and even some film and TV productions. She even designed salad-themed dresses for a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.

Below, watch as BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge gets an early look at the new exhibit from curator Doug Reside and Costume Historian Bobbi Owen.