PROVO, UT.- The major traveling exhibition CUT! Costume and the Cinema is on view at the Brigham Young University (BYU) Museum of Art July 11 through December 6, 2014, featuring forty period costumes created for more than two-dozen popular motion pictures by London costume house Cosprop Ltd.

The exhibition, presented by Exhibits Development Group, takes an in-depth look at the art of making costumes that set the scene, establish character and provide authenticity in period films.

Films represented in the exhibition depict five centuries of history, drama, comedy, fantasy and adventure through costumes worn by such famous film stars as Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Uma Thurman, Anjelica Huston and many others. In all, more than 30 actors are represented from 27 films, including Academy Award-winner The Duchess and perennial favorites Sherlock Holmes, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sense and Sensibility and The Phantom of the Opera.

Since 1986, when the Academy Award for Costume Design was first awarded to a Cosprop designer for A Room With A View, the company has supplied costumes for 34 nominated films. In 2008, three of the five Oscar nominees included Cosprop designs; in 2009, the Academy Award for Costume Design was awarded for The Duchess; in 2011, the Emmy Award for Costume Design was awarded for Downton Abbey – the highest accolades for a designer and the costumers that provide the film’s costumes. Like their period prototypes, these opulent costumes are crafted of sumptuous fabrics and decorated with intricate embroidery and lace.

As an educational supplement to the show, the BYU Museum of Art is also displaying a selection of works from the Museum’s permanent collection to demonstrate how wardrobe details served similar purposes in portraiture from many of the same eras and settings that are seen in the featured films.

Nancy Lawson is the North American Representative of Cosprop, the internationally renowned London costume house responsible for the costumes in this exhibition. She has been intricately involved in four costume exhibitions from Cosprop’s collection including the highly acclaimed Fashion in Film, Cinematic Couture, Hollywood Brides Unveiled and now CUT! Costume and the Cinema. Lawson has more than 25 years experience as part of the New York theater and international film industries. During those years she had the privilege of working with Tony and Oscar nominated costume designers and actors among them Milena Canonero, Judy Moorcroft , Dinah Collin, Jenny Beavan, John Bright, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Tandy, Ann Bancroft, Delta Burke, Christopher Plummer, Kevin Klein, Ethan Hawke and Alan Rickman.