On a warm summer morning, Ursula Boschet, the iconic Hollywood costume designer, made her way through racks of clothing, brimming from floor to ceiling in the Santa Monica store and workshop that bears her name. Ursula’s Costumes is a 6,000-square-foot treasure trove filled with a warren of smaller rooms stuffed with petticoats, flapper dresses, pirate outfits, gangsters’ pinstripe suits, nuns’ habits, Western wear and Roman legion uniforms. Carmen Miranda headdresses and various hats, military helmets and animal heads line shelves.
There is an “animal room,” where their companion bodies reside, and a “period room” boasting historical costumes spanning from the 1100s to the 1700s. One minute the diminutive 90-year-old — who comes to the shop five days a week from 10 a.m.
to 6:30 p.m. — is hoisting a hook-topped stick to pull a shark’s head off a shelf.
The next, she produces an elaborately brocaded habit à la Française, the one she calls the “Amadeus,” for inspection, as if it were business as usual. Sadly, it is not. After nearly half a century outfitting stars in countless films and television shows as well as civilians for any number of events, Boschet is closing up shop.
Earlier this year she began selling off her entire inventory. For many, the news was another stark reminder that the Hollywood slowdown has claimed yet another institution. The city once hosted multiple costume shops but over time numerous challenges — runaway production, onl.