Tracy Tynan -- Author and Costume Designer
Nov 6, 2016
Tracy Tynan – Author and Costume Designer
Website: http://www.tynanthreads.com
Book: Wear and Tear; the Threads of My Life (published by Scribner, on sale now)
Tracy Tynan, born in London is the only child of Kenneth Tynan……a renowned English theater critic and author of the musical sex comedy “Oh! Calcutta!”, and America novelist, Elaine Dundy who wrote the cult classic “The Dud Avocado” . Tracy came of age in the literary and theatrical high societies of London and New York in the 1950s and 60s with her famously stylish parents and their celebrity friends Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles, Gore Vidal and Vivien Leigh, to name but a few. From an early age she was obsessed with clothing, driving her flamboyantly-dressing parents crazy by insisting on creating her own personal style. During her teens she started making her outfits herself. Never imagining that clothes could be a career, she majored in social anthropology at Sussex University, then moved on to study movie-making with her aunt, filmmaker Shirley Clarke, at UCLA. After working as a director, still photographer and assistant editor, she found her true passion and started designing costumes for films and television. Her many credits include Choose Me, The Big Easy, Great Balls of Fire!, Mi Familia, and Tuesdays with Morrie. She has also enjoyed collaborating with her husband of over 30 years, film director Jim McBride, on The Big Easy, Great Balls of Fire and The Wrong Man, among other films. She is fortunate to have worked with legends like Jack Lemmon, Gene Hackman, Richard Gere, Bruce Willis and Julie Andrews and with up-and-comers like Paul Rudd, Kate Beckinsale and Zooey Deschanel. Tracy has been awarded with the International Visionary award from the Women’s Int’l Film and Television Foundation for her contribution to Costume Design and is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Costume Designer’s Branch.
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