British costume designer Phyllis Dalton, 99, died on Jan. 9. Dalton won Oscars for her work on Dr. Zhivago and Henry V, and also worked on A Christmas Carol (1951), Our Man in Havana, The World of Suzy Wong (her silk dresses for Nancy Kwan became a sensation), Lawrence of Arabia, Oliver!, The Mirror Crack’d, The Princess Bride, and, most recently, 1993’s Much Ado About Nothing. During WWII, she worked at the now-famed code-breaking facility at Bletchley Park. Dalton started her career in the mid-40s assisting other designers, getting her first solo credit with 1953’s Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue. “It’s not really so strange that a woman should design men’s clothing,” she said. “Actually, it takes a feminine woman to know what a masculine man should look like.” Rather than her glam clothes, Dalton reminisced about a Dr. Zhivago extra: “It’s much more difficult to make people from the past who are wearing ordinary clothes look real. So I guess I was more proud of that soldier than anything.”
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