By Susan JAMES

An exciting exhibition of costuming creativity is now on display through April 7 at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles. Free to the public, the exhibition features 125 costumes from 25 films that represent outstanding artistry, including four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Costume Design in a Motion Picture. Successive galleries reveal “Wonder Woman” in leather bustier and leg guards facing off against Hela from “Thor: Ragnarok” in full antler headdress. The galactic simplicity of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” confronts the fussy Civil War silks of “The Beguiled.”  From “Blade Runner 2049” to “The Greatest Showman” and from “I, Tonya” to “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” each gallery presents a fabulous flurry of fashion.

It’s no news that movies are made all over the world and that costume designers are an international set. Oscar nominees Luis Sequeira (“The Shape of Water”) has Hispanic roots; Consolata Boyle (“Victoria and Abdul”) is Irish; Jacqueline Durran (“Beauty and the Beast” and “Darkest Hour”) is British, and Mark Bridges (“Phantom Thread”) is from New York. But all roads meet at filmdom’s epicenter, Los Angeles.  

“Los Angeles,” said Cate Adair, vice president of the Costume Designers Guild, “has a reputation for being laid back but it’s where everything’s happening.”

Everything’s happening, too, in the costumes of this year’s Oscar nominated films. They span the worlds of fantasy, haute couture and British history at its most colorful and in its darkest hour. Jacqueline Durran’s designs on display for “Beauty and the Beast” contrast the lemon yellow of Belle’s signature ball gown and its delicate gold tracery with the rich blue of the Beast’s more elaborately decorated waistcoat and jacket. Actor Dan Stevens played the Beast in size-enhancing prosthetics and the costume that he wore over them during the ballroom scene is truly enormous. Durran’s second nomination for “Darkest Hour” (not on display) shows off the sober suiting of the World War II period captured in pinstripes, subtle checks and the polka dots of Winston Churchill’s bowtie.

Reaching further back into Britain’s past, Consolata Boyle has created imaginatively detailed costumes for Judi Dench’s Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal’s royal confidante, Abdul Karim. The funereal black of Victoria’s mourning gown is relieved by decorative beading that catches the light while a striking teal sash supports sparkling jeweled orders pinned to multi-colored ribbons. The queen’s grief for her late husband is referenced in her heavy gold bracelet containing a delicate miniature of the young Prince Albert. Karim’s Indian gold silk gown bandoliered with a brocaded belt echoes the opulence of the Raj.

Designer Mark Bridges’ costume assignment for “Phantom Thread,” set in the 1950s, might seem easy. Create a series of couture looks for Daniel Day-Lewis’ fictional London designer Reynolds Woodcock. But the ’50s was the era of Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga and Balmain. So the challenge was to create a style that blended in with those designers’ iconic looks while maintaining a uniqueness special to Woodcock himself. His rose silk gown with its appliquéd bodice and off the shoulder sleeves, featured in the film, did the trick.  

Luis Sequeira, costume designer for “The Shape of Water,” was also challenged by a retro time period, 1963, and an unusual hero, a South American amphibian man. Fortunately, Sequeira’s designs were for the humans in the story, principally Octavia Spencer’s Zelda and Sally Hawkins’ Elisa. Sequeira deliberately kept the colors muted.  

“Zelda,” he said, “is oppressed by her husband, by her employer, by her color and by being a woman. I saw her and the way she dresses as bruised fruit.” 

Elisa, whose love for the finny fishman changes her life, begins in somber monotones but later blossoms into deep burgundy reds.  

“Her shoes tell the story,” Sequeira explained. Her burgundy suit with matching headband, handbag and snappy stylish heels create an Elisa liberated from the industrial slavery of her life.  

In a seminal scene, Elisa imagines herself in a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, dancing not quite cheek-to-cheek with her aquaman. For that scene, Sequeira took inspiration from Ginger Rogers’ costumes and layered a subtle sheath of sequins under the main fabric of the gown. During the dance scene they tie the couple together visually by glittering in the light like fish scales. 

Craft, imagination and the ways of the fashion force meet and mingle during Oscar season at FIDM.

The exhibition is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at FIDM Museum, 919 S. Grand Ave. in Los Angeles.