Milena Canonero

A renowned Oscar-winning costume designer with an impressive resume of film work as well as opera credits, Italian-born Milena Canonero started off her movie career with a bang, working with Stanley Kubrick as costume designer for 1971's "A Clockwork Orange." Here she broke new ground, tossing aside the space-age costumes described in Anthony Burgess' source novel and opting for a more realistic look with cues from modern history, in keeping with Kubrick's adaptation. Canonero appropriated the style of British middle-class propriety to disturbing effect in outfitting these brutal futuristic street gangs, with Malcolm McDowell's Alex donning a bowler and a walking stick. Conversely, older characters, like Alex's mother, wore shiny futuristic fabrics and had unnaturally bright colored hair, making for an interesting and unsettling visual contrast. In 1975 the designer reteamed with Kubrick, sharing her first Academy Award (with Ulla-Britt Soderlund) for the painstaking recreations of 18th-century styles for the director's drama "Barry Lyndon." She costumed 1978's harrowing "Midnight Express" before working again with Kubrick as designer for "The Shining" (1980).