VOA文化艺术2024--An Italian Shop in Rome Is Behind 17 Academy Awards

An Italian Shop in Rome Is Behind 17 Academy Awards

　　In many movies, the clothing the actors wear is an important part of the story. In Rome, there is a workshop that has been a big part of Italian and international film history for 60 years.

　　Tirelli Costumes in Rome's Prati neighborhood is an atelier, a business that makes special clothing and costumes. It has earned the nickname¹ the "Oscar tailor's shop" for its work in film costume design. An "Oscar" is another name for an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

　　Umberto Tirelli started the shop in November 1964. It has been behind 17 Academy Awards for best costume design. Most recently, its workers helped create the costumes for Ridley Scott's movie Napoleon. The film's costume designers were nominated² for an Oscar that will be decided³ at the Academy Awards in Hollywood this weekend.

　　"Maybe it will win! Let's add another medal to the medal collection," the shop's current head, Dino Trappetti, told The Associated Press. "Of course, the Oscar is not won by the tailor's shop, the Oscar is won by the costume designer. But the tailor's shop has the merit⁴ and the honor of having participated to make it win."

　　The beginning of the atelier started with Tirelli's passion for collecting old clothes. He searched for clothing in houses of nobility and flea⁵ markets worldwide. He slowly built a collection that now has more than 15,000 real pieces of clothing that date from 1750 to 1980.

　　At the start, the shop had "a sewing machine, two cutters and two other seamstresses," Trappetti said.

　　Today, the headquarters of Tirelli Costumes has mannequins wearing some of the atelier's most famous creations⁶: A pink flowered outfit⁷ that actor Tom Hulce wore as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus, and the red outfit Michelle Pfeiffer wore in The Age of Innocence⁸. The designers of each of those pieces of clothing won Oscars.

　　After the 1984 costume design Oscar for Amadeus, Tirelli could have accepted many international projects "because the market was immediately interested," Trappetti said. But Tirelli, who died in 1990, was not sure.

　　Trappetti remembered him saying: "I'm not going to America. If America wants, America will come looking for me."

　　Over 60 years, the tailor's shop has created more than 300,000 costumes that are now stored near Rome. Costume designers come for ideas and historical information. They also come for hand-cut, hand-sewn creations by the team of Tirelli workers.

　　"You can't make those costumes in a factory. In a factory you can make films with robots, futuristic or fantasy," Trappetti said. "But these things have to be made by hand."

　　Words in This Story

　　atelier — n. a room or space where artists work; a small shop where skilled workers make things like clothing to order

　　nickname — n. an informal name for a person or something that is short and easy to use

　　nobility — n. people who receive their position or rank from a king, queen or royal house

　　flea market — n. an informal market that contains many sellers who informally gather in a place for a day to offer household objects and homemade art for sale

　　sew –v. to make clothes our of cloth with thread

　　seamstress — n. a woman who sews clothes as a job

　　mannequin — n. a form shaped like a human body that is used for making and showing clothes

　　fantasy –n. a story or idea of pure imagination that is not based in reality

1 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

2 nominated   

adj.被提名的，被任命的 动词nominate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She has been nominated for the presidency. 她已经获得了董事长职位的提名。
• The movie was nominated for an Oscar. 这部电影获奥斯卡金像奖提名。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 merit   

n.优点，价值，功绩，成绩；vt.值得

参考例句：

• There is great merit in dealing fairly with your employees.公正地对待你的雇员有极大好处。
• History affords us lessons that merit attention.历史给我们提供了值得注意的借鉴。

5 flea   

n.跳蚤

参考例句：

• I'll put a flea in his ear if he bothers me once more.如果他再来打扰的话，我就要对他不客气了。
• Hunter has an interest in prowling around a flea market.亨特对逛跳蚤市场很感兴趣。

6 creations   

创造( creation的名词复数 )； 创造物； （尤指所述由上帝）创造天地； 宇宙

参考例句：

• This artist's creations are worth collecting. 这个艺术家的作品值得收藏。
• The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. 各民族的精神产品成了公共的财产。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

7 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

8 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。