Oscar-winning costume designer Anthony Powell dies at age 85

Anthony Powell, an inventive British costume designer who won three Oscars but is perhaps best known for the outlandish clothing he conceived for Glenn Close as the fur-loving Cruella de Vil in “101 Dalmatians” and its sequel, died April 16 in London. He was 85.

The Costume Designers Guild announced his death but did not cite the cause. His fellow costume designer Tom Rand said he died in a nursing home.

“There’s so much intelligence behind his work, no matter the genre or the character,” said Keith Lodwick, curator of theater and screen art at the V&A Museum in London. “You watch a movie like ‘Evil Under the Sun,’ and you see extraordinary detail — like in one scene, Roddy McDowall’s red socks match the red carnation on his jacket.”

Powell, who brought deep research to his work in both theater and film, won a Tony Award for the 1963 production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18thcentury comedy of manners “The School for Scandal,” his first Broadway show. He collaborated on movies with Steven Spielberg and Roman Polanski. He won his Oscars for “Travels With My Aunt” (1972), directed by George Cukor; “Death on the Nile” (1978), directed by John Guillermin; and “Tess” (1979), the first of his three films with Polanski.

“Anthony, in a way, is an amazing director,” Kevin Lima, who directed the sequel “102 Dalmatians” (2000), told The Los Angeles Times, “because he has to look deep into these characters and visualize them. And he doesn’t just perceive what they wear, but also who they are and how to create layers of character based on their clothing, which is what we did with Cruella.”

For Cruella de Vil, in two live-action movies based on a 1961 animated feature, Powell conceived wild, villainy-enhancing ensembles. They included a black-andwhite silk gown with sharkfin appliqué; a red gown lined with ostrich feathers that appeared to swallow Close in flames; and a couture nun’s habit with a backless gown and an umbrella-sized wimple.

“When we started, Glenn said the most chilling thing to me,” Powell was quoted as saying in his obituary in The Telegraph. “She told me, ‘Just do the clothes, makeup and hair, then I’ll look in the mirror and decide how I’m going to play it.’ That’s a lot of responsibility.”

Powell received an Oscar nomination for his work on “102 Dalmatians.”