Ursula Boschet, the enduring Hollywood costume designer, whose store draped celebrities and civilians for greater than half a century, has died. She was 90.
Boschet died Monday afternoon of pancreatic most cancers surrounded by household at her dwelling in Chatsworth, a spokesperson for the household confirmed.
In a profession that defied the frequent churn and vagaries related to the leisure trade, Ursula’s Costumes turned an area establishment. Over 5 a long time she estimated that she made greater than 100,000 costumes for tv, movies, performs and personal clients.
Boschet garnered a status for her well-crafted, inventive threads — and for not making a fuss over celebrities.
“She was special. She was a really big part of my family’s life. She had a passion for creativity and she will be missed,” mentioned Jamie Lee Curtis, who started coming to Ursula’s Costumes over 30 years in the past, in an interview with The Occasions.
Kathleen Uris, a costumer who labored with Boschet for greater than 20 years, described the expertise as a “master class with a genius costumer.”
Along with her leisure work corresponding to for the almost seven-season length of the Nineteen Eighties tv present “Cagney & Lacey,” Boschet was the go-to designer for numerous costume events in Los Angeles, together with the annual Labyrinth Masquerade Ball, held on the Biltmore Lodge.
For many years, individuals lined up across the block through the month of October, when the store was open seven days per week to maintain up with Halloween clients.
A lot of her shoppers turned like prolonged members of the family. The partitions of her retailer are lined in framed autographed images of scores of actors together with Bruce Willis and Curtis, all addressed to her.
She made costumes for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s youngsters. When Michael Keaton got here to the store together with his little canine after starring in “Batman,” Boschet mentioned she made a miniature Caped Crusader costume for the pooch.
Steve Martin, whom she met whereas engaged on his 1984 movie “All of Me,” requested her to create hidden go well with pockets from which he might pull issues out for one among his magic acts. Within the early Nineties, he appeared because the Nice Flydini, who retrieved objects corresponding to scarves, eggs and a phone from the fly in his pants.
Curtis recalled visiting the store every year as early as April to start consulting with Boschet about her household’s Halloween costumes.
“We had long discussions about what this year’s costumes were going to be and the accouterments,” Curtis mentioned. “She had such a breadth of knowledge and how to build something out of nothing.”
Later, when Curtis’ youngest daughter turned concerned in gaming and cosplay, Boschet turned a useful ally.
“When I think of teachers and those who appreciated and saw my children’s gifts and made a difference, Ursula is one of them,” Curtis mentioned. “She is someone who made an impact on our family life through her work with our daughter. She was special.”
Regardless of a sequence of well being troubles, up till not too long ago, the diminutive nonagenarian continued to return to the shop and workshop that bears her identify in Santa Monica 5 days per week, working eight to 10 hours a day.
Nonetheless, final summer season Boschet introduced that she deliberate to lastly shut down following a storm of trade woes that included the pandemic and the labor strikes. She additionally cited her age and well being, and the truth that she had nobody to take over the enterprise (her youngsters have been uninterested).
“There was no money coming in,” she informed The Occasions. “I couldn’t pay the rent anymore. And I have bills to pay.”
Kate Beckinsale, proper, with Ursula Boschet at Ursula’s Costumes.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
Beckinsale got here in about as soon as a month to decorate up and hire costumes for herself, family and friends.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1934, the daughter of a butcher and a homemaker, Boschet discovered dressmaking and tailoring at 14. In 1952, at 18, she married her husband, a barber.
With postwar Germany nonetheless largely in rubble, they discovered it troublesome to earn a residing and in 1957 they emigrated to Canada.
For almost 5 years in Toronto, Boschet labored at a big sock manufacturing unit earlier than the couple moved to Los Angeles, the place she bought a job engaged on varied theater productions. She joined the Theatrical Wardrobe Union, which despatched her round to the studios.
In 1973, she landed at Disney, which leased an area in what’s now referred to as the Culver Studios, primarily making costumes for Disney on Parade. Three years later, when the parade work ended, she determined to launch her personal wardrobe and costume enterprise.
After asserting the closure of Ursula’s Costumes final summer season, Boschet started to unload her stock, which represented each attainable interval and kind of costume and accent. A lot of her longtime clients made a pilgrimage to the store to say goodbye and purchase a chunk of costume historical past.
The store will shut for good this Saturday.
Boschet is survived by her daughter, Ela Steere, and son, Richard Boschet; three grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.
