William Ivey Long

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William Ivey Long is an American costume designer. He was born in 1947 to William Ivey Long Sr. a Winthrop University professor, and stage director, and his wife Mary, who was a high school theatre teacher, actress and playwright. His father was the founder of the Winthrop University theatre department. William grew up in Rock Hill, South Carolina and has two younger siblings, a brother Robert who is a theatre architect and a sister Laura who is also involved in numerous theatre activities. Upon graduation from high school William attended the College of William and Mary where he studied history and graduated in 1969. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue a PhD in art history. While at this university he met visiting professor Betty Smith who suggested he apply to the design program at Yale University. Upon his acceptance to Yale he left the PhD program at UNC and began to study set design at the Yale School of Drama. It was here that he met Sigourney Weaver (his roommate at the time) Wendy Wasserstein, Meryl Streep, Christopher Durang and Paul Rudnick, who were all also students of the University. While at Yale he studied under designer Ming Cho Lee, whom he has credited with being a major influence on his work. Upon his graduation from Yale in 1975,he made the move to New York City where he worked for couturier Charles James as an unpaid apprentice until James's death in 1978. After a few months of selling dolls a friend of his from Yale, Karen Schulz, who was the set designer for a revival of Nikolai Gogol's The Inspector General, suggested that Long be hired to do costume designs for the show, this was Long's first Broadway production. Since then he has celebrated being the costume designer for over 50 different Broadway shows. A Streetcar named Desire marked his landmark 50th. He currently has six shows running on Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire; Sweet Charity; La Cage Aux Folles; John Water’s Hairspray; The Producers; and Chicago. He has been nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning four (for Nine, Crazy for You, The Producers, and Hairspray). He has also won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding costume design for Hairspray, The Producers, Guys and Dolls, Lend Me a Tenor, and Nine. In 200 Long was chosen by the National Theatre Conference as its "Person of the Year" and was honored with the "Legend of Fashion" Award by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003. Most recently he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in January of 2006. He remains active in many local activities throughout the state of North Carolina including working with Paul Green's The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama in Manteo, North Carolina which he and his family have been a part of since he was a young child.