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WILLIAM IVEY LONG
William Ivey Long, the five-time Tony Award-winning costume designer for the Broadway hits Nine, Crazy for You, The Producers, Hairspray, and Grey Gardens, is passionate about lingerie.
The black velvet-flocked nonstretch mesh bodysuit that Anita Morris wore in Nine in 1982 made my career, quipped Ivey Long, who described lingerie and shapewear in particular as image makers for divas on and off the stage.
Ivey Long made his first costume at the age of five, an Elizabethan Ruff for his dog Manteo.
He knew at that tender age that costume design would be his calling. He also studied set design at the Yale School of Drama with pals Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep and Wendy Wasserstein, and later served as an apprentice for fashion icon Charles James. But while Ivey Long's frenetic schedule in April included designing costumes for four shows Catch Me If You Can, School for Lies, an adaptation of The Misanthrope, Lucky Guy and Me and Miss Monroe he wants to translate the pizzazz and come-hither looks he creates for leading ladies into an upscale collection of intimates and sleepwear for mainstream America.
A self-described licensing virgin, Ivey Long is looking to enter into a lingerie venture for a collection called The Broadway Line Because...