William Travilla was born on Catalina Island, just off the coast of Southern California March 22,1920. As a young child, he demonstrated genuine artistic talent and was enrolled in the prestigious Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles at the age of eight, where his skills proved so advanced that he was transferred into adult classes. By fourteen, Travillaâ??s interests had narrowed to include mostly art and water and he negotiated a deal with his parents - he would quit regular school and work with his uncle helping operate Catalinaâ??s famous glass bottom boats in the mornings and then attend art-school on the mainland in the afternoons.

Travilla soon developed a fascination with the Follies and Burbank Burlesque houses he passed each day on his way to class. With his maternal aunt a silent screen actress, her husband a screen writer, and his own father's life in vaudeville, it was only a matter of time before Travilla was drawn into the world of bump and grind. Having been around nude models in class, he was no stranger to the unclothed female form. Offering to redesign their costumes, Travilla instantly charmed them and began a nice little business selling pencil sketches to the showgirls for a flat rate of three costume designs for five dollars.

At the age of eighteen, with a $5,000 inheritance from his grandfather, Travilla and his cousin spent a year traveling the South Seas, with much of their time on the island of Tahiti.. World War II began it's reach into the Pacific Islands, so Travilla (now draft age), returned to the U.S. where he was declared 4F due to flat feet. He enrolled at Woodbury College and began searching for work in Hollywood.

Travilla landed his first film-related employment at the already legendary Western Costume, and then later at Jack's of Hollywood, where he began ghost-sketching for studio designers who lacked the ability to draw. It's here that Travilla snags his first "name" client - Sonja Henie, who loved his ideas for her upcoming Ice Skating Show. Assignments for Columbia, United Artists, and several small independent studios soon followed. With him on what seemed to be the road to success, Travilla opened his own design business - which failed miserably.

To pay the bills, Travilla began selling Tahiti inspired oils on black velvet paintings at the tropical themed Hollywood restaurant, Don The Beachcomber's. Warner Brothers star Ann Sheridan dined there regularly and after purchasing several of his paintings as gifts, begins to collect Travillaâ??s work and asked to meet the young artist. They hit it off and soon there after, brought Travilla on to the Warner lot as her personal costume designer.

Travilla soon won the industry's respect after creating Sheridanâ??s gowns for1947's Nora Prentiss and 1948's Silver River. Sheridan's River co-star, Errol Flynn, asked for Travilla on his next film The Adventures of Don Juan, which earned Travilla his first Oscar nomination and his only win for Best Costume Design. Travilla stayed only a few years before being lured away to Twentieth Century Fox. Where in 1951, a chance encounter with a blonde starlet would bring him his most inspirational muse - Marilyn Monroe.

Including a brief affair in early 1952, the pair worked together over five years and eight films including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch, and Bus Stop. Monroe created some of her most memorable characters while clothed by Travilla in what became some of the most famous costumes in film history. Most certainly, neither would be who they are, if it weren't for the other.

Travilla designed for almost 60 Fox films, but due to the increased popularity of television, and the collapse of the "old studio system", in a cost-cutting move, Fox didn't renew Travilla's contract and he found himself momentarily unemployed in late 1956. It was at this time, Travilla decided again to again open his own business and start designing couture for not only the film stars who constantly requested personal outfits, but also socialites, and the wives of business tycoons. With a financial investment from long-time friend Bill Sarris, together the two opened "Travilla Inc." to great success.

Travilla's signature style of pleating created a classic and timeless look that helped the business expand into ready-to-wear lines for both US and European major retailers. Travilla also continued designing for film and television in the 1960s, including 1963's The Stripper (receiving the last of his four Oscar nominations), Diahann Carroll in Julia, and Valley of the Dolls. But by 1971, Travilla was completely burned out and unhappy with the film industry, and what he saw as a decline of fashion. To recapture the care-free days of his Catalina Island youth, he moved to the small coastal town of Malegna Spain, where he remained for most of the decade.

Returning in the late seventies, Travilla not only re-launched the fashion label, but was designer on many television mini-series including Moviola (for which he won his first Golden Globe in six continuous years of nomination), The Thorn Birds, Evita Peron, The Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Story, and many others. 1986 saw him join the night-time soap Dallas, and later, it's spin-off Knots Landing. Not only did he win another Golden Globe for Dallas, but his designs for the shows' female leads are credited for the increase in ratings for both, and their successful broadcast runs.

Travilla introduced a very successful ready-to-wear line based on his designs from the two series and continued working up until his sudden death from lung cancer in November of 1990.

Travilla married once, to film starlet Dona Drake in 1944. The couple separated in 1956, but remained legally married until Drake's 1989 death of pneumonia and resperatory problems.The couple had one daughter; Nia, born in 1951, who died of a drug overdose in 2002.

His imdb page:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0871359/

The Travilla Tour Homepage:

http://www.travillatour.com/index.htm

Excellent book with lots of sketches:

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Cost.../dp/0764315692