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Marilyn Vance is a distinguished Costume Designer in the entertainment industry, having crafted costumes for over 60 feature films, 5 television movies, and a mini-series. She possesses a natural talent for conveying her expansive creative vision while collaborating with directors, production designers, and cinematographers, always maintaining the film's integrity and advancing the story. Whether working on contemporary, period, or fantasy projects, she consistently applies a keen eye for style and design to enhance both the film and its characters. Vance set fashion trends with her character-driven designs in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and Pretty Woman.
She broke new ground as the first female costume designer in the action genre, working on films including 48 Hrs., Die Hard 1 & 2, The Untouchables, Predator 1 & 2, Timecop, Road House, and The Last Boy Scout. Dedicated to character and story, Vance brings authenticity to every genre—from gripping period dramas like Sommersby and The Untouchables to fantasy films such as Mystery Men, Streets of Fire, and The Rocketeer, as well as adventure movies like Romancing the Stone and The Getaway. Each design is crafted with vision to create consistently believable characters.
Marilyn Vance’s work has earned her an Academy Award nomination for The Untouchables, BAFTA nominations for The Untouchables and Pretty Woman, and a Saturn Award nomination for Mystery Men, which she won for The Rocketeer. She also received a Costume Designers Guild nomination for the mini-series Bonnie and Clyde and featured on the cover of Costume Designers magazine with a two-page spread highlighting Bonnie and Clyde, notable as the first two-night event aired simultaneously on The History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime.
In 2009, the Costume Designers Guild honored Vance with their Career Achievement Award at their annual event, sponsored by Lacoste and Swarovski, featuring a montage of her costume designs. In 2012, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London invited her to participate in an exhibition showcasing characters through costume in film from 1912 to 2012. Iconic films representing pop culture included Die Hard, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Untouchables, and Pretty Woman. In 2015, an exhibition organized by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Victoria & Albert Museum, curated by Academy Award nominee Deborah Nadoolman Landis, was launched at the soon-to-open Academy Museum. The Hollywood Costume exhibit celebrated costume design as a vital element of cinematic storytelling, featuring the Pretty Woman red gown and the worn Die Hard undershirt and pants among over 100 iconic costumes spanning the 1900s to present day. The Die Hard costume is now part of the Smithsonian’s permanent collection.
For Vance, full engagement and a collaborative approach are essential. Recognizing her influence on a film’s look and feel as a costume designer, she naturally transitioned into producing. Expanding her creative scope, she produced and designed costumes for studio films like Timecop, Judgment Night, and The Getaway. Her independent productions include Embrace of the Vampire, The Legend of Gator Face, and Digging to China. She developed, designed, and executive produced the television series Pacific Blue and also designed and produced the series Unknown Sender. In theater, she designed the play In Heat and painted its scenic backdrop alongside another artist; the production received an LA Times review comparing it to The Wizard of Oz. In 2016, Vance designed costumes for Betraying the Lion, a play set in 16th-century Venice’s Ghetto featuring 25 principal roles, staged at The Museum of Tolerance.
