About
“Circumstances repeat but character is singular. Costume design requires deep listening, compassion, empathy, and an openness to the complexity of humans without judgement.”
Designer/Writer Aileen Abercrombie first emerged in the competitive New York fashion industry cutting her teeth designing and manufacturing ready-wear and custom garments both domestically and abroad.
Abercrombie is a story-teller and dreamed of working in narrative film. When she got the chance to work in costume design, she jumped at it. Here, she found the perfect marriage of technical craft, research, character, and storytelling. She has assisted and learned the craft from Oscar-award winning designers Ann Roth and Patrizia Von Brandenstein, as well as esteemed award-winning designers such as Michael Wilkinson, Isabel Toledo and Mitchell Travers working in film, television and on Broadway.
She has designed the feature films "Naked Singularity" starring John Boyega, Olivia Cooke, Ed Skrein and Bill Skarsgård; "UFO" starring Gillian Anderson, David Strathairn, and Alex Sharp; and "Aardvark" starring Zachary Quinto, Jon Hamm, Shelia Vand and Jenny Slate. In 2023, as Assistant Costume Designer Abercrombie was nominated for an EMMY for Showtime’s "George and Tammy".
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Her first book "The Guide to the New York Public Library Costume Collections" was published by the NYPL. If you would like to check out the book, click here. Abercrombie continues to write about the psychology of fashion and costume and is developing a documentary based on the intersection between math and fashion.
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Abercrombie received her BA from Fordham University in Classical Civilization with a minor in Art History. She also completed the Fashion Institute of Technology’s continuing education certificate program in Costume Design.