Eiko Ishioka

Eiko Ishioka was a Japanese art director, costume designer, and graphic designer known for her work in stage, screen, advertising, and print media. She was born in Tokyo in 1938 and graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. She began her career with the advertising division of the cosmetics company Shiseido in 1961 and won Japan's most prestigious advertising award four years later. She became the chief art director of Parco, a Japanese boutique chain, in 1971 and created several campaigns featuring Faye Dunaway and surreal eroticism. In 1983, she opened her own design firm and worked on various projects, such as the official poster for the Expo '70 in Japan, the cover design for Miles Davis's Tutu album, which won her a Grammy Award in 1987, and the production design for Paul Schrader's film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which won her the artistic contribution prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. She also designed costumes for operas, theater, and musicals, such as M. Butterfly, Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula and received a posthumous nomination in the same category for her work in Tarsem Singh's 2012 film Mirror Mirror. She also designed costumes for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the racing uniforms and outerwear for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. She was known for her bold, innovative, and eclectic style that blended elements from different cultures, eras, and genres. She died of pancreatic cancer in Tokyo in 2012 at the age of 73. She was married to Nicholas Soultanakis, whom she met while working on the film The Fall. She had no children. She was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1992 and her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.