William Ware Theiss

William Ware Theiss (November 20, 1930 - December 15, 1992), also called Bill Theiss, was a costume designer for television and film.

His film credits as costume designer include "Spartacus", "Harold and Maude", "Bound for Glory", "Pete's Dragon", "Who'll Stop the Rain", "", "The Man with One Red Shoe", and "Heart Like a Wheel". His television credits include "Star Trek" (the original series and "The Next Generation": he designed the Starfleet uniforms for TNG).

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Harold Hodgson Theiss and Helen Theiss, and was named for his grandfather, William Hodgson, and his grandmother's family, Ellen (Ware) Hodgson.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design three times.

The "Theiss Titillation Theory", which claims that "the degree to which a costume is considered sexy is directly proportional to how accident-prone it appears to be" is named after him. [Stephen E. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry, "The Making of Star Trek" (1968), p. 360] A key example of this idea in practice is the gynoid costume in the "" episode "What are Little Girls Made Of?" in which the revealing top portion consists only of 2 crossing straps of material which connects in one piece to trousers. Public displays of this costume never failed to get an enthusiasitic reaction from onlookers. In the same series, another famous Theiss costume proves the point, namely character Carolyn Palamas' outfit in the episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?": a low-slung skirt and an upper portion which, although carefully engineered, "looked" like a length of cloth attached above the right hip and casually draped over the left shoulder.

References

*"The Hodgson, Ware, & Theiss Genealogy" available from Darren McMannis ([e-mail]).
*imdb name|id=0857382
* [http://www.dame-mehri.com/theiss/btheiss.html A page with photographs of his designs]

External links