Costume designer known for Superman

Born: April 17, 1940;

Died: July 17, 2018

YVONNE Blake, who has died aged 78, was an Academy Award-winning costume designer best known for her work on the 1978 Superman film and its sequel. It was Blake who designed the contemporary take on the superhero's famous red and blue ensemble, although her OScar was for her work, with Antonio Castillo, on Nicholas and Alexander, a 1972 drama about Russia’s ruling family, the Romanoffs.

Born in Manchester, Blake taught herself to draw when she was a little girl and studied at the city's Regional College of Art & Design. She once said that she had been inspired to become a costume designer when she saw Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face in 1957.

She got her first experience of designing for film as an assistant at Hammer Studios where she worked on 1960's Never Take Sweets From A Stranger, a bold film that tackled the subject of child abuse long before other films did. She worked for Hammer again on The Shadow of The Cat in 1961 and also worked as an assistant on the musical My Fair Lady in 1964 and the science fiction film Fahrenheit 451 in 1966.

It was her later work on Nicholas and Alexander that was most celebrated but it was a difficult time for Blake. Speaking about the film, she said: “It was agony. The production was oversize. I was a young 29-year-old, I was disorganised, and I was in charge of several departments with a lot of people in them.

"It’s also true that we had a bottomless budget that gave me great freedom to create. But there were two tailors there who hated one another, and I was caught in the middle of that. It was a year of preparation and another year of filming, and by the end of it I was very angry and depressed. So much so, in fact, that I thought of quitting this profession.”

She went on to design costumes for Jesus Christ Superstar, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, but in movies she is best known for her work on Christopher Reeve's costumes in the Superman movies of the 1970s. Her notes on the outfit ran as follows: “Leotard in shimmering blue two-way stretch fabric worn over fake muscles and harness for flying. Capes to be made in various flowing fashion for resting. Boots in glove leather or elastic with small heel. ‘S’ motif in red and gold on breast and again in all gold on back of cape. Gold metal belt with ‘S’ buckle.”

She also designed the striking, shimmering costume for Marlon Brando, who played Superman's father, which was made from the reflective material used in cinema screens.

After meeting her future husband, Spaniard Gil Carretero, Blake worked more and more in Spain and eventually settled there and worked in the Spanish film industry. She won four Spanish Academy Goya Awards for Spanish films, including 1988's Rowing in the Wind, starring Hugh Grant.

Blake had served as president of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences

Her final film was There Be Dragons in 2011.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by a son, David Carretero Blake, who is a cinematographer, a sister, Juliet Blake, and three grandchildren.