Born in Frauenfeld (Thurgau), René Hubert was a costume designer who studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 1925, he dressed Gloria Swanson for the film Madame Sans-Gêne and designed her costumes for several other films. Throughout his career in Hollywood, he notably created outfits for That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda, 1941) with Vivien Leigh, Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, 1944) and The Flame of New Orleans (René Clair, 1941), for which he designed Marlène Dietrich’s wardrobe. He worked with London Film Productions and received Oscar nominations for his work on Désirée (1954) and The Visit (1964). He also designed the uniforms of Swissair staff.
The René Hubert collection was bought by Rolf Ramseier, who had acquired part of the costume designer’s private archives from René Hubert’s neighbour. In December 2020, the Cinémathèque suisse bought the collection via the intermediary of Andres Jansen and Christine Kessler (Museum für Gestaltung) for the exhibition “René Hubert: The Clothes Make the Star” in Zurich. Part of the collection relating to Swissair and London fashion and theatre was acquired by the Museum für Gestaltung. Another part remained in the possession of Rolf Ramseier. A final part, unrelated to cinema, was transferred to the Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv (Swiss Social Archives) in Zurich in May 2022 on behalf of Schwulenarchivs Schweiz (Swiss Gay Archives) in Basel.