Tracy Tynan was born in London. She studied social anthropology at Sussex University and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with BA in Liberal Arts. Later, she moved to Los Angeles and studied film at UCLA, where she directed a short documentary on the late ceramicist Beatrice Woods, and co‐directed a documentary on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, called A Great Bunch of Girls.
In 1982 she began designing costumes for films and TV. Her many credits include Choose Me, The Big Easy, Mi Familia, and Tuesdays with Morrie. In 2010 she was awarded the WIFTS foundation International Visionary award for her contribution to Costume Design. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Costume Designer’s Branch.
As an artist, she has collaborated with Erika Rothenberg on several projects, including Suicide Notes, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, and Shower Curtain of Death. She created a fractal sculpture for High Desert Test Sites 2013, a large Mengers Sponge, constructed of 3,000 business cards, collected from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, NM.
Her memoir, Wear & Tear: The Threads of My Life, will be published by Scribner on July 12th 2016.
Tynan lives in Los Angeles with her husband, filmmaker Jim McBride.
Advance Praise for
Wear & Tear: The Threads of My Life
“The daughter of celebrities reflects on fame, parenthood, and style. Costume designer Tynan makes her literary debut in a candid and entertaining memoir featuring her alcoholic, combative parents, theater critic Kenneth Tynan and novelist Elaine Dundy, and their assorted glamorous friends. Her vivid descriptions reflect her love of clothes, designers, fabrics, and, not least, shopping. Star‐studded, gossipy, and engaging.” — Kirkus Reviews
"A wolf in sheep's clothing...Rich in humor and observation, it's stylish tone belies the often harrowing nature of her formative years, and details with bravery and precision exactly who she was and what she wore." — Anjelica Huston, author of A Story Lately Told and Watch Me
“For anyone obsessed with the intellectual gossip of yesterday—or just obsessed with the language of fashion—this book will be a cozy bedfellow.” — Lena Dunham
“[A] tale of privilege and neglect at once vivid and moving. A compelling memoir from first page to last.” — John Lahr, author of Tennesee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh.
“WEAR AND TEAR is poignant, surprising, and an enchanting view of what it is to come into oneself among the sacred monsters of the 20th century.” — Joan Juliet Buck, former editor of French Vogue.
“A riveting account of life growing up as the only child of two famous, and famously complicated during the Swinging ‘60s in London and New York. Tynan chronicles her growth as an artist with honesty and insights that make for can’t put down reading. Her independence and original style weave through the pages of her book just as they have always done in her life”. — Wendy Goodman, Design Editor, New York Magazine
“Tynan combines insightful sartorial analysis with delicious gossip and celebrity tidbits to create a compelling memoir of her life and times. A dressingup box of delights.” — Andrew Wilson, author of Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin
“A pageturning memoir that affords an astonishing glimpse into the rarified lives in the nowextinct AngloAmerican literary Jet Set.” — Matt Tynrnauer, Valentino: The Last Emperor
“Wonderfully observed, elegiac, and least judgmental of memoirs.... Tynan details a now vanished golden age with wit, honesty, and that rarest of qualities—empathy.” — Hilton Als
“The first book that reveals style as a successful survival strategy. Tracy1s familial chaos required much dancing backwards in heels and looking good in the part. A fascinating read. — Deborah Landis, author of Filmcraft and Hollywood Costume
“Tracy Peacock Tynan grew up in a tornado of glamorous, stylish eccentricity. So jealous!!!” — Simon Doonan, Creative Ambassador for Barneys New York and author of The Asylum True Tales of Madness from a Life in Fashion
