This Academy Award was first given for movies made in 1948 when separate awards were given for black-and-white and color movies.

1940s

• 1948 Black-and-White Roger K. Furse - Hamlet
• Irene Lentz - B.F.'s Daughter
• 1948 Color Dorothy Jeakins, Barbara Karinska - Joan of Arc
• Edith Head, Gile Steele - The Emperor Waltz
• 1949 Black-and-White Edith Head, Gile Steele - The Heiress
• Vittorio Nino Novarese - Prince of Foxes
• 1949 Color Leah Rhodes, William Travilla, Marjorie Best - Adventures of Don Juan
• Kay Nelson - Mother Is a Freshman

1950s

• 1950 Black-and-White Edith Head, Charles LeMaire - All About Eve
• Jean Louis - Born Yesterday
• Walter Plunkett - The Magnificent Yankee
• 1950 Color Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Elois Jenssen, Gile Steele, Gwen Wakeling - Samson and Delilah
• Michael Whittaker - The Black Rose
• Walter Plunkett, Arlington Valles - That Forsyte Woman
• 1951 Black-and-White Edith Head - A Place in the Sun
• Walter Plunkett, Gile Steele (posthumous nomination) - Kind Lady
• Charles LeMaire, Renie Conley - The Model and the Marriage Broker
• Edward Stevenson, Margaret Furse - The Mudlark
• Lucinda Ballard - A Streetcar Named Desire
• 1951 Color Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, Irene Sharaff - An American in Paris
• Charles LeMaire, Edward Stevenson - David and Bathsheba
• Helen Rose, Gile Steele (posthumous nomination) - The Great Caruso
• Herschel McCoy - Quo Vadis?
• Hein Heckroth - The Tales of Hoffmann
• 1952 Black-and-White Helen Rose - The Bad and the Beautiful
• Jean Louis - Affair in Trinidad
• Edith Head - Carrie
• Charles LeMaire, Dorothy Jeakins - My Cousin Rachel
• Sheila O'Brien - Sudden Fear
• 1952 Color - Marcel Vertes - Moulin Rouge
• Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Miles White - The Greatest Show on Earth
• Antoni Clavé, Mary Wills, Barbara Karinska - Hans Christian Andersen
• Helen Rose, Gile Steele (posthumous nomination) - The Merry Widow
• Charles LeMaire - With a Song in My Heart
• 1953 Black-and-White Edith Head - Roman Holiday
• Walter Plunkett - The Actress
• Helen Rose, Herschel McCoy - Dream Wife
• Jean Louis - From Here to Eternity
• Charles LeMaire, Renie Conley - The President's Lady
• 1953 Color Charles LeMaire, Emile Santiago - The Robe
• Mary Ann Nyberg - The Band Wagon
• Irene Sharaff - Call Me Madam
• Charles Le Maire, William Travilla - How to Marry a Millionaire
• Walter Plunkett - Young Bess
• 1954 Black-and-White Edith Head - Sabrina
• Georges Annenkov, Rosine Delamare - The Earrings of Madame De. . .
• Helen Rose - Executive Suite
• Christian Dior - Indiscretion of an American Wife
• Jean Louis - It Should Happen To You
• 1954 Color Sanzo Wada - Gate of Hell
• Irene Sharaff - Brigadoon
• Charles LeMaire, Rene Hubert - Désirée
• Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg, Irene Sharaff - A Star Is Born
• Charles LeMaire, William Travilla, Miles White - There's No Business Like Show Business
• 1955 Black-and-White Helen Rose - I'll Cry Tomorrow
• Beatrice Dawson - The Pickwick Papers
• Jean Louis - Queen Bee
• Edith Head - The Rose Tattoo
• Tadaoto Kainosho - Ugetsu
• 1955 Color Charles LeMaire - Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
• Irene Sharaff - Guys and Dolls
• Helen Rose - Interrupted Melody
• Edith Head - To Catch a Thief
• Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills - The Virgin Queen
• 1956 Black-and-White Jean Louis - The Solid Gold Cadillac
• Kohei Ezaki - the Seven Samurai
• Helen Rose - The Power and the Prize
• Edith Head - The Proud and the Profane
• Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills - Teenage Rebel
• 1956 Color Irene Sharaff - The King and I
• Miles White - Around the World in Eighty Days
• Moss Mabry, Marjorie Best - Giant
• Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, Arnold Friberg - The Ten Commandments
• Marie de Matteis - War and Peace

For 1957 the awards were combined into a single award.

• 1957 Orry-Kelly - Les Girls
• Charles LeMaire - An Affair to Remember
• Edith Head, Hubert de Givenchy - Funny Face
• Jean Louis, - Pal Joey
• Walter Plunkett - Raintree County
• 1958 Cecil Beaton - Gigi
• Jean Louis - Bell, Book and Candle
• Ralph Jester, Edith Head, John Jensen - The Buccaneer
• Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills - A Certain Smile
• Walter Plunkett - Some Came Running

For 1959 the Award was again divided into two awards.

• 1959 Black-and-White Orry-Kelly - Some Like It Hot
• Edith Head - Career
• Charles LeMaire, Mary Wills - The Diary of Anne Frank
• Helen Rose - The Gazebo
• Howard Shoup - The Young Philadelphians
• 1959 Color Elizabeth Haffenden - Ben-Hur
• Adele Palmer - The Best of Everything
• Renie Conley - The Big Fisherman
• Edith Head - The Five Pennies
• Irene Sharaff - Porgy and Bess

1960s

• 1960 Black-and-White Edith Head, Edward Stevenson - The Facts of Life
• Danny Vachlioti - Never on Sunday
• Howard Shoup - The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
• Bill Thomas - Seven Thieves
• Marik Vos - The Virgin Spring
• 1960 Color Arlington Valles - Spartacus
• Irene Sharaff - Can-Can
• Irene Lentz - Midnight Lace
• Edith Head - Pepe
• Marjorie Best - Sunrise at Campobello
• 1961 Black-and-White Piero Gherardi - La dolce vita
• Dorothy Jeakins - The Children's Hour
• Howard Shoup - Claudell Inglish
• Jean Louis - Judgment at Nuremberg
• Yoshiro Muraki - Yojimbo
• 1961 Color - Irene Sharaff - West Side Story
• Bill Thomas - Babes in Toyland
• Jean Louis - Back Street
• Irene Sharaff - Flower Drum Song (film)
• Edith Head, Walter Plunkett - Pocketful of Miracles
• 1962 Black-and-White Norma Koch - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
• Don Feld - Days of Wine and Roses
• Edith Head - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
• Ruth Morley - The Miracle Worker
• Denny Vachlioti - Phaedra
• 1962 Color Mary Wills - The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
• Bill Thomas - Bon Voyage!
• Orry-Kelly - Gypsy
• Dorothy Jeakins - The Music Man
• Edith Head - My Geisha
• 1963 Black-and-White Piero Gherardi - 8½
• Edith Head - Love with the Proper Stranger
• William Travilla - The Stripper
• Bill Thomas - Toys in the Attic
• Edith Head - Wives and Lovers
• 1963 Color Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese, Renie Conley - Cleopatra
• Donald Brooks - The Cardinal
• Walter Plunkett - How the West Was Won
• Piero Tosi - The Leopard
• Edith Head - A New Kind of Love
• 1964 Black-and-White Dorothy Jeakins - The Night of the Iguana
• Edith Head - A House Is Not a Home
• Norma Koch - Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
• Howard Shoup - Kisses for My President
• René Hubert - The Visit
• 1964 Color Cecil Beaton - My Fair Lady
• Margaret Furse - Becket
• Tony Walton - Mary Poppins
• Morton Haack - The Unsinkable Molly Brown
• Edith Head, Moss Mabry - What a Way to Go!
• 1965 Black-and-White Julie Harris - Darling
• Moss Mabry - Morituri
• Howard Shoup - A Rage to Live
• Bill Thomas, Jean Louis - Ship of Fools
• Edith Head - The Slender Thread
• 1965 Color Phyllis Dalton - Doctor Zhivago
• Vittorio Nino Novarese - The Agony and the Ecstasy
• Vittorio Nino Novarese, Marjorie Best - The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Edith Head, Bill Thomas - Inside Daisy Clover
• Dorothy Jeakins - The Sound of Music
• 1966 Black-and-White Irene Sharaff - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Danilo Donati - The Gospel According to St. Matthew
• Danilo Donati - Mandragola
• Helen Rose - Mister Buddwing
• Jocelyn Rickards - Morgan!
• 1966 Color - Elizabeth Haffenden - A Man for All Seasons
• Jean Louis - Gambit
• Dorothy Jeakins - Hawaii
• Piero Gherardi - Juliet of the Spirits
• Edith Head - The Oscar

For 1967 the category was recombined for one last time.

• 1967 John Truscott - Camelot
• Danilo Donati, Irene Sharaff - The Taming of the Shrew
• Jean Louis - Thoroughly Modern Millie
• Bill Thomas - The Happiest Millionaire
• Theadora Van Runkle - Bonnie and Clyde
• 1968 Danilo Donati - Romeo and Juliet
• Donald Brooks - Star!
• Phyllis Dalton - Oliver!
• Margaret Furse - The Lion in Winter
• Morton Haack - Planet of the Apes
• 1969 Margaret Furse - Anne of the Thousand Days
• Ray Aghayan - Gaily, Gaily
• Don Feld - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• Edith Head - Sweet Charity
• Irene Sharaff - Hello, Dolly!

1970s

• 1970 Vittorio Nino Novarese - Cromwell
• Jack Bear, Donald Brooks - Darling Lili
• Bill Thomas - The Hawaiians
• Margaret Furse - Scrooge
• Edith Head - Airport
• 1971 Yvonne Blake, Antonio Castillo - Nicholas and Alexandra
• Margaret Furse - Mary, Queen of Scots
• Morton Haack - What's the Matter with Helen?
• Bill Thomas - Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Piero Tosi - Death in Venice
• 1972 Anthony Powell - Travels with My Aunt
• Ray Aghayan, Norma Koch, Bob Mackie - Lady Sings the Blues
• Anna Hill Johnstone - The Godfather
• Anthony Mendleson - Young Winston
• Paul Zastupnevich - The Poseidon Adventure
• 1973 Edith Head - The Sting
• Don Feld - Tom Sawyer
• Dorothy Jeakins, Moss Mabry - The Way We Were
• Piero Tosi - Ludwig
• Marik Vos - Cries and Whispers
• 1974 Theoni V. Aldredge - The Great Gatsby
• John Furness - Daisy Miller
• Anthea Sylbert - Chinatown
• Theadora Van Runkle - The Godfather, Part II
• Tony Walton - Murder on the Orient Express
• 1975 Milena Canonero, Ulla-Britt Soderlund - Barry Lyndon
• Ray Aghayan. Bob Mackie - Funny Lady
• Yvonne Blake, Ron Talsky - The Four Musketeers
• Karin Erskine, Henny Noremark - The Magic Flute
• Edith Head - The Man Who Would Be King
• 1976 Danilo Donati - Fellini's Casanova
• Alan Barrett - The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
• Anthony Mendleson - The Incredible Sarah
• William Ware Theiss - Bound for Glory
• Mary Wills - The Passover Plot
• 1977 John Mollo - Star Wars
• Edith Head, Burton Miller - Airport '77
• Florence Klotz - A Little Night Music
• Irene Sharaff - The Other Side of Midnight
• Anthea Sylbert - Julia
• 1978 Anthony Powell - Death on the Nile
• Renie Conley - Caravans
• Patricia Norris - Days of Heaven
• Tony Walton - The Wiz
• Paul Zastupnevich - The Swarm
• 1979 Albert Wolsky - All That Jazz
• Ambra Danon, Piero Tosi - La Cage aux Folles
• Judy Moorcroft - The Europeans
• Shirley Russell - Agatha
• William Ware Theiss - Butch and Sundance: The Early Days

1980s

• 1980 Anthony Powell - Tess
• Jean-Pierre Dorleac - Somewhere in Time
• Patricia Norris - The Elephant Man
• Anna Senior - My Brilliant Career
• Paul Zastupnevich - When Time Ran Out
• 1981 Milena Canonero - Chariots of Fire
• Anna Hill Johnstone - Ragtime
• Bob Mackie - Pennies from Heaven
• Tom Rand - The French Lieutenant's Woman
• Shirley Russell - Reds
• 1982 Bhanu Athaiya, John Mollo,Madeline Jones, - Gandhi
• Elois Jenssen, Rosanna Norton - Tron
• Patricia Norris - Victor/Victoria
• Piero Tosi - La Traviata
• Albert Wolsky - Sophie's Choice
• 1983 Marik Vos - Fanny and Alexander
• Santo Loquasto - Zelig
• Anne-Marie Marchand - The Return of Martin Guerre
• William Ware Theiss - Heart Like a Wheel
• Joe I. Tompkins - Cross Creek
• 1984 Theodor Pistek - Amadeus
• Jenny Beavan, John Bright - The Bostonians
• Judy Moorcroft - A Passage to India
• Patricia Norris - 2010
• Ann Roth - Places in the Heart
• 1985 Emi Wada - Ran
• Milena Canonero - Out of Africa
• Donfeld - Prizzi's Honor
• Aggie Guerard Rodgers - The Color Purple
• Albert Wolsky - The Journey of Natty Gann
• 1986 Jenny Beavan, John Bright - A Room with a View
• Anna Anni, Maurizio Millenotti - Otello
• Anthony Powell - Pirates
• Enrico Sabbatini - The Mission
• Theadora Van Runkle - Peggy Sue Got Married
• 1987 James Acheson - The Last Emperor
• Jenny Beavan, John Bright - Maurice
• Dorothy Jeakins - The Dead
• Bob Ringwood - Empire of the Sun
• Marilyn Vance-Straker - The Untouchables
• 1988 James Acheson - Dangerous Liaisons
• Milena Canonero - Tucker: The Man and His Dream
• Deborah Nadoolman - Coming to America
• Patricia Norris - Sunset
• Jane Robinson - A Handful of Dust
• 1989 Phyllis Dalton - Henry V
• Elizabeth McBride - Driving Miss Daisy
• Gabriella Pescucci - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Theodor Pištěk - Valmont
• Joe I. Tompkins - Harlem Nights

1990s

• '1990 Franca Squarciapino - Cyrano de Bergerac
• Milena Canonero - Dick Tracy
• Gloria Gresham - Avalon
• Maurizio Millenotti - Hamlet
• Elsa Zamparelli - Dances with Wolves
• '1991 Albert Wolsky - Bugsy
• Richard Hornung - Barton Fink
• Corinne Jorry - Madame Bovary
• Anthony Powell - Hook
• Ruth Myers - The Addams Family
• '1992 Eiko Ishioka - Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Jenny Beavan, John Bright - Howards End
• Ruth E. Carter - Malcolm X
• Sheena Napier - Enchanted April
• Albert Wolsky - Toys
• '1993 Gabriella Pescucci - The Age of Innocence
• Jenny Beavan, John Bright- The Remains of the Day
• Anna B. Sheppard - Schindler's List
• Janet Patterson - The Piano
• Sandy Powell - Orlando
• '1994 Tim Chappel, Lizzy Gardiner - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
• Colleen Atwood - Little Women
• Moidele Bickel - Queen Margot
• April Ferry - Maverick
• Jeffrey Kurland - Bullets Over Broadway
• '1995 James Acheson - Restoration
• Jenny Beavan, John Bright - Sense and Sensibility
• Shuna Harwood - Richard III
• Charles Knode - Braveheart
• Julie Weiss - Twelve Monkeys
• '1996 Ann Roth - The English Patient
• Paul Brown - Angels and Insects
• Alexandra Byrne - Hamlet
• Ruth Myers - Emma
• Janet Patterson - The Portrait of a Lady
• '1997 Deborah Lynn Scott - Titanic
• Ruth E. Carter - Amistad
• Dante Ferretti - Kundun
• Janet Patterson - Oscar and Lucinda
• Sandy Powell - The Wings of the Dove
• '1998 Sandy Powell - Shakespeare in Love
• Colleen Atwood - Beloved
• Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth
• Judianna Makovsky - Pleasantville
• Sandy Powell - Velvet Goldmine
• '1999 Lindy Hemming - Topsy-Turvy
• Colleen Atwood - Sleepy Hollow
• Jenny Beavan - Anna and the King
• Milena Canonero - Titus
• Gary Jones, Ann Roth - The Talented Mr. Ripley

2000s

• 2000 (73rd) Janty Yates - Gladiator
• Anthony Powell - 102 Dalmatians
• Rita Ryack - How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Jacqueline West - Quills
• Tim Yip - Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

• 2001 (74th) Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie - Moulin Rouge!
• Jenny Beavan - Gosford Park
• Milena Canonero - The Affair of the Necklace
• Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Judianna Makovsky - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

• 2002 (75th) Colleen Atwood - Chicago
• Julie Weiss - Frida
• Sandy Powell - Gangs of New York
• Ann Roth - The Hours
• Anna B. Sheppard - The Pianist

• 2003 (76th) Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Dien van Straalen - Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Ngila Dickson - The Last Samurai
• Wendy Stites - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Judianna Makovsky - Seabiscuit

• 2004 (77th) Sandy Powell - The Aviator
• Alexandra Byrne - Finding Neverland
• Colleen Atwood - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Sharen Davis - Ray
• Bob Ringwood - Troy

• 2005 (78th) Colleen Atwood - Memoirs of a Geisha
• Gabriella Pescucci - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Sandy Powell - Mrs. Henderson Presents
• Jacqueline Durran - Pride and Prejudice
• Arianne Phillips - Walk the Line

• '2006 (79th) Milena Canonero - Marie Antoinette
• Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (Curse of the Golden Flower) - Chung Man Yee
• The Devil Wears Prada - Patricia Field
• Dreamgirls - Sharen Davis
• The Queen - Consolata Boyle

• '2007 (80th) Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age''
• Albert Wolsky - Across the Universe
• Jacqueline Durran - Atonement
• Marit Allen - La Vie en Rose (posthumous nomination)
• Colleen Atwood - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street