Celia Forster did everything with style–from serving meals to designing Web sites. Her training was in fashion and prop styling but friends said her artistic flair transcended boundaries.
“She kind of could give Martha Stewart a run for her money,” said Audrey Wells, a longtime friend.
Forster, 49, who did fashion styling for Marshall Field’s, died of cancer Friday, Nov. 29, in BUPA Hospital, Leicester, England.
Raised in Urbana, Ms. Forster attended Brigham Young University and received a bachelor’s degree in art history with a specialization in photography from the University of Illinois. She designed costumes for plays at U. of I. and began working as a fashion and prop stylist for Field’s in the early 1980s, said her husband, Ben Galewsky.
Ms. Forster was responsible for designing an entire photo shoot including models, wardrobe and backgrounds, Wells said. Her designs were used in catalogs and television commercials.
She moved with her husband to England in 1991. When Ms. Forster learned the British don’t make as big a deal of Halloween, she decided to show them what it was all about.
She decorated her daughter’s school gymnasium like a haunted house, complete with creepy things that children could only feel by putting their hands in a bag, Wells said.
Whenever there was a party, Ms. Forster brought some kind of costume, like old-fashioned flannel pajamas for a weekend gathering or fruit headpieces for an anniversary, Wells said.
“She had that way of making everything beautiful,” Wells said. “It had the sense of casualness but it was sort of carefully done.”
In England, she continued working as a wardrobe stylist then started a Web design company with her husband.
Ms. Forster’s cancer was diagnosed about three years ago. Wells said when nurses would check on her, Ms. Forster always managed to get them talking about themselves, their problems and offered encouraging words.
She stayed creative by teaching her 8-year-old daughter, Zelda how to make scrapbooks and keep journals, Wells said.
“She had a sense of being a citizen of the world,” said Wells of Ms. Forster who spoke fluent Spanish and conversational Italian, German and Portuguese. She also enjoyed gardening and yoga. “She never had any trouble appreciating life,” Wells said.
In addition to her husband and daughter, Ms. Forster is survived by her parents, Merlin and Vilda Forster; brothers David and Dan; and sisters Angela Anderson and Elena Robinson.
Services were held in England.
