Here, again, My Fair Lady™ was pitted against Mary Poppins, and again was victorious. The reason for this was simple, Cecil Beaton.
Cecil Beaton designed 1,086 costumes for the film including 300 for the Ascot Race Scene alone. He followed his vision from sketches to the screen, supervising and coordinating more than 90 seamstresses, drapers, sewers, and milliners, preparing gowns for Ascot, the Opera, and the Ballroom scenes. The final effect of his efforts is breathtaking.

Cecil Beaton also received an Academy Award® for Set Decoration for My Fair Lady™ as well as one for his work in Gigi (which also happened to star Audrey Hepburn) in 1958. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1972.

Wilfrid Hyde-White, like most of his contemporaries, began his career as an actor on the stage, first in London and then Broadway. The first of his many film roles came in 1934 and over the next 50 years he played a number of English gentlemen and butlers.

When he came to California to play his roll of Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady™, he, like Rex Harrison, insisted on bringing his Rolls-Royce with him from England.