Vintage Designer History in Hollywood, Edith Head
Edith Head was born in Nevada in 1897. She moved to California and later attended Berkeley college where she majored in languages. She then took a job teaching languages and art, in a Hollywood school for girls. To improve her drawing skills for the class she took an evening course at the Chouinard Art College. In 1924, she decided to apply for a job as a costume sketching artist for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (which was later renamed Paramount Pictures), Although she had no technical skills and very little sketching experience, she was hired and would later admit to using another students drawings to get the job.
Edith was with Paramount for a total of 44 years and with Universal from 1967 until the time of her death. She designed costumes for over 400 films and from 1948 until 1966, she was nominated for an Academy Award every year, getting nominated for a total of 35 in her lifetime and winning 8 of them, more than any other woman in history. It is also worth noting that despite her departure from paramount in ’67, the costume department building at Paramount has since been renamed, The Edith Head Building.
She had a very good working relation ship with many Hollywood actresses, including, Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and her all time favorite Grace Kelly. She was also great friends with Alfred Hitchcock, and was the costume designer for nearly all of his films. In 1974 she was asked to design a new womens coast guard outfit and cited it as her greatest achievement.
Some of the amazing films she was acknowledged for were, Roman Holiday, Funny Face, All About Eve, Sabrina and Sunset Boulevard. In |Sabrina, she worked with the Hubert De Givenchy designing dresses for Audrey Hepburn. She took all the credit for the work and the Oscar which resulted in a turbulent relationship with Givenchy for the rest of their days.
Edith passed away in 1981 at the age of 84. She had just completed work on her last film, a Steve Martin film called, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Her talent and skill are still incredibly inspiring and her trademark look of bangs and dark round glasses is instantly recognizable. She famously wore glasses made with blue glass so she could see how the costumes would look in black and white without having to look through a screen. If you have ever seen the film The Incredibles, the character Edna Mode was drawn to resemble her. For images and video’s to accompany this piece please go to my blog http://enchantedvintageclothing.com/vintage-designer-history-edith-head/
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