Edith Head

Early life and career[edit]

She was born Edith Claire Posener in San Bernadino, California, the daughter of Jewish parents, Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Her father was a naturalized American citizen from Prussia, who came to the United States in 1876. Her mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother. It is not known where Max and Anna met, or if they ever married. Just before Edith's birth, Max Posener opened a small haberdashery in San Bernardino which failed within a year. In 1905 Anna married mining engineer Frank Spare, from Pennsylvania. The family moved frequently as Spare's jobs moved, and the only place whose name Head could later recall from her early years was Searchlight, Nevada. Frank and Anna Spare passed Edith off as their mutual child. As Frank Spare was a Catholic, Edith ostensibly became one as well.[2]
Edith received a bachelor of arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French from the University of California, Berkeley in 1919, and earned a master of arts degree in romance languages from Stanford University[3] in 1920. She became a language teacher with her first position at Bishop's School in La Jolla teaching French as a replacement. After one year, she took a position teaching French at the Hollywood School for Girls. Wanting a slightly higher salary, she told the school that she could also teach art, even though she had only briefly studied the discipline in high school.[4] To improve her drawing skills, which at this point were rudimentary, she took evening art classes at theChouinard Art College.
On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, the brother of one of her Chouinard classmates, Betty Head. Although the marriage ended in divorce in 1936 after a number of years of separation, she continued to be known professionally as Edith Head until her death.

The Paramount years[edit]

In 1924, despite lacking art, design, and costume design experience, Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in the costume department. Later she admitted to borrowing another student's sketches for her job interview. She began designing costumes for silent films, commencing with The Wanderer in 1925 and, by the 1930s, had established herself as one of Hollywood's leading costume designers. She worked at Paramount for 43 years until she went to Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967, possibly prompted by her extensive work for director Alfred Hitchcock, who had moved to Universal, in 1960.
Head's marriage to set designer Wiard Ihnen, on September 8, 1940, lasted until his death from prostate cancer in 1979. Over the course of her long career, she was nominated for 35 Academy Awards, including every year from 1948 through 1966, and won eight times – more Oscars than any other woman.[5]
Although Head was featured in studio publicity from the mid-1920s, she was originally over-shadowed by Paramount's head designers, first Howard Greer, then Travis Banton. It was only after Banton's resignation in 1938, that she achieved fame as a designer in her own right. Her association with the "sarong" dress designed for Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane made her well-known among the general public, although Head was a more restrained designer than either Banton or Adrian. In 1944, she gained public attention for the top mink-lined gown she created for Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark, which gained notoriety due to its being counter to the mood of wartime austerity. The establishment, in 1949, of the category of an Academy Award for Costume Designer further boosted her career, because it began her record-breaking run of Award nominations and wins, beginning with her nomination for The Emperor Waltz.[6]
Head was known for her low-key working style and, unlike many of her male contemporaries, usually consulted extensively with the female stars with whom she worked. As a result, she was a favorite among many of the leading female stars of the 1940s and '50s, such as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Sophia Loren, Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley MacLaine,Anne Baxter, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Natalie Wood. In fact, Head was frequently "loaned out" by Paramount to other studios at the request of their female stars.[7]

The Universal years[edit]

In 1967, she left Paramount Pictures and joined Universal Pictures, where she remained until her death in 1981. As studio-based feature film production declined and many of her favored stars retired, Head became more active as a television costume designer, often designing outfits for film actors, such as Olivia De Havilland, who were now involved in television series or film work. In 1974, Head received a final Oscar win for her work on The Sting.
During the late 1970s, Edith Head was asked to design a woman's uniform for the United States Coast Guard, because of the increasing number of women in the Coast Guard. Head called the assignment a highlight in her career and received the Meritorious Public Service Award for her efforts.[8] Her designs for a TV mini-series based on the novel Little Women were well received. Her last film project was the black-and-white comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, starring Steve Martin and Carl Reiner. For the production, she re-created fashions of the 1940s, extensively referencing the film clips from classic film noir motion pictures. It was released shortly after her death and dedicated to her memory.

Death[edit]

Head died on October 24, 1981, four days before her 84th birthday, from myelofibrosis, an incurable bone marrow disease.[7]

Hollywood Walk of Fame[edit]

Edith Head's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.[9]

Actors and actresses designed for[edit]

Among the actresses Edith Head designed for were:
Among the actors Edith Head designed for were:

Academy Awards[edit]

Head received eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design from a total of 35 nominations.

Guest appearances[edit]

Head made a brief appearance in Columbo: Requiem for a Falling Star (1973) acting as herself, the clothing designer for Anne Baxter's character. Her Oscars were displayed on a desk in the scene.
Again as herself, she appeared in the film Lucy Gallant (1955) as the emcee of a fashion show. She also appeared in The Pleasure of His Company (1961) as she showed dresses for Debbie Reynolds' wedding in the film.

Posthumous references[edit]

The parody film Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) used scenes from films using Head's designs. A dedication to her and her work was included during the credits, listing it as her "final film".
As part of a series of stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in February 2003, commemorating the behind-the-camera personnel who make movies, Head was featured on one to honor costume design.
The band They Might Be Giants recorded the song "She Thinks She's Edith Head," which was included in the 1999 album Long Tall Weekend and the 2001 album Mink Car. The song is about a girl from the singer's past, who had changed her persona to be more sophisticated, and compares her new attitude to Head and longtime Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown.
To many viewers of the 2004 Pixar/Disney computer-animated film The Incredibles, the personality and mannerisms of the film's fictional superhero costume designer Edna Modesuggest a colorful caricature of Edith Head. Edna Mode's sense of style, round glasses, and assertive no-nonsense character are very likely a direct homage to Head's legendary accomplishments and personal traits. But the film's director, Brad Bird, has neither confirmed nor denied this.[11]
On October 28, 2013, Internet search engine Google commemorated Head's 116th birthday with a Google Doodle.[12][13]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Independent: Google Doodle celebrates Oscar award winning Hollywood costume designer Edith Head — Throughout her sparkling career she won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman(English)
  2. Jump up^ Chierichetti, David (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer. New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-06-019428-6.
  3. Jump up^ Chierichetti, David (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer. New York, NY: HarperCollins. p. 6. ISBN 0-06-019428-6.
  4. Jump up^ Chierichetti, David (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer. Ney York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 7–8. ISBN 0-06-019428-6.
  5. Jump up^ Fishko, Sara. Edith Head. February 25, 2011.
  6. Jump up^ http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/21st-winners.html
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b Jorgensen, Jay (2010). Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer. Running Press. ISBN 9780762441730. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  8. Jump up^ Olivia Smith, Intern. "WOMEN FIND FAVOR WITH COAST GUARD FASHION"(PDF). U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  9. Jump up^ "Edith Head". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  10. Jump up^ Chierichetti, David. (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer, p. 134. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-056740-6.
  11. Jump up^ "Who is the ''Incredibles'' fashion maven based on?", Entertainment Weekly
  12. Jump up^ "Edith Head's 116th Birthday", Google Doodles
  13. Jump up^ Daily Mail Reporter (28 October 2013). "Celebrating the golden age of Hollywood! Late great costume designer Edith Head gets a Google Doodle on 116th anniversary of her birth". Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 28 October 2013.

Sources[edit]

  • David Chierichetti (2003). Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019428-6.
  • John Duka. "Edith Head, Fashion Designer for the Movies, Dies." The New York Times. October 27, 1981.
  • Edith Head (1983). Edith Head's Hollywood. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-24200-7.
  • Edith Head and Jane Kesner Ardmore (1959). The Dress Doctor. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 999750030X.
  • Edith Head with Joe Hyams (1967). How to Dress for Success. New York: Random House. LCCN 66012021.

External links[edit]

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