Edith Head The Most Famous Costume Designer in Hollywood

Edith Head Designer to the Stars

For many people, Edith Head and film costume design are synonymous. Other designers may have been more flamboyantly creative, or more consistently original, but no one did more to earn this art form popular recognition. Her guiding principle was that costume should support, rather than compete with, story and character development. Better than most, perhaps, she understood that clothing is not merely a matter of adornment, but a potent method of communication working in tandem with film's sound and other visual elements. Her longevity, her productivity, her frequent touches of genius, and her talent for self-promotion secured her a celebrity status rare among Hollywood's legions of production artists. Moviegoers have long remained oblivious to the identities of those who work in the shadow of the stars, but they seem to have found a place in their consciousness for this tiny, austere-looking woman who wove illusions out of beads and cloth...click here to continue reading from the Film Reference website filmreference.com

Links to use for Edith Head research

Wikipedia: Edith Head (October 28, 1897 - October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who had a long career in Hollywood that garnered her more Academy Awards than any other woman in history.
IMBD web page for Edith Head: Date of Birth:
28 October 1897, San Bernadino, California, USA more
Date of Death:
24 October 1981, Los Angeles, California, USA. (bone marrow disease) more
Trivia:
She is tied with composer Alan Menken for third most Academy Awards won... more
Awards:
Won 8 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 28 nominations more
suite101.com article about Edith Head: Would you like to look younger, prettier, slimmer? Would you like to attract a new man, hold on to the current one? Would you like to get a better job, earn more money? Would you like your husband to move up the ladder of success, attract more friends? All this and more were promised to women all over America if they simply listened to the advice of Edith Head, possibly the most famous Hollywood designer in history.
Thinkexist.com web page of Edith Head quotes: "Your dresses should be tight enough to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady."
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Edith Head
Turner Classic Movies web page about Edith Head: ith 35 Academy Award nominations, eight-time Oscar winner Edith Head emerged from Hollywood's fitting rooms to become a household name. One of the film industry's pioneering professional women, she became a major American fashion force, designing for Vogue patterns and airlines as well. Her ability to shape each gown to a character or image made her as popular with film directors as with the glamour girls she dressed in both their private lives and screen roles. Yet the image she
Stairway to the Stars web page showcasing famous Edith Head: This web page showcases the famous beaded gown that Edith Head designed for Veronica Lake in the movie "I Wanted Wings" Paramount, 1941
Edith Head Biography page from the web site for the play SKETCHES - Edith Head's Hollywood: Edith Head was undoubtedly Hollywood's most famous costume designer, or "magician," as she liked to call herself. Her career spanned fifty-eight years of movie making. In those years she dressed almost every major star who shone in the industry and, with her straight-cut bangs, dark glasses and tailored suits as her trademark, became more famous than most of them. Just a few weeks before she died, she was still waving at fans as the Universal City Studio Tour stopped at her bungalow.
Edith Head page at nnbd.com: Edith Head

AKA Edith Claire Posener

Born: 28-Oct-1897
Birthplace: San Bernadino, CA
Died: 24-Oct-1981
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: Cancer - Bone
Remains: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glandale, CA
New York Times archive article " STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE; Edith Head, the Costume Drama" 1998: AT a time when even the grungiest pop singers are playing the diva and dressing like Hollywood starlets, fashion is having an Edith Head moment. The spirit of Ms. Head, the legendary costume designer, is felt in every drop-dead evening gown on VH1 and every prim below-the-knee skirt on the runways. As the designer Betsey Johnson said last week, ''Fashion is more vintage and old-movie-inspired than ever.''
Fathom web site outline of seminar that Edith did for American Film Institute "Costuming and Cinematic Language: A Conversation with Edith Head": On the role of the costume designer

What we do is a cross between magic and camouflage. We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or an actor that they are a different person.

We have three magicians: hair, make-up and clothes. Through those, we're supposed to kid the great public that it really isn't Robert Redford at all, he's Butch Cassidy or he's in The Sting (1973), or he's somebody else.