Edith Head

Today Edith Head turns 121! She's one of my favourite designer/stylists of the golden era.

I simply love these photographs of Head with Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn, celebrating one of her birthdays at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1955.

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Head's Profile: 
Name: Edith Head
Nickname: The Doctor
Height: 5'1.5"
Date of Birth: 28th October 1897
Date of Death: 24th October 1981
Profession: Costume Designer at Paramount
Oscars (Costume Design): Nominated for 35 and won 8

Head's Biography:
Edith Claire Posener was born on 28th October 1987, in California to German Austrian parents. Her parents divorced and her mother married a mining engineer, who treated Edith as his own and raised her as a Catholic.

In 1919, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Letters and Sciences with honours in French.

In 1920, he recieved her Masters of Arts degree in Romance Languages from Stanford University.

Her first job was teaching French and Spanish at a girls school in Hollywood, but as the salary was too low, she decided to take art lessons, so she could also work as an art teacher at the same time.


In 1923, she married the brother of one of her art school classmates; Charles Head.
 
In 1924, she was hired as a sketch artist for Paramount Pictures.

In 1925, she began designing costumes for silent films. 

In 1936, she got a divorce.

In 1940, she married an award-winning art director; Wiad Inhen.

She started gaining much attention in the 1940s and built up a big profile name within Hollywood. Many leading starlets like; Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Ginger Rogers and Grace Kelly wanted her to design for them because other than her unique designs, she consulted the stars before she made any decisions regarding the designs.

From 1949 to 1978 she had been nominated for Best Costume Designer almost annually.

In 1950 she won an Oscar for The Heiress.

In 1951 she won an Oscar for Samson and Delilah and All About Eve.

In 1952 she won an Oscar for A Place in the Sun.

In 1954 she won an Oscar for Roman Holiday. Although the designs were designed by Sonja de Lennart, she took the credit for it, because the designing was done at her studio under her name.

In 1955, she won an Oscar for Sabrina. The designs were actually done by Hubert de Givenchy but again they were designed in her studio.

In 1959, she published a book called The Dress Doctor.

In 1961, she won an Oscar for The Facts of Life.

In 1967, she moved to Universal Pictures, but decided to work in television because most of the actresses of the Golden Age had retired by that time or had moved to television.

In 1969, she published another book called How To Dress For Success.

In 1974, she won an Oscar for The Sting.

In 1981, she died of bone marrow disease, four days shy of her 84th birthday.

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Head's Dirt On Hollywood:
She was very nice to her coworkers and never gossiped back when she was teaching, but after working in Hollywood, she became very vocal about the stars she worked with and she didn't always have nice things to say about some of them hehe.

"I have yet to see one completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie"

She hated working with Hedy Lamarr and Claudette Colbert and thought Paulette Goddard was insensitive, for telling her seamstresses that they could "look, but not touch" her Jewellery. Also she said she never thought she did good work for Cecil B DeMille because she had to do what he liked. Kim Novak brought much strain with her and Head thought she was a great psychological challenge.

She always had nice things to say about Grace Kelly though, that's probably why Kelly's costumes were the bestin my opinion. 

What Is Your Favourite Head Quote?

"Your dresses should be tight enough to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady"