Born: Los Angeles, California, USA, 1907
Died: Los Angeles, California, USA, 1981
Meticulous, bilingual and mesmeric, Edith Head was a prolific and reversed designer, who became the first female to run a costume department in the history of Hollywood.
An only child who her early years in Mexico, Head eventually moved back to Los Angeles to study at the University of California, and then took an MA at Stanford University, where she specialized in languages. She taught Spanish at the Hollywood School for Girls and began studying life drawing and sculpture in the evening.
Her illustrious career started in 1923 at Paramount Studio when she became assistant to Howard Greer and then to his successor Travis Banton. In 1938 Banton left to become freelance and Head was appointed the first female head a studio. In 1967 she became chief designer at Universal Studios. Head studied cinema from all angles, analysing the script, the stars and the action, and meticulously researching the period in which the films were set. She frequently worked on several films – both historical and contemporary – at the same time.
Highlights of her career included dressing Clara Bow, Mae West, Veronica Lake and Shirley Temple. She designed the famous sarong for Dorothy Lamour in The Jungle Princess (1936) and dressed Charles Laughton as Nero in The Sign of the Cross (1932). Edith Head collected eight Oscars, including one for her costumes for Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard and another for All About Eve, both in 1950. Speaking after the Second World War she said, ‘I honestly don’t mind when people say to me, “Remember the fantastic clothes you used to design?” After all, it was the fabulous era, and the movies were very young,’
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