Edith Claire Head (; October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer. She received a record 35 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and won a record eight times, making her both the most honored and most nominated woman in the Academy's history.[
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Raised between California and Nevada, Head earned degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University before beginning a career as a French and Spanish languages teacher.
Head worked at Paramount for 44 years, and was frequently loaned out by the studio for work on projects for other studios. While under contract at Paramount, she designed the costumes for several films by Alfred Hitchcock, including Notorious (1946), Vertigo (1958), The Birds (1963), and Marnie (1964). In 1968, after Paramount declined to renew her contract, Hitchcock invited her to join Universal Pictures. There she earned her eighth and final Academy Award for her work on The Sting in 1973.
Outside of film, Head was commissioned to design the official women's uniform for the United States Coast Guard in the 1970s, due to the increasing number of women in the Coast Guard, for which she received the Meritorious Public Service Award.[
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Early life
Head was born Edith Claire Posener on October 28, 1897 in San Bernardino, California, the daughter of Jews parents, Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Her father was a naturalized American citizen from Germany who came to the United States in 1876 at age eighteen, while her American mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother. Shortly before Head's birth, her father opened a small in San Bernardino. The business failed within a year, after which he abandoned the family and relocated to El Paso, Texas.
In 1901, Head's mother Anna married Frank Spare, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania. Anna and Frank passed Edith off as their biological child, giving her his surname, and raised her in his Catholic Church faith. Due to her stepfather's job, the family moved frequently during her childhood to various Mining community, with a significant portion spent in rural Searchlight, Nevada. A shy and introverted only child, Head often spent time building makeshift dollhouses out of cardboard boxes, and creating figures out of greasewood that naturally grew in the desert. She would also create costumes for animals, including her pet dog and cat, as well as wild . "I had no other children for playmates," she recalled. "Naturally, all of my intensive imagination in child's play had to be connected to activities I could pursue alone." Head was teased by classmates due to her front teeth never growing in properly, and because of this, rarely smiled.
She completed her elementary school education in Redding, California in 1911, before the family lived for a period in Mexico, where Head learned to speak Spanish. Head and her mother subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, where she graduated from Los Angeles High School.
Head enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 1915, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French. She subsequently enrolled at Stanford University, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in romance languages in 1920. She became a language teacher with her first position as a replacement at The Bishop's School in La Jolla teaching French and Spanish.[ After one year, she took a position teaching French at the Hollywood School for Girls, where her students included Cecilia and Katherine DeMille, daughters of studio executive Cecil B. DeMille.][ 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. To improve her drawing skills, at this point rudimentary, she took evening classes at the Otis Art Institute and Chouinard Art College.
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On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, a salesman for the Southern California Super Fine Metals Company, and the brother of one of her Chouinard classmates, Betty Head.[
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Career
1923—1929: Famous Players–Lasky
In 1923, despite lacking significant art, design, and costume design experience, the 26-year-old Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at the Famous Players–Lasky studios, which was later absorbed by Paramount Pictures.[ Later she admitted to "borrowing" other students' sketches for her job interview with the studio: "I was studying seascape and all I could draw was oceans. I needed a portfolio, so I borrowed sketches—I didn't steal them, I asked everybody in the class for a few costume design sketches. And I had the most fantastic assortment you've ever seen in your life. When you get a class of forty to give you sketches, you get a nice selection."][
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At Paramount, Head studied under lead designers Howard Greer, and later, Travis Banton.[ Head recounted the experience favorable, saying:
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Head began designing costumes for the studio's silent films, commencing with The Wanderer in 1925 and, by the 1930s, had established herself as one of Hollywood's leading .
1930–1967: Paramount Pictures
Head remained employed by Paramount Pictures after the studio absorbed Famous Players–Lasky. Although Head was featured in studio publicity from the mid-1920s, she was originally overshadowed by the studio's lead designers, first Howard Greer, then Travis Banton. Head was instrumental in conspiring against Banton, and after his resignation in 1938 she became a high-profile designer in her own right.[ Her association with the "sarong" dress designed for Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane (1937) made her well known among the general public, although Head was a more restrained designer than either Banton or Adrian.][
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She gained public attention for the top mink-lined gown she created for Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark (1944), which caused much comment owing to the mood of wartime austerity. The establishment, in 1949, of the Academy Award for Costume Design further boosted her career, giving her a record-breaking run of Award nominations and wins, beginning with her nomination for The Emperor Waltz.
Head was known for her unique 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 1950s, such as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman, Rita Hayworth, Shirley MacLaine, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, Head was frequently "loaned out" by Paramount to other studios at the request of their female stars. She herself always dressed very plainly, preferring thick-framed glasses and conservative two-piece suits.
In 1946, Head worked for the first time with director Alfred Hitchcock on his spy film Notorious.
On February 3, 1955 (Season 5 Episode 21), Head appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life. She and her partner won a total of $1,540. Her winnings were donated to charity.
Head also authored two books describing her career and design philosophy, The Dress Doctor (1959) and How To Dress For Success (1967). These books were re-edited in 2008 and 2011, respectively.
1968–1981: Universal Pictures
In 1968, at the age of 70, Head left Paramount Pictures and was contracted with Universal Pictures, where she remained until her death in 1981. By this point, Hollywood was rapidly changing from what it had been during Head's heyday in the 1930s-1940s. Studio-based production was giving way to outdoors and on-scene shooting, and many of the actresses from that era whom she worked with and knew intimately had retired or were working less. She thus turned more of her attention to TV, where some old friends such as Olivia de Havilland had begun working. She made a cameo appearance in 1973 on the detective series Columbo beside Anne Baxter, playing herself and displaying her Oscars to date. In 1974, Head received a final Oscar win for her work on The Sting (1973).[
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In the late 1970s, 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.
Her last film project was the black-and-white comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), starring Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, a job Head was chosen for because of her expertise on 1940s fashions. She modeled Martin and Reiner's outfits on classic film noir and the movie, released in theaters just after her death, was dedicated to her memory.
Design style
Unlike most other designers of her time, Head never undertook haute couture or wholesale fashion work, opting to "work only in the context of a certain actress in a certain film." Olivia de Havilland, whose costumes were designed by Head for the films To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), said: "Every dress was perfect. Just putting them on, I became these women and I knew right where they were in the stories. Edith even came to New York with me before The Heiress and we studied the underwear at the Brooklyn Museum so it would be absolutely authentic."
Head herself regarded her work as apart from the world of fashion design, and did not consider herself a fashion designer.
Personal life
On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head. The marriage ended in divorce in 1938, though she continued to be known professionally as Edith Head for the remainder of her life. She remarried to art director Wiard Ihnen in 1940, a marriage that lasted until his death from prostate cancer in 1979.
Though both of her parents were Jewish, Head was raised practicing Roman Catholicism, the faith of her stepfather, and remained a "staunch Catholic"[ She was a regular parishioner of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.][
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Death
In 1972, Head was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, an incurable bone marrow cancer which causes excessive, uncontrolled scar tissue accumulation in the bone marrow. To treat the disease, Head received regular blood transfusions to prevent severe anemia. Head died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles of complications from myelofibrosis
A private Requiem was held at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills, where actress Bette Davis gave a brief eulogy.
Legacy
Head holds the distinction of being the most-credited costume designer in history, with a total of 432 film credits to her name.
Over the course of her career, she was nominated for a total of 35 Academy Awards, annually from 1949 (the first year that the Oscar for Best Costume Design was awarded) through 1966, and won eight times—receiving more Oscars than any other woman.
Head's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which she received in 1974, is located at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
As a costume designer, Head has a total of 432 credits to her name.[
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Selected design credits
Screen appearances
Accolades
Head received eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design,
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| 1950 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| 1951 | All About Eve | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Samson and Delilah | | |
| 1952 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| 1953 | Carrie | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | | | |
| 1954 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Roman Holiday | | |
| 1955 | Sabrina | | |
| 1956 | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | To Catch a Thief | | |
| 1957 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | | | |
| 1958 | Best Costume Design | Funny Face | | |
| 1959 | | | |
| 1960 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Career | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | | | |
| 1961 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Pepe | | |
| 1962 | Pocketful of Miracles | | |
| 1963 | Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | My Geisha | | |
| 1964 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Love with the Proper Stranger | | |
| Wives and Lovers | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | | | |
| 1965 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | What a Way to Go! | | |
| 1966 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | | | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Inside Daisy Clover | | |
| 1967 | | | |
| 1970 | Best Costume Design | Sweet Charity | | |
| 1971 | Airport | | |
| 1974 | | | |
| 1976 | | | |
| 1978 | Airport '77 | | |
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Notes
Sources
External links
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Edith Head papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
