Background
Edith Head was born on 28 October 1907 in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Edith Head was born on 28 October 1907 in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Her childhood was spent roaming around Western mining camps, but she picked up enough education to get into Stanford, where she got a degree in French.
She was teaching French and art at Hollywood High School when she grew bored, walked into Paramount, and said she knew clothes. She got a job, and by the end of the thirties she was in charge of the department. That lasted until 1967, when she moved over to Universal. Far from glamorous herself, she kept a very tidy severe style, with dark bangs and tinted spectacles.
Her Oscars were awarded for The Heiress (49, William Wyler); All About Eve (50, Joseph L. Manldewicz)—she created Bette Davis’s famous off-the-shoulder gown; Samson and Delilah (50. Cecil B. De Mille)—there were separate awards for color and black-and-white in those days; A Place in the Sun (51, George Stevens); Roman Holiday (53, Wyler); Sabrina (54, Billy Wilder); The Facts of Life (60, Melvin Frank); The Sting (73, George Roy Hill).
But just as we may recall clothes from those films, and see how much Head had to do with the image of Audrey Hepburn, still it’s worth noting credits that did not get an Oscar: She Done Him Wrong (33, Lowell Sherman)—Head helped develop that feeling of Mae West being wrapped within an inch of her life in silk; The Lady Eve (41, Preston Sturges)—just think of Stanwyck’s look in that picture; Lady in the Dark (44, Mitchell Leisen—a clothes expert, enjoying her work); Double Indemnity (44, Wilder)—did Head think of that anklet and the burning sexiness of Stanwyck’s pale, tight sweater?; Notorious (46, Alfred Hitchcock); Sunset Boulevard (50, Wilder)— recall the clothes bought for Joe Gillis; Shane (53, Stevens)—Alan Ladd’s buckskin suit. Jack Palance’s black boots; Rear Window (54, Hitchcock)—which means Grace Kelly in coming attractions; as well as Funny Face, Vertigo, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. All of which, if I may remind you, did not win.
Her load of nominations is not the record: that is forty-three (he won nine times) for Alfred Newman, whose brother, Lionel, was head of music at Twentieth Century-Fox. Newman put his name on most Fox films, while Edith Head genuinely approved the costumes on those films she hadn’t worked on directly. You can make the case that she was the most influential woman in Hollywood—as witness the way, from 1945 onwards, she was a regular on Art Linkletter’s radio show, giving advice on what to wear.
Edith Head was a marvel and a kind of genius. For example, on Window, when Grace Kelly is in the night dress, Hitchcock felt she needed a little more bosom. So Edith Head was called in. Head and Kelly- retired to a dressing room. Kelly said she would not wear falsies. So Head took in a tuck here and there and told Grace to stand tall.