Edith Head

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

Few costume designers have shaped the look of cinema as profoundly as Edith Head. Working across more than five decades of Hollywood filmmaking, she defined elegance, character, and storytelling through clothing, dressing some of the most iconic stars of the 20th century.

Although she has more 400 films to her credit, Head designed costumes for more than 1100 films, and in the early part of her career from the 1920s onwards, worked in a field dominated by men.

She ruled the costume design departments at Paramount and Universal Studios from the early 1920s to the early 1980s and helped define the style of classic Hollywood with her striking designs, which earned her 35 Oscar nominations and eight Oscar wins, more than any other woman to date. 

She served as the inspiration for Edna Mode in the Incredibles, and inspirational she truly was.

From the sophistication of All About Eve to the effortless glamour of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Head’s work was never just about fashion. It was about understanding character and using costume to quietly support the story.

 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 honoured and nominated woman in the Academy’s history.

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Career Overview

Edith had no formal training in design, although she taught art at the Hollywood School for Girls where she was employed as a teacher in the early 1920s. She began art classes to improve her knowledge, and seeking to make more money during the summer break, she applied for a job at Famous Players-Lasky Studios (which became Paramount). Borrowing sketches from her fellow students to bolster her portfolio, Edith was employed by the studio’s chief designer, Howard Greer.

He taught her to sketch designs in his style and she became part of the design team, learning how to read a script and map out a wardrobe plot for a movie. At that time, Paramount’s stock wardrobe department had about 50,000 costumes and was growing with each new movie produced. The studio also maintained storage rooms with a wide range of fabrics available for designers to draw on.

In 1925, designer Travis Banton joined Paramount. Already an established designer, Mary Pickford had worn one of his dresses for her wedding to Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Edith, Banton and Greer would work together on multiple productions.

Edith got her first break designing for Clara Bow for the feature Wings (1927), and the pair formed a friendship. In 1927 Banton became official head designer at Paramount after Greer designed, and Edith was his full-time assistant. She mainly costumed the secondary characters,

Edith, however, got her big break in the early thirties when she designed the costumes for She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West. Working with Mae’s hourglass figure in period gowns, Edith designed sumptuous gowns in satin and velvet adorned with diamonds, sequins and ostrich feathers.

In 1934, the Hays Code had come into effect, leaving designers scrambling to ensure their costumes came within the code’s definitions of ‘decency’. It meant a girl could be dressed in a white slip, but if it had lace on it, that was considered indecent.

As the thirties progressed, Edith took on more responsibilities in the department, often covering for Banton’s absences due to his drinking.

Edith finally came to the public’s notice with a sarong she designed, worn by the young actress Dorothy Lamour for the 1936 film The Jungle Princess. During these years, Edith had developed a way of working with young actresses by finding out what they liked and incorporating their ideas into her sketches, earning their trust.

In 1938, Banton left Paramount and Edith stepped into the role of department head. During the late thirties, she sought to establish herself as head designer, especially with the bigger stars who had become used to being dressed by Banton.

Edith was now regularly designing glamorous gowns, having moved away from the many westerns that had been her daily chore. She was adept at designing for character and also figures. Actress Barbara Stanwyck credited her for correcting her figure issues so that she would be considered for more glamorous roles, and Stanwyck continued to work with Edith throughout her career.

After the war, Edith assumed more design duties when designer Oleg Cassini left Paramount and she began designing for one of Paramount’s biggest stars, Veronica Lake.

In 1944, Edith helped design an extravagant costume for Ginger Rogers for the movie Lady In the Dark, made of faux rubies, emeralds and lined in mink. It was considered the most expensive ever produced at the time. The gown with the stones proved too heavy for Rogers to dance in and a second version was made using sequins.

In 1944, Edith began designing for Paramount’s rising star Betty Hutton, The Stork Club (1945) gave her the chance to design high fashion for Betty and then in 1946 she was loaned to design for Ingrid Berman in Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Head had done two films with Bergman but had yet to design a high fashion or glamorous gown for her. Head sought to find a formula that would make Berman’s character Alicia elegant yet believable as a spy.

Edith’s career continued to build during the 1940s and in 1949, she got her first Oscar nomination for The Emperor Waltz, dressing Joan Fontaine, which she felt was some of her best work. The movie is a musical set in Austria at the turn of the twentieth century and co-starred Bing Crosby.

It was the first year the Best Costume Designer category was included and she lost out to Joan of Arc, but made up for it the next year in 1950, winning two Oscars for The Heiress and All About Eve.