A Record 8 Academy Awards...

     Audrey Hepburn. Gloria Swanson. Natalie Wood. All beautiful women who graced the silver screen and now stand apart in time as sultry examples of what it means to embody "Old Hollywood Glamour."  In films such as "Roman Holiday," "Sunset Boulevard" and "Love with the Proper Stranger," these women and so many more were renowned for their talent, grace and sense of style. With each passing film and red-carpet event, personal beauty and personal style became evermore closely intertwined.  However, it is great costume designers and stylists that add beauty to the wardrobe of the stars. Critically acclaimed in and outside her field, Edith Head's glamorous and outstanding designs established her as a household name whose work includes hundreds of films spanning decades.
     Earning an record eight Academy Awards for Best Costuming and a laudable thirty-five nominations for the same category, Head was a Hollywood powerhouse with humble origins. At the age of twenty-six, Head started at Paramount Pictures as a costume sketch artist. She quickly ascended the ranks to become a leading costume designer. Her originality in design and bold approach to costuming was only rivaled by one thing- her excellence in collaboration. From the very beginning of her career, Head established close working relationships with the actors and actresses who wore her clothes and the directors and producers who demanded them.

"Throughout my career I have used clothes to turn drudges into princesses, plain Janes into glamour girls, frumps into fashion plates. As one of my star friends insists, 'If Cinderella had Edith Head, she'd never have needed a Fairy Godmother.'" How to Dress for Success- EH 1967

     Edith Head gained the reputation of a designer who valued and was valued by the Hollywood starlets she dressed. Head had a more casual approach to collaboration with her subjects than her male contemporaries; she would often extensively consult with those she costumed to make sure they were comfortable and had some input in the final look. However, not all of Head collaborations were smooth sailing. Curt-tongued and dressed disarmingly simplistic, Head as designer was a force with which to be reckoned. Her later collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock could be characterized as antagonistic, but productive as each retained a high level of respect for the others craft. This focus on interpersonal interactions and collaboration with those outside her immediate domain (the stars and directors rather than other designers) served the savvy designer well. By the end of her career, Head was requested by name from both actors and producers. Her willingness to stretch herself was so well known, she was ultimately approached to design the United States Coast Guard women's uniform.
     With thick glasses and dark two-piece suits, this 5'1" designer stood apart from the glamorous starlets she dressed. Astute and savvy, she pushed the bounds of collaboration in Hollywood. People at all levels of production contributed to and came to love her work. Throughout her fifty plus year career, Edith Head set an industry standard in excellence for costuming and collaboration. She created a body of work from which designers for big and small screens draw, and emboldened new generations of designers to reach for success without compromising personal style.

"What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on screen he's become a different person." -EH

Sources:
https://m.thevintagenews.com/2017/08/07/edith-head-hollywoods-legendary-costume-designer-devised-a-three-cs-system-cover-up-conceal-camouflage/

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-doodle-celebrates-oscar-award-winning-hollywood-costume-designer-edith-head-8908127.html

http://www.decartsohio.org/uploads/2/0/6/0/20600824/edith_head_rack.png (I visited this exhibit)