The Most Nominated Woman in Oscars History Won Eight Awards

Even for those who do not acknowledge Edith Head‘s title, you realize her work on sight — for a number of causes, at that. Choose a well-known film from Hollywood’s Golden Age, and there is a good probability her costumes adorned the headlining celebrities. A self-made costume designer with a prolific, half-century-long profession, her contributions to the medium are inescapably seared into the general public consciousness. Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany‘s? You possibly can thank Ms. Head for that melancholic iconography turned get together outfit. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity? That is the prowling silhouette that outlined generations of femme fatales. Historical past’s finest actresses did not must say a phrase to convey energy, magnificence, or sensuality; Head’s visuals spoke at first look.

From 1949 to 1973, Head gained eight Academy Awards, probably the most awarded to any girl within the Oscars’ historical past, and earned 35 whole nominations. There wasn’t a style to which her eye was immune (sure, the lady behind Roman Vacation and Vertigo additionally did The Ten Commandments, Sundown Boulevard, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), and, to her personal attestations, no individual — movie star or in any other case — was past her ability to decorate. Head broke obstacles for ladies behind the digital camera with visible language whereas purposefully remaining as inconspicuous as potential.

How Edith Head Grew to become an Icon

Edith Head’s Oscar wins would possibly span 24 years, however they had been as constant as, for those who’ll permit the trendy metaphor, Taylor Swift profitable a Grammy Award. Head secured back-to-back trophies for Finest Costume Design (Black & White and Coloration) from 1949 to 1951 for The Heiress, All About Eve, Samson and Delilah, and A Place within the Solar. In 1953 and 1954, two of her three Audrey Hepburn collaborations, Roman Vacation and Sabrina, claimed the prize. 1960 was The Details of Life, together with her ultimate win arriving 13 years later for The Sting. Her notable nominations embrace To Catch a Thief, Humorous Face, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Man Who Would Be King.

That is one heck of a resume for a girl in Hollywood. An lively employee up till her loss of life in 1981, Head dubbed her golden statuettes “my youngsters” and intentionally decked out her workplace with their grandeur. The flex, in Head’s phrases, “put tough actresses and actors in a extra mellow temper.” Though she most popular to decorate innocuously in public, the Edith Head look took on a lifetime of its personal (sufficient in order that rumors persist about whether or not she impressed The Incredibles‘ Edna Mode): sharply minimize bangs, shortly cropped hair, glasses, and low-profile fits with extensive hemlines. If displaying off her Oscar glory emphasised her experience, then dressing with a demure androgyny so predictable it turned her motif, emphasised the glamorous stars she clothed. At dwelling, she was identified to rock “wild colours and night pants, something I need,” she mentioned, together with soccer jerseys, “however once I’m on the studio, I am at all times little Edith at nighttime glasses and the beige go well with. That is how I survived.” It was Head’s private costume, one which saved her secure in a male-dominated business. She conformed and minimized herself, however carrying skilled fits implied reliable competency — nothing frivolous to see right here.

The very fact Head made such strides with out an official design training is one in all life’s pleasant ironies. Initially a romance language instructor with a level from Los Angeles’ Chouinard Artwork Faculty, Head’s fascination with clothes design (and her disinterest in her job) led her to “borrow some sketches” and submit them in response to a Paramount Photos job posting. Unethical because it was, it labored. Studio designer Howard Greer employed the younger girl regardless of figuring out she had faked her portfolio.

Edith Head’s Designs Took the World by Storm

As an assistant, Head mentioned she was relegated to costuming “the grandmothers, second aunts, animals and males.” Preserving her head down, she dutifully labored her approach up the ladder. By 1938, she was the primary feminine “chief costume designer” for a significant studio in Hollywood historical past. Head sewed by hand, having no expertise with machines. She knew her approach round digital camera expertise; becoming her glasses with blue lenses let her preview a dressing up in black and white. And she or he knew the implications of her job description: bringing unattainable fantasy to life. In accordance with Head, “A designer was as necessary as a star. Gown was a part of the promoting of an image.”

By the Nineteen Forties and Nineteen Fifties, Head was styling the largest icons of her day. Bette Davis, Veronica Lake, Joan Fontaine, Doris Day, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson, Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, each Hepburns — it is a veritable refrain line of legends. Head’s a number of collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, in the meantime, resulted in Ingrid Bergman‘s black dinner robe from Infamous, Grace Kelly‘s ever-shifting Rear Window and To Catch a Thief wardrobes, and Kim Novak in Vertigo. If that weren’t sufficient, the Guinness World Information credit one in all Ginger Rogers’ elaborate Woman within the Darkish outfits as historical past’s costliest costume. Elizabeth Taylor‘s chiffon ballgown from A Place within the Solar set off a cultural firestorm that partially impressed the Nineteen Fifties promenade gown, a picture that is still ubiquitous in American tradition. Clearly, Head struck a chord robust sufficient for audiences to imitate. Ladies of all ages tried to seize and personally recontextualize the emotions their film screens conveyed, whether or not that was a fascinating fantasy or empowered sexuality (and why not each?).

What Made Edith Head Distinctive?

Regardless of the temptation to get swept up in billowy chiffon, flowery lace, and modern fitted fits, Head by no means supposed to revolutionize the business. She approached every costume from a character-based perspective. Costumes talk important info, generally subconsciously, generally with eye-popping readability. Once you consider Breakfast at Tiffany‘s, what is the first picture that involves thoughts? How about Spider-Man or Superman? Furthermore, what do these outfits let you know concerning the individual inside them? Head’s instincts at all times served the story and mirrored the scenario’s nuance. She known as Ingrid Bergman’s black Infamous gown “magnificence within the subtlest sense,” which fits a susceptible spy in a lion’s den. The wistfully youthful Audrey Hepburn of Roman Vacation is not the troubled grownup of Tiffany‘s, or Humorous Face‘s blossoming fashionista. Grace Kelly’s Rear Window socialite carries herself with a royalty her fit-and-flare outfits should match. Kelly’s blue gown from To Catch a Thief drapes with a breezy delicacy befitting a flirtatious debutante. Then there’s Vertigo, the place a gray-suited silhouette spawns a deadly obsession (and hides damaging truths about its captive wearer).

Edith Head did not wish to steal the present. She did so anyway. Though she dressed many well-known males (Cary Grant, naturally, in addition to John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Steve Martin), a lady in an Edith Head costume was multifaceted. One should take the prudish Hays Code under consideration, however she valued attract and magnetism over overt sexualization. Her cuts, materials, and suits flatter with out making magnificence a feminine character’s defining worth. Her girls are arresting and dignified, autocratic and engaging, susceptible and dynamic, and at all times have company.

Head’s course of behind the digital camera mattered as a lot because the on-camera consequence. Her consultations together with her shoppers set her other than male designers. In accordance with The Hollywood Reporter, actresses requested Head, or, “as was the case for Bette Davis on All About Eve — insist[ed] on her,” as a result of they appreciated Head’s agency ability and humanizing method. Throughout a tribute to Head, Vivien Leigh shared, “She would sketch proper in entrance of me. We’d talk about the character. She wished to understand how I used to be approaching the character, in order that she might consider issues by means of my eyes as nicely, and my interpretation of the position.” Tippi Hedren, who Head costumed for The Birds and Marnie, praised her sensibility: “Edith taught me that you simply not solely design to make the individual look based on the character, you must be sure that the individual can do the motion. Not solely did it must be a gown that folks wouldn’t get uninterested in ; it needed to be able to doing all of the motion.”

Edith Head Modified Hollywood Ceaselessly

As Head blazed full steam forward into her twilight years, she joined Common after many years spent on the Paramount lot. She appeared to relish her stardom however eternally regretted dropping out on a ninth Oscar for To Catch a Thief, a few of her proudest work. She printed three books (The Gown Physician, How you can Gown for Success, and Edith Head’s Hollywood) and “designed for Vogue patterns and airways.” Following her loss of life in 1981, her profession culminated in Steve Martin’s 1982 neo-noir pastiche Lifeless Males Do not Put on Plaid. The movie, set within the Nineteen Forties and utilizing clips of the various actors Head labored with, brings her work full circle. Edith Head might make something, and did — all whereas staring out from behind a veneer as slicing as her instinct.

Breakfast at Tiffany‘s is on the market to stream on Paramount+ within the U.S.

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