With a record-setting eight Academy Awards, Edith Head won more times for costume design than any other designer to this day. This is despite the fact that the Academy Award for Best Costume Design wasn’t a category until 1948, well into her established career. She was nominated a record 35 times for Best Costume. Head worked for Paramount Pictures for 44 years, later joined Universal Studios, and designed more than 500 films in her lifetime.
Head was born Edith Claire Posener in 1897. She attended the University of California and Stanford University, initially beginning her career as a school teacher. After receiving additional education in Los Angeles at the Otis Institute and the Chouinard Art School, she was hired in 1923 as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures. It was a victory for Head, but she later admitted to “borrowing” her classmates' designs to pad her portfolio.
Head was noted for her dedication to her work and rose from sketch artist to chief designer by 1938. She was the first woman to head a design department at a major studio and was in charge of a staff of hundreds. At the time, Head received recognition for her sarong dress for Dorothy Lamour in “The Hurricane” and her mink-lined gown for Ginger Rogers in “Lady in the Dark.”
Head consulted extensively with her female stars, making her a favorite to work with. As a result, she wound up fitting some of Hollywood’s most powerful and glamorous movie stars, including Mae West, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Audrey Hepburn. She chose to dress her actors according to character rather than reflect her own style, which was rather utilitarian and monotone. She was known for her trademark dark blue tinted glasses, which allowed her to understand how clothes looked in black and white.
Head also wrote two books about her career and design philosophy, “The Dress Doctor” and “How To Dress For Success.” When more women started joining the United States Coast Guard in the late 1970s, she was asked to design their uniforms. She considered it a highlight of her career and received the Meritorious Public Service Award for her work.
Head died in 1981 and her last film project, “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” was dedicated to her memory.