Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer
by CHAD KENNERK
All images courtesy of OKCMOA
There’s a good chance you’ve seen her name emblazoned on screen in at least one of the hundreds of opening titles that bear her name. Considered one of film history’s great costume designers, Edith Head began working for Paramount Pictures in 1924. In 1982, her name was still appearing on screen with the posthumous release of the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, which was dedicated to her memory. She initially made waves in the late 1930s for her association with the sarong dress (designed for Dorothy Lamour) and made history in 1938 when she became the first female head of a major studio's costume department after designer Travis Banton’s departure from Paramount. The establishment of the Academy Award for Costume Design in 1949 helped further introduce costume designers to the general public and led to a record-breaking run of nominations and wins for Head. In pop culture, she’s been a stamp and a Google doodle, but perhaps the biggest nod to Head is the character Edna Mode, the superhero costume designer in Pixar’s The Incredibles.
An icon and celebrity in her own right, Edith Head’s unique style and trademark professional wardrobe – tinted glasses, sharp bangs, and a smart suit – made her instantly recognizable. Outside of the studio, she frequently appeared on television and radio shows to discuss fashion and trends. She wrote two best-selling books, How to Dress for Success and The Dress Doctor, along with dozens of columns on fashion in newspapers and magazines, making herself a top authority on fashion and style. In a studio system dominated by men, she made herself essential.
Now on view through 29 September, the exhibition Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer is organised by The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) and presented by The Ann Lacy Foundation. The Head-focused retrospective features 70 costumes that capture Head’s expansive career. Worn by stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Veronica Lake, and Barbara Stanwyck, the costumes represent a broad look at the designs and silhouettes of one of the premiere designers of Golden Age Hollywood. The homegrown exhibition takes up the museum’s entire third floor, where costumes and sketches showcase Head’s life and work. OKCMOA Curatorial Assistant Kristen Pignuolo joins Film Review to share insights about the new exhibit and the career of a Hollywood icon.
In conversation with Kristen Pignuolo
Curatorial Assistant, OKCMOA
Film Review (FR): For those that may not know, who was Edith Head and why is her legacy important?
Kristen Pignuolo (KP): That's a big question. I would say Edith Head is one of the major Hollywood costume designers during Hollywood's Golden Age, which roughly spans the 1930s through the 1950s. She worked on a lot of the defining films of that time period that we still watch and talk about to this day. Such as Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Sabrina. She worked on hundreds of films during her career – and it was an incredibly long career – nearly six decades. She worked right up until her death in 1981.
(FR): Her career began with a bold job interview at Paramount. What were Edith’s origins?
(KP): You’re right, it was a very interesting job interview. She was a teacher of romance languages at a school in Hollywood. She actually taught Cecil B. DeMille daughters. In order to make some extra money, she became an art teacher there and started taking sketch classes at the Chouinard Art Institute. She happened to see an ad in the paper for a job at Paramount to become a sketch artist on a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. And yes, she did go around to her fellow classmates at Chouinard and asked them for their sketches to add to her portfolio. She used that portfolio in her interview and passed them off as hers. Interestingly enough, pretty early on in the job, she admitted to her boss that she that they weren't hers and that she really was only good at painting seascapes or landscapes. I remember he said in his biography that it didn't even matter, because she was clearly qualified for the job.
(FR): The exhibit is wholly unique to the museum, how did the project come together and what was the vision behind it?
(KP): It was curated by Catherine Shotick, who previously worked at the museum as a curator and was brought on as a guest curator for the exhibition. I've continued to work with Catherine as she's put this together. When I spoke with her about the exhibition, she talked about watching movies in the summer with her mom and her sisters, knowing that if she saw “Costumes by Edith Head” that they were in for a real treat. OKCMOA actually has a film department, and previously in 2010, we had a costume exhibition called From Sketch to Screen, which featured costumes that Edith designed, along with other costume [designers’ work.] That put the idea in Catherine’s head to do a costume show, but specifically about Edith and her designs.
(FR): How has the museum worked with private collectors, costume collections, and other museums to put this content together?
(KP): Catherine and our Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Maury Ford, worked to actually obtain the costumes for the show. I believe Catherine started visiting collectors around three years ago to really see what was out there that she could include in the show. We do have a couple of private collectors, but the majority of the exhibition comes from two major collections, one of which is the Paramount Pictures archive, and the other The Collection of Hollywood Costume Design, which has been collected by a man named Larry McQueen.
(FR): We love Larry, he wrote a great article for us on The Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design
(KP): He has been great to work with. Randall Thropp, the man behind Paramount Pictures’ archive, came for the opening. It was great to hear him talk about how he was saving these pieces from getting tossed in the garbage or just stuck in a warehouse. We really have them to thank for the exhibition, that there are enough costumes that they have saved and helped restore.
(FR): Edith designed for so many different genres, but there was always a function behind her decisions, down to the trademark glasses that she wore.
(KP): Those glasses are actually blue-tinted. She initially started wearing those so that she could see what certain fabrics would look like on black and white film. Depending on tone or colour, a dark red could come off as near black on screen [for example.] As colour came in, she didn't need them, but they became such a part of her persona, that she kept wearing them.
(FR): Head focused on character and storytelling more than her own individual style, which set her apart from other designers of the day. She once said, “A dress is like an actor, it has to do things.”
(KP): I think that is what sets Edith apart. Catherine touches on that in the exhibition, about how Edith was designing for the character. She worked with a lot of different actresses, notably Grace Kelly, who said that Edith’s designs always helped her get into character, that she was really focused on making sure that the costumes served the film, served the actor and helped them become the character that they needed to be.
(FR): With 70 costumes on view, how will guests experience and learn about her silhouettes and approach to different genres, as well as how Head designed for the actor?
(KP): Catherine split the exhibition into different sections, some of which correspond to genre, and others that deal a little bit more with time periods. The first section is actually “Designing for the Character”. I would say, in that, we get an idea of Edith and not only how she designs for the character, but also for the actress. One of my favourite costumes that we have is one worn by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve. It's a Spanish-inspired beaded top with a long black skirt. Before this time, Barbara Stanwyck was considered a good actress, but she wasn't considered a sex symbol. Costume designers that had worked with her said that she had, ”a figure problem.” Here Edith actually worked with Stanwyck and worked with the proportions of her body (Stanwyck having a longer torso) to actually make her feel glamorous, while also supporting the character. I think she widened the belts in the back to make her look incredibly tall and elegant. Stanwyck wrote Edith’s name into every contract after that, no matter what studio she was working at.
(FR): We think of Barbara Stanwyck as being very elegant and glamorous. That does give insight into how a designer can change the public image of an actor, either within the studio, or within the greater public at large.
(KP): Some of the actors that she worked with liked her designs so much that she designed for them privately; for their own personal wardrobes, as well as what they would wear on the red carpet at movie premieres.
(FR): Are there examples of that within the exhibit as well?
(KP): Unfortunately, no, we just have costumes. But – we do have an outfit that was worn by Edith Head in her own personal life. We know her as the woman with the blunt bangs, the dark glasses, and usually a grey two-piece skirt suit, but she really enjoyed patterned fabric and colours in her everyday life. The outfit is really stunning. It's yellow and red.
(FR): Though some of Head’s work predated the Academy Awards Costume Design category, she still amassed a staggering 35 nominations, winning eight times. She holds the record for the most lauded woman in Academy history – not just in costume design, but on the whole. There are three Academy Awards in the exhibit. Which wins do they represent?
(KP): One of them is for her work on the William Wyler movie The Heiress. Another one is for A Place in the Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. And then the last one is for Samson and Delilah.
(FR): Even with those three awards, if you look at those three designs, what a broad and interesting scope to her work.
(KP): Definitely. You've got some of her dedication to historical accuracy. She said that The Heiress was possibly the most perfect picture she had ever done. Director William Wyler was so insistent on historical accuracy that he sent Edith to New York, because the film is set in turn of the century New York City, to study how these garments would have been made historically – down to button fastenings. Even Olivia de Havilland, the star of the film, worked with Edith on maintaining historical accuracy for the costumes.
(FR): Because the film is in black and white, it’s great to see the deep red colour of that gown in particular.
(KP): That's one of the things that was really surprising. I've been sourcing film stills, because we want people visiting to see the actors in the costumes and how they were in the film. Just to see how different they are in person, close up, and how the fabric actually looks. Because even the photos that we have as reference don't really do them justice.
(FR): The level of detail is pretty incredible.
(KP): It is really fascinating to see where the attention to detail goes in some of these costumes. I was lucky enough to be able to help our textiles conservator dress the mannequins and dress forms. Which allowed me to see the insides of the costumes, but also where, due to time constraints or things like that, corners have been cut, let’s say.
(FR): Right, because ultimately, it's just what the camera sees that matters. Head famously worked with several different sketch artists throughout her career and there is a display wall in the exhibit of Head's designs. Who were Head’s sketch artists and what qualities help define an original by Head’s team?
(KP): She worked with dozens, if not hundreds, of different sketch artists over her career. Notably, some of the big names are Grace Sprague and Bob Mackie — who started out as a sketch artist for Edith Head. The way that a costume department works, Edith, as the head of the costume department, can't take the time to sketch out dozens of costumes for a film. What she would do, is that she would go through a script and create a list of the different costumes that were needed for each scene in the film and collaborate with her sketch artists. So in a way, they are Edith’s sketches, but they're also the individual sketch artist’s sketches. Grace Sprague is a really well-known sketch artist of Edith’s. Her name will often come up when people are looking at sketches that come on the market.
(FR): And that's an important distinction, because we see on the screen, “Costume Design by Edith Head”, but there was really an entire department working on these pieces, working on the sketches, on the costumes. Even when thinking about an individual costume, there may be a wide array of sketches for that one particular costume as it evolves.
(KP): Absolutely. The process of just getting a costume approved was incredibly lengthy. It had to be approved by the star wearing it, the director, the producer, making sure with the set designers, the camera operators, the lighting department, that everything looked good. She always wanted to have at least three fittings for a costume and the actor wearing it. And then hopefully, you also get a screen test at the end of it. So it was really, just an incredibly long and involved process.
(FR): In the 60s, the new brass at Paramount decided not to renew Edith’s contract and on invitation from director Alfred Hitchcock, she moved to Universal. There are two major Hitchcock dresses in the exhibit.
(KP): One of them is a costume worn by Grace Kelly in Rear Window. I believe it's the second time she appears on screen. It's a beautiful black dress with a pleated skirt and chiffon, partially see-through, sleeves. The other was a really interesting one to see in person. It's a costume worn by Kim Novak in Vertigo when her character impersonates Madeleine Elster. It appears almost purplish in person, but looks very dark, almost black, on screen. It's from when she jumps into the water and Jimmy Stewart saves her. Those are the two costumes we have from Hitchcock. I think they really show off what a great collaboration these two people had working together. They worked on 11 films. I think Hitchcock was very exacting. That's a nice way to put it. He was so concerned with the aesthetics of his films, that he would write what he wanted people to wear into his scripts, which Edith said made it incredibly easy for her. She developed what is called a costume call board, where they would put all of the costumes for a particular scene on the board together to make sure that none of them clashed visually.
(FR): Which piece, in your opinion, is the most iconic?
(KP): That's really tough. I'm going to say, for me, iconic is The Lady Eve costume, and also, the Grace Kelly Rear Window costume.
(FR): Because you did have the opportunity to dress the exhibit, which do you feel is the most intricate?
(KP): There's a blue gown in the “Performance and Designing for Technicolor” section that was created for Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline. That piece is entirely beaded, and it probably weighed 30 pounds – it was so heavy. Also there is a costume Natalie Wood wears in The Great Race. It's a black gown that has sequins and a very delicate net overlay.
(FR): And if you were to pick a piece that was most exemplary of Edith Head’s work, which would you choose?
(KP): I think The Heiress dress is the most exemplary. I think it just combines her attention to designing for the character, historical accuracy, and making sure that she is creating a costume that truly fits the film.
(FR): One thing that I also love hearing about are some of the behind-the-scenes stories, whether from the production of the film, or how that piece has come to the exhibit.
(KP): There are some pieces we know quite a good amount about and then there are others where we know next to nothing.
(FR): There's some fascinating stories out there about pieces, whether they originated from some of the studio auctions or whether, in some cases, things come out of the trash can at some point.
(KP): Randall Thropp at the Paramount Pictures archive has a lot of those kinds of stories. If there was a piece that was going to be loaned out to someone, he would say that it was not available or not in fit enough condition to be loaned out, but really, he had secreted it away [in order] to protect it.
(FR): We look at these costumes now as museum pieces, but even a few decades ago, that wasn't necessarily the case. Certainly not then, when you were working in a studio system and it was essentially a production line to get these films done on time and to have everything ready. Things weren't seen as a historical piece that should be saved and preserved.
(KP): It's really unfortunate, but that is just the way it was. People would use costumes from one film for another. There's several instances of that in the exhibition, which I think is really interesting. Or costumes that are completely reworked to create another costume.
(FR): Sometimes you see a photo from a background actor on a variety show, and they’re wearing a costume from an iconic film. What has your experience been like with the exhibition and for your guests?
(KP): There's so much to talk about with the exhibition. Seeing the local support and response for it has been really great. I just gave my first tour of it this past weekend. It's so exciting to have people who know about Edith Head and have been so excited to see this happen. And then other people who are not necessarily as familiar with her, but maybe have seen a couple of the films.
(FR): The exhibit is curated into different sections. What are some areas we haven’t talked about and what’s one of your favourite sections?
(KP): We do also have two screening areas in the exhibition, one of which has a documentary that was created in 1950 by Paramount that was called The Costume Designer, where Edith talks a little bit about her process. As well as a screen test with Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday. I would say one of my favourite sections that we haven't talked about is “Designing for Wartime”, which is something I didn't really think about prior to the exhibition; the impact that the war and subsequent fabric rationing had on Edith and other costume designers' work during that time. Creating very pared down silhouettes with no embellishment, because there was no extra fabric to work with. Also, coinciding with the rise in film noir. In researching that, Edith talked about it like it was almost her duty to set an example for the American public through film. This kind of patriotism and austerity in the face of the war.
KRISTEN PIGNUOLO joined The Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) in 2023 as Curatorial Assistant. Originally from Houston, she has worked in museums since 2014 at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the National Galleries of Scotland. Kristen received her BA in Modern History and Art History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and earned her master's degree in Art History from The Courtauld Institute in London.
Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer will be on view through 29 September, 2024.
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