A day like today, 116 years ago, Edith Claire Posener was born. Young Edith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French from the University of California, Berkeley in 1919, and later earned a masters of Arts degree in romance languages from Stanford University. Her first job was a substitute French teacher, but was later promoted to teacher. She wanted a higher salary so she took evening art classes so she could also teach art where she worked. On July 1923, Edith married Charles Head, and though they later divorced, she took his last name and it stuck in her professional life. After taking drawing classes, Edith Head landed her first job in Hollywood, costume sketch artist for Paramount Pictures in 1924.
However, Edith had a secret. She had borrowed another art student's drawings for her big interview. Nevertheless, she proved she had what it takes, since she worked for the production company for 43 years, until 1967, when she went to work for Universal Pictures. She created some of the most memorable looks in cinematic history, earning her 35 Oscar nominations, eight of which she won, making her the only woman in Oscar history with that amount of awards. She is also the only costume designer to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Head's work helped establish old Hollywood glamour with her elaborate gowns and sharply tailored suits for leading ladies. She worked on Grace Kelly's dresses for "Rear Window," "To Catch A Thief" and "High Society." She also designed Dorothy Lamour's sarong in "Jungle Princess" and Elizabeth Taylor's strapless evening gown she wore in "A Place in the Sun." Besides "To Catch A Thief," Head also teamed up with Alfred Hitchcock in "Vertigo," "The Birds" and "Rear Window" where her coordinated suits and neat frocks worn by Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak and Grace Kelly, among others, were the most obvious part of the American woman Hitchcock sought to portray.
Edith Head was also a favorite among Hollywood stars from Mae West to Natalie Wood to Audrey Hepburn, and she also had a few Latina Hollywood legends that admired her work and were the perfect mannequins for Head's amazing designs. Among them, we've highlighted five, starting with Chita Rivera, who wore one of Head's creations in the adaptation of "Sweet Charity." Rita Hayworth was also a model for Head's designs in "Separate Tables." Head also designed clothes for Raquel Welch in "The Lucy Show," for Carmen Miranda in "Scared Stiff" and for Lupe Vélez in "Wolf Song."
Despite making a living dressing others, her personal style also transcended. She was known for her pulled back dark hard with short bangs and her thick, black-rimmed round glasses. She died on October 24, 1981, four days before her 84th birthday, from bone marrow disease. It is said that she was the inspiration behind the character Edna Mode in Pixar's "The Incredibles."
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