Artist of the Week: Edith Head

Featured Artist– Superhero Costume Designer

By Austin Brooks

Clean. Refined. Timeless. Edith Head is widely regarded as the most pivotal character in costume design history.

From Hepburn’s Givenchy designed little black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Richard Gere’s iconic Giorgio Armani getups in American Gigolo, costume design is as fundamental to film as a compelling storyline and impeccable casting.

With a jaw dropping eight Academy Awards for Costume Design, Edith Head helped define the style of classic Hollywood. From Steve McQueen to Elizabeth Taylor, she worked with a magnitude of talented actors and actresses throughout a career that spanned five decades. Working with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder, Head helped form a seismic part of the Hollywood Golden Age of cinema and helped tell other people’s stories through fabric.

Despite being a lesser-known, niche facet of cinema, costume designers are one of the most integral parts of what makes a film great and there are none more decorated and poignant than the late, great Edith Head. Ahead of her time in more ways than one, to this day she remains a reference point for modern costume and fashion designers.

Despite her dazzling professional years, Edith Head had a somewhat subdued upbringing. Born in 1897 to Jewish parents in San Bernardino, California, she recalled that much of her early life was spent moving around the western states of America. Although she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in French from the University of California, Berkley in 1919 and achieved her master’s degree at Stanford University the following year, Head never formally studied design at school or university.

At the end of her education, Head went on to become a French teacher at a girl’s school in San Diego. During her time there she told the school that she could also teach art despite having only briefly studied that discipline during her high school years. To improve her rudimentary drawing ability, she enrolled in evening classes at Chouinard Art College and at the Otis Art Institute, where other successful designers, architects and artists have also studied. Successful alumni from Otis Art Institute include designer Rick Owens and architect David Orkland. This heralded the dawn of Head’s illustrious costume design career.

As a testament to her character and charm, in 1924, Head landed a job as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures, still to this day one of Hollywood’s most successful film studios, despite having minimal experience in art or costume design. Through meticulously hard work and attention to detail she managed to jump from sketching to costume design in just a number of years. While she was at Paramount, Head met Howard Greer, the Head Costume Designer at the time. He taught her a great deal and in particular, to mimic his own style of drawing. He educated her on how to read a script and produce incredible wardrobe plots for films. Her wardrobe plots listed the character, a description of their outfit and the exact moment in a scene in which the costume would appear.

Edith’s first breakthrough came when renowned designer Travis Banton arrived at the studio in 1925 and Edith got the opportunity to design costumes for Cecil B. Demille’s ‘The Golden Bed’ (1925). However, it wasn’t until 1933 that Edith got the chance for her first big break. During this year she got the chance to design what she had always wanted – a series of extravagant period gowns which meant she would be credited on screen for the first time.

For the most part, Head’s early conventional design style proved positive for both her and Hollywood. By designing costumes in a clean yet bold fashion, she managed to avoid one of the industry’s most dreaded cinematic faux pas – an outdated costume.

Her success really began to flourish just before the turn of the 40s when head costume designer, Travis Banton failed to get his contract renewed. When this occurred in 1938, Paramount did not consider Head as a worthy candidate for the role vacated by Banton. The Executives at the studio spent a year scouring for a more celebrated designer, someone with more of a reputable name amongst Hollywood costume design or couture fashion. During this period, they failed to see Head as more than just designer suited for B movies and supporting role actors and actresses. However, despite the concerns, in 1939, Head was finally officially promoted to head costume designer at Paramount Studios. Not a bad achievement for someone uneducated in such a complex field especially in a male dominated studio system. Head noted that she was “the first woman designer in the business [and] the first designer without a European background.”

Head was an effervescent character when it came to her work. She once alluded that to be successful in her discipline you have to be a “combination of psychiatrist, artist, fashion designer, dressmaker, pincushion, historian, nursemaid, and purchasing agent” Skills such as these that land outside the typical realm of a costume designer are what set her apart and cemented her position at the top of Hollywood.

From this point, Head went on to design costumes for some of the most widely recognised and celebrated films to come out of this era of Hollywood, including films such as; Lady in The Dark (1944), Notorious (1946), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Vertigo (1958), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), The Birds (1963) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). After 40 incredible years at Paramount, Head moved to Universal Studios where she continued to weave her magic in costume design until her death in 1981 at the age of 83.

When talking about Edith Head it is important to note her own personal style and her larger than life personality that came with it. Despite only being just over five feet in stature she was known to fill any room she walked in to. In a similar fashion to her early costume designs, Head’s unique sense of style was somewhat conservative but effortlessly classy. One of the reasons for her personal subdued style was so that the star she was dressing was more focused on themselves and the way their costume fitted. Her go-to outfits tended to be suits of cream, black, grey, and brown -- specifically to never stand out. The idea was her models would overlook her and her diminutive appearance.

Head’s personal style became so synonymous with her image and her work that in 2004 she became the foundation of the Pixar animation The Incredibles character Edna Mode. This homage came from Director and screenwriter Brad Bird who notoriously took issue with one comic-book trope. That superheroes designed and crafted their own superhero costumes and capes. Are we really meant to believe that Clark Kent, Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne are at home using a sewing machine?

With this in mind, for The Incredibles, Bird pursued a more realistic situation. The family of superheroes would turn to a costume designer who made her name designing and creating custom outfits for those with superpowers. A super designer of sorts.

Edith Head’s animated successor Edna Mode, soon became a fictional icon and for those that know, helped shine a brighter light on Head’s already far-reaching legacy in the film world. Despite Mode featuring only briefly in the film, she made enough of an impact to be asked to present (through CGI) the 2005 Best Costume Design Oscar alongside Pierce Brosnan.

From Edna Mode’s rounded spectacles to her short cut hair; her small stature to her eccentric character, the similarities between her and Edith Head are uncanny and make for a highly entertaining character that was adored by a generation. Both Edna Mode and Edith Head have cemented themselves a position in film history.