For Mae Murray in "The Merry Widow" (1929)


For Elizabeth Taylor in the film "A Place in the Sun" (1951)


Lucille Ball as she appeared in the film "FACTS OF LIFE" (1960)


Lucille Ball for The Facts of Life (1960)


Zsa Zsa Gabor  as she appeared in the film "3 RING CIRCUS" (1954 Paramount)



ЭСКИЗЫ (продолжение)


Jimmy Baird in THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS (1955 Paramount)

 
Jo Van Fleet in GUNFIGHT AT O.K. CORRAL (1957 Paramount)

 

 
 Joan Fontaine in SEPTEMBER AFFAIR (1950 Paramount).


Joanne Dru in 3 RING CIRCUS (1954 Paramount)

 
Joanne Gilbert in RED GARTERS (1954 Paramount).


Judith Anderson in THE FURIES (1950 Paramount)


Lucille Ball as she appeared in the film production of FACTS OF LIFE (1960)


Lucille Watson LET'S DANCE (1950 Paramount)


Marge Champion in MR. MUSIC (1950 Paramount)


Marie Wilson in MY FRIEND IRMA GOES WEST (1950 Paramount).

 
Marilyn Maxwell in OFF LIMITS (1953 Paramount).

 
Marilyn Maxwell in ROCK A BYE BABY (1958 Paramount)


Marisa Pavan in THE ROSE TATTOO (1955 Paramount)

 

  
Mary Anderson in TO EACH HIS OWN (1946 Paramount).


Mona Freeman in BRANDED (1951 Paramount)

 


Mona Freeman in DARLING, HOW COULD YOU (1951 Paramount)


Mona Freeman in DEAR WIFE (1949 Paramount)


Nancy Olsen in MR. MUSIC (1950 Paramount).


Nina Foch in YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG (1955 Paramount).


Olivia de Havilland as she appeared in the film production of THE HEIRESS (1949)

 

 

 

 

 

 
Olivia DeHavilland in TO EACH HIS OWN (1946 Paramount).


Paul Newman and Robert Redford as they appeared in the film production of THE STING


Polly Bergin in THAT'S MY BOY (1951 Paramount).

 

 
Rhonda Fleming in GUNFIGHT AT O.K. CORRAL (1957 Paramount)

 
Rhonda Fleming in LOST TREASURE OF THE AMAZON (1954 Paramount)


Roland Culver as Baron Holena in THE EMPEROR WALTZ (1948 Paramount)

 
Rosemary Clooney in RED GARTERS (1954 Paramount).


Ruth Hussey in MR. MUSIC (1950 Paramount)


Ruth Warrick in LET'S DANCE (1950 Paramount)


Theresa Wright in SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR (1952)

 
Two Edith Head costume sketches for Helen Hayes in Airport. (Universal, 1970)

 
Vera Miles in BEAU JAMES (1957 Paramount)

 

 
Victoria Horn in TO EACH HIS OWN (1946 Paramount).


Lizabeth Scott in Scared Stiff. (Paramount, 1953)


Zsa Zsa Gabor in 3 RING CIRCUS (1954 Paramount)

 

НАРЯДЫ

 


This costume is a reworked version worn by Kim Novak in Jeanne Eagles (Columbia, 1957), designed by Jean Louis.

 


A costume ensemble designed by Travis Banton and worn by Gladys Swarhout in the film Romance in The Dark (1944)

 



 
For actress Loretta Young



 



 
 
For "Sweet Charity"



 
Shirley MacLaine from Sweet Charity

 
Shirley MacLaine in the film production of, "What A Way to Go" (1969)




Sophia Loren in "A Breath of Scandal"



 
Susan Hayward in  the film  of "Crack Up"

 





 
This wedding gown was worn by Natalie Wood as she portrayed Mrs. Penelope Elcott in the 1966 MGM production of Penelope.

 
Zsa Zsa Gabor for "My Favorite Blonde" (1942)






Edith Head wore this ensemble (sans black blouse) to the 1974 Academy Awards to accept her Oscar for the 1973 film production of The Sting.





 
Edith Head Costume Worn by Angie Dickinson

 


Audrey Hepburn's costume in Sabrina, (1954)

 
For Barbara Stanwyck

 
For Barbara Stanwyck



 
For Barbara Stanwyck in 1941 film production of The Lady Eve


For Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950)

For Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950)


For Carole Lombard in No Man of Her Own (1932),

 
For Clara Bow in her portrayal in the 1929 film production of The Saturday Night Kid.





 
For Dinah Shore


Doris Day in the 1958 film production of Teachers Pet.

 

 

 

 




Edith Head Costume Worn by Jill Clayburgh






Edith Head Dress From June Van Dyke Wardrobe




Edith Head for Ava, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor for a photo session

 

 

 

 

 

 
Edith Head Personally Worn Outfit
  
Edith Head Personally Worn Outfit
 
Edith Head Personally Worn Outfit

 

 

 



 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 
Elizabeth Taylor for her appearance on The Lucy Show in 1960.


 Elizabeth Taylor in the film "Little Women"


Elizabeth Taylor in the film "A Place in the Sun"


For Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark (1944)

 
 For Gloria Swanson in the 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard


For Grace Kelly

 
For Grace Kelly in the 1954 Hitchcock classic thriller  , The Rear Window


For Hedy Lamarr for  My Favorite Brunette (1947)

 
For Helen Hayes in the film Airport (1976).



 


This gown was purportedly designed by Edith Head and worn by Marilyn Monroe in publicity photos for "All About Eve"


Illona Massey


For Ilona Massey in a publicity photo shoot for the 1942 film production of "Invisible Agent"

 
Ingrid Bergman's costumes from the 1946 film production of "Notorious"

 
For Jacqueline Bisset in the film Airport (1976)

 
For Jean Harlow


Jean Harlow's image from the film production of the 1929 classic, Saturday Night Kid.


Jill Clayburgh




Jill Clayburgh in the film "Gable and Lombard" (1976).

 
For Joanne Woodward in the 1963 film production of A New Kind of Love.


For Lucille Ball for "The Facts of Life" (1960)

 




For Lupe Velez in the 1929 film production of the "The Wolf Song".

 

 
For Mae Murray in The Merry Widow (1929)


Mae West's character in She Done Him Wrong (1933)



 
Olivia De Havilland as she portrayed Catherine Sloper in the 1949 film production of The Heiress.

 
This gown was worn by Jill Clayburgh in the film Gable and Lombard (1976).






This teddy was worn by Joanne Woodward for the film A New Kind of Love, 1963.


Costuming and Cinematic Language: A Conversation with Edith Head
From: American Film Institute | By: Edith Head

On the role of the costume designer

What we do is a cross between magic and camouflage. We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or an actor that they are a different person.

We have three magicians: hair, make-up and clothes. Through those, we're supposed to kid the great public that it really isn't Robert Redford at all, he's Butch Cassidy or he's in The Sting (1973), or he's somebody else.

It doesn't matter so much with men, but with women we are able to do actually magical things, particularly in period films: changing their figure, making them over. But I think the important and interesting thing is that we do have the power of translating through the medium of clothes, and that's why I think we're a very important part of the whole cinema project.

I'd like to think that if the sound went off, you would still know a little about who the people were. There are two schools of thought. One school says, "It's all right to have the heroine look like a heroine, and the villain look like a villain," and then there's the other school, which says, "Let's fool the public. Let's have the heroine look like a dangerous woman."

So, when you work with a director or producer, you have to find out immediately what their point of view is. Do they want to tell the story visually, or do they want the people not to know who is the wicked person, or not.

The fundamental goal of clothing in a motion picture is translating the wearer into what they are not. That's the difference between clothing in pictures and clothing in real life. In real life, clothing is worn for protection or whatever reason you like. In motion pictures, it's to help the actress on the screen to give the impression that she is the person about whom you are telling in the story. In other words, we go through any kind of device we can to break the mold of the actress. If it's an actress who is known for wearing a certain kind of clothes, we usually go to an extreme to break the concept. We try to almost shock the public into saying, "Well, I don't believe that's Grace Kelly after all."

On the process

You read the script and then you break it down to a very concise "wardrobe plot" in which every actor and every actress and every part is defined--it's quite a document. You take that and have your preliminary meeting with the director and producer.

You've seen something by Alfred Hitchcock, George Roy Hill and Joseph L. Mankiewicz--well, all three of them are completely different. Now, with Hitchcock, he'll send you a script and you say, "Hitch, what do you like?"

He'll say, "My dear Edith, just read the script." That's it. So until you have sketches ready to show him, you don't go over that with him.

George Roy Hill, on the other hand, when we did The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), had done as much research as I had done. In fact, he had done more than I had on some of it. He is an absolute, super perfectionist. He had every book of research I had; he knew what an aviator wore in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975). He knew things of that sort. So when you work with him day by day, you work as though he were another designer.

I never met Mankiewicz because it was another studio and they borrowed me just to do clothes for Bette Davis. He called me and he said, "I love your work, just do what you think is right." So you see, that's three different languages. You can get directors who are charming, you can get directors who are completely uncooperative.

On the relationship between the costume designer and production designer

The production designer is, to me, the individual to whom I show the sketches before I even show them to the director. I think that unless you synchronize the fact that the room is a cool color or a hot color, or it's going to have a floral pattern or no pattern at all, it's impossible to do a coherent job of designing.

I not only work with the art director, but also with the set decorator, because I know that people have been caught doing a blue nightgown in a blue room in a blue bed with blue pillows.

Also, I work with the cinematographer. It isn't as bad now, but before color we did have a great problem, because there were certain things they wouldn't shoot. You couldn't shoot dead white--some of them wouldn't--and certain colors they just didn't handle. But I've discovered it's much safer to ask anybody with whom you are working on the whole team, so at least when you present your sketches you know that there's not going to be trouble later.

The ideal contribution of a costume designer

I think that wise producers and directors feel that we can give an added security to the actors and actresses by the way they are dressed. Don't forget that the average actor goes in front of the camera not portraying himself, but portraying somebody with whom he may not have any great rapport, and so if we can physically translate them into the part, I feel we can give security, which is crucial.

Through the medium of clothes, particularly necklines for close-ups, that's where you can do a great deal to help directors and producers. I even work with writers. A lot of times, you're working with a writer and he describes a costume or wants to know what will help motivate the story.

As you break down and make your costume plot, you make a little side note: ask the director if he thinks that if she wore a hat with a veil in this scene it would help the mystery, or little things that you might think of yourself.

On using sketches

When I go to see a director, I take a sketch pad and a pencil, which I stick in my hair, and as he talks, I sketch. That's why I think people should know how to draw a little. I'll say, "Do you like this sort of thing with a turtleneck sweater?"

He'll say, "No, I see it with a low neck and a scarf," so I quickly do that.

This is all so I won't waste time shopping because I already know what he wants. I've discovered it's much better to communicate with the eye than with the ear. Most directors and producers, and even actors and actresses, like to see something drawn, even if it's just a small pencil sketch.