 [on Kim Novak] I don`t usually get into battles, but dressing Kim Novak for her role in Alfred Hitchcock`s "Vertigo" put to the test all my training in psychology. [on Grace Kelly] I`ve dressed thousands of actors, actresses and animals, but whenever I am asked which star is my personal favorite, I answer, "Grace Kelly." She is a charming lady, a most gifted actress and, to me, a valued friend.
[1977 comment on Jacqueline Bisset] One of the greatest bodies I`ve ever worked with. But besides that she is rather the opposite, because she is so damned intelligent. It`s a strange combination, almost a double personality.
You can lead a horse to water and you can even make it drink, but you can`t make actresses wear what they don`t want to wear.
I have yet to see one competely unspoiled star, except for Lassie.
What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he`s become a different person.
If it is a Paramount film, I probably designed it.
I`ve designed films I`ve never seen.
Trivia
Alumnae Initiate of Delta Zeta sorority, Mu chapter.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 376-378. New York: Charles Scribner`s Sons, 1998.
She is tied with composer Alan Menken for third most Academy Awards won. Each of them have eight.
Her trademark "sunglasses" were not "sunglasses" but rather blue lensed glasses. Looking through a blue glass was a common trick of costumers in the days of Black and White film to get a sense of how a color would photograph. Edith had a pair of glasses made out of the proper shade of blue glass to save herself from looking through a single lens. Her friends commonly would see her in regular "clear" glasses.
Extremely diplomatic, she went out of her way to get along with co-workers and rarely gossiped. In later interviews, however, she mentioned that she did not enjoy working with Mary Martin, Claudette Colbert or Hedy Lamarr. In Paulette Goddard`s case, she thought it was insensitive for the glamorous star to bring her bulging jewelry boxes to the studio workroom and tell her seamstresses (who were working for minimum wage) that they could "look, but not touch.".
The character "Edna Mode" in Disney/Pixar`s The Incredibles (2004) was modeled on her.
Received a master`s degree in French from Stanford University in 1920
The Costume Department building on the Paramount lot is named after her.
A photograph of Miss Head working on a dress design appears on one stamp of a sheet of 10 USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamps, issued 25 February 2003, celebrating American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes. The stamp honors costume design.
Was a close friend of actress Anne Baxter. She was godmother to one of Baxter`s children.
On They Might Be Giants` 2001 album, "Mink Car", there is a song called "She Thinks She`s Edith Head".
During the 1920s, she taught French and art at the Hollywood School for Girls.
Rarely did her own sketching because of her time schedule. Almost all sketches of "hers" one sees today were actually done by a devoted staff of sketch artists.
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Cathedral Slope section, plot #1675.
Her 35 Oscar nominations and 8 awards make her both the most honored costume designer and woman in Academy Award history to date.
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