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October 27, 2022

Almanac of Story Tellers: Edith Head

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books

Today is the story of Oct. 28th
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    It is the 301st day of the year, leaving 64 days remaining in 2022.   
  
    
On this date in 1897, the costume designer Edith Head was born.


    She told her stories in fabrics and fashion, designing clothes worn by the leading actors in the glory days of Hollywood. 

    Her range of designs spanned from the simplistically elegant to the absolutely fabulously flamboyant. She lived by the maxim that she should accentuate the positive and hide the rest, and had the ability to design, cut, and drape her designs to highlight the wearer's style and body type. 

    She was able to deal with often temperamental actors and their directors, so much so that she was often "loaned out" to dress stars working for other studios.

     And while she didn't invent the category of costume design, she became synonymous with it at awards ceremonies. In 1948, the Academy Awards announced two new categories: Best costume design in black and white, and in color. Head was nominated for the next 19 years, collecting 35 nominations in total. 


    She started working in 1923, helping to design costumes for silent films. Her first major work was in 1933, with Mae West in She Done Him Wrong. Head gained fame after designing Dorothy Lamour's sarong in The Jungle Princess in 1936, and soon became the most requested designer in Hollywood.

    She worked with Veronica Lake in I Married a Witch in 1942; Barbara Stanwyke in multiple films, including Double Indemnity in 1944; Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark that same year, and Ingrid Bergman, Loretta Young, Betty Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and Grace Kelly. She also worked with male actors, including Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and John Wayne.

    Head died in 1981.

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