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Google Doodle Pays Tribute To Edith Head, Iconic Hollywood Costume Designer
Today's Google Doodle features sketches of dresses made famous from Hollywood costume designer Edith Head. Head, who won eight Academy Awards and is known for designing memorable dresses seen in All About Eve, A Place in the Sun and many Hitchcock films, would have been 116 today.
Head died in 1981, and the NY Times noted in her obituary that her career spanned more than 50 years—"Miss Head, whose bangs, bun, tortoise-shell glasses and two-piece suit became unmistakable fixtures of the Hollywood scene, worked on 1,000 films and was nominated for 35 Oscars. She designed clothes for Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Magnani and Hedy Lamarr, among others." The gown that Taylor wore in A Place In The Sun instantly established her character as the society girl who is too out of reach for poor George Eastman:
Head, working mostly on Paramount and Universal Studios during the studio system days, helped established old Hollywood glamour with her elaborate gowns and sharply tailored suits for leading ladies. In fact, she worked on so many of Grace Kelly's dresses (notably in Rear Window, To Catch A Thief and High Society plus an Oscar dress), she expected to design Kelly's wedding dress (a designer at MGM got the honors instead).
Head also designed dresses for Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, though in Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany's, some of the key dresses were designed by Hubert Givenchy (although there's debate about the Sabrina gown).
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Many of the cool (blonde) Hitchcock heroines wore Head's designs—the grey suit that Kim Novak wore in Vertigo was a style first worn by Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much and Tippi Hedren wore the infamous green suit for all of The Birds.
Head's final oscar was for The Sting, which she remarked was a movie without a female lead. She was also the inspiration for the character "Edna Mode" in The Incredibles:
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