About Me

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Aurora, Ontario, Canada
I am a lover of all things created, history, travel, art and literature. I spend my time with family and friends, working hard and creating things, pretty much in that order. My passion is to make beautiful things to wear, mostly accessories, jewelry, belts, clutches, hair adornments, brooches etc. I create mostly using fabric , fibres, metals, jewels, pins, chain, clips, buttons and more. I have a shop on Etsy.com which I sometimes have a little trouble maintaining depending on the time of year and how busy I am. Check out my Etsy Shop www.etsy.com/shop/dressedtothe9s or click on the box on the left to go directly there.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Edith Head : Costume Designer Extraordinaire

You must have heard of her , if not then you would certainly have seen some of her marvelous creations.
She was born in 1897 and sadly left our presence in 1981.
She won 8 Academy Awards for Costume design and was actually nominated for 35 of them.
Never really having any formal training in art she was a teacher and offered to teach Art at Hollywood School for Girls and took night classes at Chouinard Art College where she met her first husband. She took a job at Paramount as a costume sketch artist in 1924 and started designing for silent movies. She divorced her husband in 1936 after a long separation and met her second husband and married him in 1944.
She worked at Paramount for 44 years and moved to Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967.

She designed beautiful clothing for some of America's most beautiful and famous leading ladies. My absolute favorite would be Grace Kelly. Never has there ever been another woman with her style.


 Grace Kelly above a sheer gown she wore in Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart
Great movie, great fashion. 1954.

Grace Kelly "To Catch a Thief" 1955 with Cary Grant 


Another one of my favorite actresses so full of style and charm and beauty was Audrey Hepburn and here is the beautiful gown she wore in "Sabrina" 1954 with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden.



Below we find the dress that Elizabeth Taylor wore in "A Place in the Sun" 1951 with Montgomery Clift.
The bustline was covered with fabric daisies and this style was what all the girls wanted for prom that year.


Look how stunning she is in this dress.



I love the suit below that Edith Head made for Lucille Ball in "The Facts of Life" with Bob Hope in 1960
Edith's illustrations are fabulous.



Below we have a very sombre looking Bette Davis in 1950's "All About Eve" she starred with George Sanders one of my favorite actors.




She did the costume design for Olivia Dehavilland in "The Heiress" (below).  Olivia won best actress that year for her portrayal of Catherine Sloper a painfully shy girl whose emotionally detached father doesn't hold back his disappointment in her.




And here she is "Edith Head" a very talented woman who paved the way for women costume designers in Hollywood.



7 comments:

  1. Such talent!! I know that style must evolve and i absolutely love that about the fashion world .... but still there is a longing for the such classic beauty. These are amazing!

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  2. There is a longing for it isn't there? I guess we can take solice in the fact that many designers, Carolina Herrera, Ocar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Chanel, Valentino keep elements of decades past alive in their new creations! Hooray for them!

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  3. These gowns and costumes are one of the reasons I love to watch old movies. Beautiful collection and post!

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  4. Love seeing these gorgeous gowns! Thanks for linking up last week! I hope to see another of your posts this week! :) http://petitehermine.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunday-linky-party-9-goodies.html

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  5. Amazing gowns! Thanks for sharing beautiful collection and post.
    hostess milano

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  6. Where do you find her patterns to sew?are they avaliable to purchase

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