EDITH HEAD: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designer

Jay Jorgensen

Running Press,

Life Time Media, Inc., New York, USA

Year 2010

Pages 548

Nearly every costume designed for a film has a story behind its creation. This book isn’t so much a biography of Edith Head, the woman, but more of a biography of the clothes that she designed. Costume designer Edith Head (1897 — 1981) racked up an unprecedented 35 Oscar nods and 400 film credits over the course of a fifty-year career. Never before has the account of Hollywood’s most influential designer been so thoroughly revealed – because never before have the Edith Head Archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences been tapped. This unprecedented access allows this book to be a one-of-a-kind survey, bringing together a spectacular collection of rare and never-before-seen sketches, costume test shots, behind-the- scenes photos, and ephemera.