Part IV

Newman and Redford

The Sting

Circa 1973

In the 1973 movie, The Sting, Edith Head officially received credit and won an Academy Award for dressing the film's two male leads, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  In 1974, Head received a final Oscar win for her work on The Sting (1973).

The Rest of the Story

The last major scandal of Head's career revolved around the 1973 Universal Studios film, The Sting. Head was responsible for promoting the film and ensuring that the acctors were happy with their costumes.  Essentially, she had no design responsiblities for the film though she received the singular design credit.  The costumes for the two leads, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, fell to Peter Saldutti and Vincent Dee.  Former Paramount sketch artist, Bob Mackie said "a lot of producers were very happy to have Edith's name on a film because then you automatically get press because everybody knew who Edith was.  She got more press out of The Sting than anything she ever did and she didn't even do it." The Sting won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Costume Design.  However, in Head's acceptance speech, she offered "no acknowledgment of the contributions of Dee, Saldutti or Weaver to the shock of others in the costume industry." While Head took an ad out in the Costume Designer Guild's newsletter to thank her fellow costumers, the damage had already been done. 

During the Golden Age of Hollywood costumes were rarely treated as historical artifacts.  Instead, they were viewed as disposable, short-term props.  As costume experts note, "so many of these ensembles from the earlier part of the 20th-century were made when nobody was thinking about keepsakes and preservation for future display or archival purposes."  While Edith Head did not personally own a conservation lab, she preserved her film creations and legacy through strategic studio management, meticulous documentation and public exhibition.  At Paramount Pictures and later Universal Studios, costumes were kept in massive, multi-level studio wardrobe departments.  Head managed these inventories with strict organization.  While some dresses were altered and recycled for background extras in subsequent films, headlining gowns worn by stars like Audrey Hepburn or Grace kelly were deliberately cataloged, tagged and set aside in the studio's permanent archives rather than being repurposed.  Head ensured that even if a physical garment deteriorates, the "DNA" of the costume survived.  She maintained detailed costume notebooks containing:  comprehensive wardrobe plots mapping every scene, original signed watercolor and ink sketches, fabric swatches and textile samples and notes on tailoring and continuity.  Many of these documents are now preserved in university libraries such as the Edith Head Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. 

Later in her life, Head despite the costume design controveries, became a champion of her own legacy.  She organized and hosted traveling fashion shows across America, showcasing her historic cinematic designs.  If an original dress had decayed or been lost over the decades, she would use her original notes to have the studio wardrobe department meticulously re-create the pieces so they could be appreciated by live audiences.  Today, the remaining pieces she fought to keep intact are split between the official Paramount Pictures Archive and specialized museums.  

Edith Head: The Fifty Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer.  

Head wrote two books describing her career and design philsophy, The Dress Doctor (1959) and How to Dress for Success (1967).

Edith Head worked at Paramount Pictures for 44 years and was frequently loaned out by the studio for work on projects for other studios.  In 1946, Head worked for the first time with director Alfred Hitchcock on his spy film Notorious. In 1968, at the age of 70, Head left Paramount Pictures and was contracted with Universal Pictures where she remained until her death in 1981. 

Head was famous for wearing sunglasses, but most people don't realize there's a reason behind the shades," said Catherine Shotick, guest curator for Edith Head.  

"Her trademark glasses had custom, blue-tinted lenses which allowed her to see how the costumes photographed in black and white.  A trick used by costume designers during the Golden Age of Hollywood."

With over 400 films to her credit, Head ruled the costume design departments at Paramount and Universal Studios from the early 1920s to the early 1980s.  Edith Head helped define the style of classic Hollywood with her striking designs which earned her 35 Oscar nominations and 8 Oscar wins which was more than any other woman to date.  

Edith Head

Circa 1955

"If it's a Paramount film I probably designed it."

Edith Head

She had become of the most revered and idolized costume designers in cinema history. Name a classic film starring a female legend from the Golden Age of Cinema and she's likely felt the cool embrace of Edith Head's tape measure. She was famously known for wearing a 19th-century-style sewing chatelaine belt as a staple of her professional "uniform".  While she was celebrated for crafting glamorous, tranformative gowns for the silver screen's greatest leading ladies, her personal style was meticulously calculated, highly functional and deeply rooted in the history of her craft.

Just like her signature blunt, lacquered bangs and tinted, round-rimmed glasses, the waist-hung chatelaine became a core piece of her self-created public persona.  It visually comunicated that despite her massive fame, she waas first and foremost a master technician at work.

Edith head with her model dummies famously known as minature dressmaker dummies or mini-dress forms. 

A sewing chatelaine was worn by Edith Head as a nod to historical dressmakers.  It is a decorative belt hook with hanging chains used to carry daily tool.