Dressing the Stars

Costume designer Edith Head (1897-1981) secured her legacy as Hollywood's best-known costume designer when she received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science nomination for best Costume Design for the movie Airport '77.  Head worked on more than 1,100 films, received 35 Oscar nominations, and took home eight awards.

In 1923, she was hired by Paramount Studios as a sketch designer, some say using another's sketches. By1938, Head had become that studio's chief costume designer, a position she held until 1967, when she moved to Universal Pictures.

Her first Oscar nomination came in 1949, for the 1948 film The Emperor Waltz, starring Joan Fontaine and Bing Crosby.  Head's first Oscar win came in 1950 for her work in The Heiress, starring Olivia de Haviland.

via pinterest.com

Her trademark "sunglasses" were in fact not sunglasses, but blue lensed glasses.  Using such a lens was common practice during the days of black and white movies. This gave the costumer a sense of what the color would look like on-screen. Head took this one step further and had glasses made to save herself straining to see through just a single lens.

Her career was not without controversy.  For the film Sabrina (1955 winner), Givenchy designed many of the clothes worn by Audrey Hepburn, but was uncredited.  At that time, Givenchy worked for Edith Head. When the Oscar-winning costume designer was announced, Edith Head accepted the statue without mentioning Givenchy's work.  Hepburn was appalled by the snub to her friend, and vowed she would not allow that to happen again. In 1961, Givenchy designed a Little Black Dress for the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. His original version showed most of Hepburn's leg, and the studio vetoed the dress.  Edith Head, still head designer, reworked the skirt and filled it with horsehair and lead weights to make it fall the way she wanted.  In this case, however, Givenchy was credited with the design and Head as "costume supervisor."

pictures via pinterest.com

In addition to The Heiress, Edith Head won Academy Awards for the following films:
All About Eve 

Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders

photo via allposters.com

Samson and Delilah 

Hedy Lamar

via fanpix.net

A Place in the Sun

Elizabeth Taylor
fashion.telegraph.co.uk

Roman Holiday

www.britannica.com
photo by Paramount Pictures

picture via featherbyfeather.com


Sabrina

via sensefunnel.com
(some sources say this dress is a Givenchy design)


The Facts of Life

sketch for Lucille Ball,
The Facts of Life
via pinterest.com



The Sting

via behind-the-seens.com


 Many classic films list as Edith Head as Costume Designer:  Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, To Catch a Thief,  Sweet Charity, Notorious, Rooster Cogburn, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and White Christmas.  She is credited as the designer who put Dorothy Lamour in a sarong.

Below are a few of Head's costumes from the above mentioned films.

 via fineartamerica.com

 via pinterest.com

 Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane, 1937

Silver Screen Collection

Grace Kelly - To Catch a Thief

via dotsilicon.com

 Katherine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn
via nymag.com

Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in Notorious
photo from Archive Photos/Getty Images 

Kim Novak in Vertigo

pinterest.com

Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in White Christmas

edelweisspatterns.com

from tvtropes.org

 

 Tippi Hedren in the The Birds
www.ew.com

Shirley McClaine in Sweet Charity
journalsinclassicfilm.com

Grace Kelly in Rear Window
clothesonfilm.com

Upon winning her last Oscar for The Sting, her acceptance speech was brief: "Just imagine dressing the two handsomest men in the world and getting this.  I simply couldn't be more happy or more grateful."

Once asked who was her personal favorite actress to dress, she replied, "Grace Kelly.  She is a charming lady, a most gifted actress, and, to me, a valued friend."

Despite all her accolades and Oscars, the project of which she was most proud occurred in the late 1970s, when she designed a woman's uniform for the U. S. Coast Guard. The growing number of women in the military resulted in a need for suitable uniforms.  For this, Head received the Meritorious Public Service Award.

picture from 4yourinformation.files.wordpress.com

Here are some lovely patterns designed by Edith Head offered by members of the Pattern Patter Team on etsy.com.

Advance 8048 from  SelvedgeShop
Advance 8049 from FloradoraPresents
Advance 9296 from ErikawithaK
Prominent Designer A895 SoVintageOnEtsy

Vogue 1560 from allthepreciousthings
Vogue2040 from GreyDogVintage
Vogue 2041 from mbchills
Vogue 2220 from CloesCloset

by kinseysue on etsy

References:

biography.com

IMDb.com

fashion.allwomens.talk.com
classiq.me

Sewing Through the Cinema--HouseBoat

by Amy~ViennasGrace

        Get your tissues ready, no not that kind of tissue silly, this isn't a tear jerker.  I'm searching sewing patterns modern and vintage to find the looks featured in classic films. Although it might not be possible to duplicate the exact look, I'll show you how to easily mimic the feeling of the style. Soon you'll see that a silver screen wardrobe is only a pattern away.

A 1958 a romantic comedy about Tom Winters, a widower who makes up his mind to raise his three busy children on his own. In comes Cinzia taking on the role as a live-in nanny and housekeeper, when she is actually an Italian socialite. Much of this fun and mayhem takes place on a rickety old Houseboat.

Starring...

Sophia Loren

and Cary Grant

Two years prior to filming Houseboat these two met during another production, a relationship began and Cary Grant who was 30 years her senior and already in his 3rd marriage, proposed to Sophia Loren.   She turned him down, their love affair was brief but their friendship continued throughout their lives. 

Really cute trailer from Houseboat

Costume Designer:  Edith Head

"What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he's become a different person." E.Head

Here she is during a fitting on set for Houseboat.

Considering that Sophia Loren's height was a bit under 5'9 and sporting a 24 inch waist, Edith Head was a very petite woman.

With Edith Head as the film's costume designer, it's no surprise that Sophia Loren had some amazing fashions.

Nothing so fabulous as a perfect crisp white wrap blouse! Kind of like wearing that special guy's white suit shirt, tied tight at your waist.

Simplicity 3402 patternshop  McCall's 5323 VogueVixens  Vogue 5222 Fancywork

Advance 6148 ClairebearToo McCall's 3553 GrandmaMadeWithLove Butterick 4622 SelvedgeShop

All those skirt gathers sit lovely on Sophia Loren's curves, but try for a more controlled sense of volume, 6, 9, 12 gores should do it.

No, I'm not talking about a HORROR FILM about GLOBAL WARMING!

totally different gore on Gore...

gore: noun  :  a tapering or triangular piece (as of cloth in a skirt)

Sophia Loren did not win an Oscar until 1962 for her role in "Two Women".  She did give that old gold guy a run for the money in this gorgeous gold gown. 

AND THE WINNER IS>>>
although this isn't an exact match, this pattern has the right bust structure to give the look that Sophia Loren has all on her own.  Nothing wrong with getting a little structure help.
Vogue 2372 DejaVuPatterns

ON that note...
Before we go any further...

Let's talk about about some support- getting that shape (or ummm close to that shape, or even not so close, OK  in the same zip code as that shape) it is going to take more than a pair of spanks or a push up bra.  We are talking structure here, under garment structure. With the proper undergarments 1950s fashions sit, fit, flow, and flare much better.  

          wow, sure a whole lot of bursting bust chat & ads in the 50s...

    Corselet MrsDepew                                  Corset MantuaMakerPatterns

Ok so one of the things to look for when seeking a curvy-curvy-curva-palooza silhouette, think BASQUE.  First thing that comes to mind, an excellent Basque restaurant in Fresno California...

 But never mind not that, a BASQUE Waist! 

A basque is an item of women's clothing. The term, of French origin, refers to a type of bodice or jacket, and in modern usage a long corset, characterized by a close, contoured fit and extending past the waistline over the hips. It is so called because the fashion was adopted from Basque traditional dress, initially by the French and then throughout Western fashion. (thanks Wikipedia!)

I also love the term Torsolette--it's fun to say, like saying Toulouse-Lautrec. Okay! So, Back on track

That's what I'm talking about!

McCall's 4358 NostaligiaVintage2  Simplicity 2066 FriskyScissors 

FashionCutPattern 4709 SewAsItWasPatterns

Simplicity 3443 ViennasGrace  Spadea 2139 VintagePatternsCo1
Prominent Designer A678 retromonkeys

Here are a few other stand out looks from the film.

McCall's 5020 allthepreciousthings    Simplicity 1134 sydcam123

Butterick 5672 CarolsTagSale    Vogue 8095 FoundAlchemyPatterns

Simplicity 4388 CloesCloset    McCall's 5784 kinseysue

How can you get all this style into your closet? I told you, 

pull out your tissues! Pattern tissue that is, go sew it girl! 

Below is a Pattern Patter Team Treasury inspired by the lovely fashions in Houseboat

Click here to view this treasury on Etsy

 Here's another treasury inspired by Houseboat, featuring some Pattern Patter Team Vintage Sewing Patterns, designed by Edith Head, along with other fun Etsy finds.       Click here to view this treasury on Etsy