Edith Head was undoubtedly Hollywood’s most famous costume designer, or “magician,” as she liked to call herself. Her career spanned fifty-eight years of movie making. In those years she dressed almost every major star who shone in the industry and, with her straight-cut bangs, dark glasses and tailored suits as her trademark, became more famous than most of them. Just a few weeks before she died, she was still waving at fans as the Universal City Studio Tour stopped at her bungalow.

She was born Edith Claire Posener on October 28, 1897 in San Bernadino, California. Her parents soon divorced, her mother remarried, and the young child was given her stepfather’s surname, Spare. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and received a Masters Degree in Romance Languages from Stanford University in 1920. Edith Spare taught French and, despite her lack of experience in the subject, art at the Hollywood School for Girls. She enrolled in night classes at Otis Art Institute and Chouinard, where she met and married Charles Head, and became forever Edith Head.

When a 1923 classified ad announced a job opening for a sketch artist at Paramount Studios, the resourceful young woman, in need of a summer income, used a borrowed portfolio to win the position that would change the course of her life. She made the transition from sketcher to full-fledged designer in 1933 and set about learning everything she could from her boss, Travis Banton. In 1938, as her first marriage was ending, Edith Head replaced Travis Banton and was suddenly the top designer at one of Hollywood’s biggest studios. She kept the post  until 1967 when Paramount was sold and she moved to Universal Studios. In 1940 Edith Head married one of her best friends, Wiard Boppo (Bill) Ihnen, a Paramount set designer. They remained together until his death in 1979, enjoying a very private life in their Hollywood hacienda, Casa Ladera.

Hollywood recognized the petite designer in 1974 with her own star on Hollywood Boulevard, an honor she had indeed earned. In her six decades of costume design, she worked on 1,131 motion pictures, received 35 Academy Award® nominations and won an unprecedented eight Oscars®. In addition to her film work, she designed Vogue sewing patterns; toured the country staging Hollywood fashion shows; wrote magazine and newspaper columns; was America’s favorite fashion maven on Art Linkletter’s House Party; wrote two books, including The Dress Doctor (with Joan Kesner Ardmore; Little, Brown and Co., 1959) and How to Dress for Success (with Joe Hyams; Random House, 1967); and audiotaped hours of interviews in preparation for her autobiography, Edith Head’s Hollywood (E.P. Dutton Inc.), co-authored by Paddy Calistro, and published posthumously in 1983.

Edith Head died in 1981 of a progressive and rare blood disease, myeloid metaplasia, two weeks after completing work on her last film, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. She left her estate to the Motion Picture and Television Fund and to other charitable organizations aiding Native American children and her beloved animals. Her funeral was attended by hundreds, including not only Hollywood’s stars but also the backlot people. A Paramount security guard dressed in a uniform designed by Edith Head mused, “I remember her real well. At Christmas she took care of everyone on the lot. She was the greatest designer in the world. Edith Head was quite a girl.” And that she was.