Edith Head is probably the most iconic of all Hollywood costume designers. Beginning in the early 1930s until her retirement in 1977, Edith Head costumed the stars of over 500 films. With 35 Academy Award nominations for Best Costume Design, she won 8—the closest to come to her record is Irene Sharaff, who garnered 15 nominations and 5 wins. Edith Head truly surpassed all of her competition. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Lucille Ball, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, and Katherine Hepburn are just a few of the female stars Head dressed, both in character and as themselves. And winning her last Oscar for The Sting in 1974 meant that her designs for male stars, explicitly Paul Newman and Robert Redford, were superb as well. Her style acumen stretched from the exotic, historical costumes she designed for Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments to the classic, timeless costumes she designed for Roman Holiday, To Catch a Thief, and Sabrina. This book is a sampling of Edith Head’s most famous work.

The Golden Age of Hollywood was truly a showcase for costume designers, some of whom—like Michael Woulfe—were lesser-known but made distinctive contributions to the glamour of this illustrious period. Michael takes the reader on his journey from a starstruck Brooklyn boy to a Hollywood costume designer who learns that Judy Garland has personally requested him to design her gowns for the gala film premiere of A Star Is Born. As in all fairytales, the journey is filled with joys and struggles—from Michael’s first film assignment dressing Sylvia Sidney in Blood on the Sun, his encounters with nastiness under the glittery surface of Hollywood, and the madness of working under the personal direction of Howard Hughes at RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. At the age of twenty-seven, Michael was one of the youngest costume designers in history to receive screen credit as Gown Designer. As head designer on more than sixty films, he created glamorous wardrobes and gowns for Hollywood stars and legends such as Claudette Colbert, Laraine Day, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Susan Hayward, Janet Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Terry Moore, Debbie Reynolds, Jane Russell, Jean Simmons, Barbara Stanwyck, Sylvia ... [Read More]

This handsome collection pays tribute to 7 great Hollywood designers including Travis Banton, Jean Louis, Irene, and Orry-Kelly. 2 female figures -- with separate attachable heads for each star -- model exquisite gowns created for Leigh (Gone with the Wind), Turner (Ziegfeld Girl), Dietrich (Shanghai Express), others. 2 dolls and 30 full-color

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