Portraits of a Young Edith Head in the 1930s and 1940s

Edith Claire Head (1897–1981) was an American film costume designer. She received a record 35 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and won a record eight times, making her both the most honored and most nominated woman in the Academy’s history. She also holds the Guinness World Record for most-credited costume designer in film history, with a total of 432 credits.

Head joined Paramount (then Famous Players–Lasky) in 1923 as a sketch artist after using classmates’ drawings in her portfolio. She learned under Howard Greer and Travis Banton, starting with supporting roles, extras, and less glamorous assignments while gradually taking on more design work. By the early 1930s she had transitioned into full costume design.

She gained her first major on-screen credit and worked with Mae West on She Done Him Wrong (1933), creating the actress’s signature voluptuous, hat-heavy looks that pushed censorship boundaries. Her breakthrough came with Dorothy Lamour’s figure-hugging sarong in The Jungle Princess (1936) and related films such as The Hurricane (1937). The design became a national fashion craze and raised Head’s public profile.

Other early work included films with Shirley Temple, Clara Bow (earlier), and various Paramount productions. She was known for practical, character-driven designs rather than pure glamour, and she developed a talent for flattering different body types and transforming actresses.

In 1938, after Banton left (amid personal issues), Head was named chief costume designer. She oversaw a large department and preferred the 1930s as her favorite decade, when stars “wore real fur, real jewels” and designers were as important as the stars themselves.

Her first marriage (to Charles Head) ended in divorce around 1938; she kept the surname professionally. Head married art director Wiard (“Bill”) Ihnen in 1940; the marriage lasted until his death in 1979.

She designed for dozens of films a year (sometimes 40–50). Key collaborations included Barbara Stanwyck (The Lady Eve, 1941; Ball of Fire, 1941; Double Indemnity, 1944), Veronica Lake, Ginger Rogers (Lady in the Dark, 1944, featuring a much-discussed mink-lined gown during wartime austerity), Ingrid Bergman (Notorious, 1946), and the Hope-Crosby-Lamour “Road” comedies (exotic, resourceful designs using substitutes for restricted materials).

Wartime constraints led to creative solutions (e.g., painted fabrics instead of scarce printed ones, sheer cotton for silk). Her work emphasized character transformation, camouflage of perceived flaws, and story support over pure fashion statements.

The Academy Award for Best Costume Design was introduced in 1948–49. Head received her first nomination for The Emperor Waltz (1948) and won her first Oscar for The Heiress (1949, Olivia de Havilland). She also won that year for Samson and Delilah. These marked the start of her record-setting run (eventually 8 wins and 35 nominations).

Head’s style in this era was versatile, ranging from elegant simplicity and period accuracy to glamorous or exotic looks, while remaining collaborative and discreet with stars. She became known for making actresses feel beautiful and for designs that influenced off-screen fashion. By the end of the 1940s she was firmly established as one of Hollywood’s most important and prolific costume designers, a position she held at Paramount into the 1960s.