OKC museum's exhibit 'Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer' is a star-studded smash
For film fans who step into the exhibition “Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer,” the show-stopping moments start immediately with the lavish gown Olivia de Havilland famously wore in influential director William Wyler's 1949 romantic drama "The Heiress."
The acclaimed film was made in black and white, but when seen in real life, the floor-length velvet dress Head designed for the petite star draws the eye with its deep shade of burgundy.
On view on the third floor of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the dress display is accessorized with the Oscar statuette Head won for her work on the film, the first of eight Academy Awards she earned over the course of her storied cinema career.
"Also, Barbara Stanwyck is one of the first people we see, and there are iconic dresses from 'The Lady Eve' and 'Double Indemnity' and 'The Furies,'" said museum President and CEO Michael J. Anderson, standing next to a mannequin dressed in a black beaded bolero jacket, beaded black sash and floor-length black skirt, one of 25 costumes Head designed for Stanwyck for "The Lady Eve."
"It's as close contact as we can come to some of these legendary stars from the '40s, '50s and '60s."
Organized by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, “Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer," a retrospective of the beloved film industry icon, wraps up its blockbuster summer run Sept. 29 at the downtown OKC museum.
Who was Edith Head and how did she become a Hollywood legend?
Presented by the Ann Lacy Foundation, "Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer" pays homage in glamorous fashion to the behind-the-camera legend whose influence remains so potent that she helped inspire the character of Edna Mode from Disney/Pixar's "The Incredibles" movies.
With more than 400 films to her credit, Head (1897-1981) ruled the costume design departments at Paramount and Universal Studios from the early 1920s to the early 1980s. She helped define the style of classic Hollywood with her striking designs, which snagged her 35 Academy Award nominations and eight Oscar wins — more than any other woman to date.
Over the course of her career, she dressed some of the most beloved performers of Hollywood's Golden Age, from Judy Garland and Katharine Hepburn to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and collaborated with legendary Hollywood directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Tulsa native Blake Edwards.
Although her job didn't put her in front of the camera, Head's own face, look and even signature became famous and are still well-known to classic cinema fans, said Susan Claassen, who has spent 20 years portraying the icon in her one-woman play “A Conversation with Edith Head."
"There's a huge story there, and it wasn't just glamour. ... She was an executive woman before there was such a thing. She survived in the boys' club. She started in 1923, right after women got the vote (in 1919). She had a 44-year career at Paramount, and then when they didn't renew her contract, through her friendship with Alfred Hitchcock and Lew Wasserman, who was the head of Universal, she moved over there for 14 years," said Claassen, who lent an Edith Head dress to the OKC exhibit and performed at the museum for the show's opening weekend.
"She put the face on what a costume designer does and was the original brander: She was syndicated in 36 magazines in her day, (and she was) on TV, on radio."
What can people expect to see in the OKC exhibit 'Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer?'
Given the span of her cinema career — which ranged from 1940s screwball comedies to 1960s Elvis Presley movie musicals — it's little surprise that "Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer" sprawls across the OKC museum's entire third floor. It includes about 70 costumes, 20 sketches, three Oscar statuettes and two screening areas devoted to Head’s life and work.
"I love the breadth of her accomplishments and the fact that we have dresses here from mid '30s — which is one of my favorite times in Hollywood; I love the '30s — into the 1960s," Anderson said.
The retrospective features stunning costumes worn by some of the most fabled stars to ever appear on the silver screen, including Bob Hope, Joanne Woodward, Susan Hayward, Shelley Winters, Carole Lombard, Shirley MacLaine, Veronica Lake, Angela Lansbury and more.
Highlights range from a crimson sarong donned by Dorothy Lamour in 1941's "Aloma of the South Seas" and the deep blue cloak Hedy Lamarr wore as Delilah in 1949's "Samson and Delilah" to Yul Brynner's jauntily nautical garb from 1958's "The Buccaneer" to the playfully lavish outfits sported by Jack Lemmon and Natalie Wood in the 1965 madcap comedy "The Great Race."
From the moment the show opened, Anderson said visitors have been wowed by the Hitchcock display featuring the black organza cocktail dress with transparent sleeves Head created for Grace Kelly to wear in 1954's "Rear Window" and the dark purple dress with the long pale pink scarf and matching high heels the designer devised for Kim Novak for 1958's "Vertigo."
"It doesn't get any better than those films," he said. "I'm starstruck with anything close to Hitchcock's films."
OKC Museum of Art is offering extended hours and film screenings to go with its Edith Head exhibit
In some ways, "Edith Head: Hollywood's Costume Designer" could be considered a sequel, as the museum reteamed with renowned textile conservator Cara Varnell, who previously played a key role in helping the OKC Museum of Art create its hit 2010 exhibit "Sketch to Screen: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design."
In her OKC reunion, Varnell collaborated for a couple of years with the museum's staff, as well as with lenders Larry McQueen, Greg Schreiner and Randall Thropp, who works with Paramount's archive department as a costume and prop archivist.
Like "Sketch to Screen: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design," as well as many of the movies Head worked on over the decades, the summer exhibit has been a hit for the OKC Museum of Art.
"It's our biggest exhibition since 2019, since we had (the traveling exhibit) 'Van Gogh, Monet, Degas' ... and one of the biggest exhibits we've ever done ourselves," Anderson said. "It's been very popular since Day 1. ... We've been very pleased with the response, not only from the community, but we've seen a lot of people travel for the exhibit as well."
The retrospective has proven so popular that the museum is offering extended morning and evening hours for its final week:
9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24
9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26
9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28
9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29
In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum's Noble Theater is continuing its "Edith Head Film Series" with two Audrey Hepburn classics: 1957's "Funny Face," directed by Stanley Donen and co-starring Fred Astaire, at 2 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 21; and 1961's "Breakfast at Tiffany's," directed by Edwards and co-starring George Peppard, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sept. 28. An encore screening of Hitchcock's 1954 masterwork "Rear Window," starring Grace Kelly and James Stewart, is set for 3:30 p.m. Sept. 29.
"I think this exhibit brings classical Hollywood back to life in a certain way that we don't usually get to experience it. Not everybody will be familiar with the films, but for those people that are, it's chance to get that sense of present-ness with the movies. You get to be transported back in time when you see these wonderful costumes," Anderson said.
"I also hope for a lot of people, it'll be an introduction. ... I think many of our visitors who haven't seen 'Vertigo' or 'Sunset Boulevard,' they'll go back and see those for the first time and just see how incredible the accomplishment of those works are."
'EDITH HEAD: HOLLYWOOD'S COSTUME DESIGNER'
When: Through Sept. 29.
Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.
Tickets and information: https://www.okcmoa.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC exhibit is spotlighting legendary film costume designer Edith Head
