Today’s Google logo celebrates the triumphant career of Hollywood costume designer Edith Head on the occasion of her 116th birthday. Born Edith Posener in San Bernardino, California, Head would catch her first big break as a Paramount Pictures costume sketch artist in 1924 after working as an art teacher at Bishop’s School in La Jolla.
The logo places Edith Head front and center of her more famous costume creations, starting with a dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the film A Place in the Sun. The second dress in the logo is the iconic red velvet dress trimmed in white fur worn by Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas. The yellow dress was created for Natalie Wood’s role in 1964’s Sex and the Single Girl. The blue ball gown was designed by Head for Grace Kelly to wear in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. Another Hitchcock design made the logo with the green outfit worn by Tippi Hedren in The Birds. The final sketch and last letter of the logo is a red gown donned by Jo Van Fleet in 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Head’s career as a costume designer began with the silent film The Wanderer in 1925, she would remain at Paramount Pictures for 43 years before moving to Universal Pictures in March of 1967. She won more Academy Awards than any other woman, nominated 35 different times for Costume Designer and winning eight. Head was nominated every year between 1948 and 1966.
She designed outfits for a number of Hollywood’s leading ladies, including Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Shirley MacLaine, Gracey Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Alfred Hitchcock was especially fond of Head’s work, using her for several of his films. Beyond her work in films, she began designing costumes for television during the 1970s while at Universal.
The United States Coast Guard contracted Head to design a woman’s uniform for which she received a Meritorious Public Service Award. Her final Oscar was earned for her work on the film The Sting with Robert Redford.
Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.
