Customer Reviews

Edith Head: The Life and Times of Hollywood's Celebrated Costume Designer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Edith Head was a fascinating woman who worked in a lost world. How could you go wrong with a book about her? This book does just that. Edith Head was a costume designer so you would expect to see page after page of glorious photos of her work, right? This book skimps on photos. You might expect to read some saucy tales of old Hollywood, but this book fails to provide them. It's too stiff, too careful--it reads like a libel attorney was the final editor--and it bored me. Hunt down the Dress Doctor instead.

This is, most probably, the worst book I have ever read. I have been struggling to come up with concise reasons as to just what makes it so terrible. This book is so bad, that I am at a loss as to where to start.
First, the choice of photos is dismal. There are few photos of any costumes that won awards. The majority of the photos are head & shoulder shots, that reveal nothing of the lines or designs. The few sketches are done by others. The inclusion of them adds nothing to understanding Head's work.
Second, the writing is abysmal. The author starts in on an event, topic, subject & disposes of it in one or two sentences. Not one subject is dealt with in any depth. Things are thrown in for no apparent purpose except to take up space. As an example, we are told Head thought, after viewing Star Wars, Princess Leia's costume should have a side zipper. That's it - why is this important at all? This is not a film she had any connection with. The author tosses off a remark that someone doesn't want to hire Head because she has told too many lies. (When, to whom, what, WHAT???) One is just left with this statement, it has not been explained previously & it is never explained.
The book is merely cover-to-cover filler. The publisher & the editor should be ashamed.
If you are interested in Head's fashions, save your money & rent the movies - they will give you more information than this book.

Chierichetti has produced what would have been a fascinating article for Vanity Fair or Vogue, but falls short as a full length biography. His subject spent many celebrated decades as a Hollywood costume designer but we learn little about Edith Head's actual creative process, her interactions with the stars she dressed or even how she felt about her job (other than she seemed monumentally insecure about her success). The book is also missing photographic documentation that would help the reader understand how great her impact really was. In the end, we don't learn much more about Edith Head or her life, but rather we learn the same stuff over and over: she was a champion dissembler, she had a complex emotional life, she was conflicted over her parentage and upbringing. Check, check, check. Anything else?

This book was one of the most confusing books I ever read. It was poorly written. I was so lost after Head got her job at Paramount. I knew more of what happened to Charles Head. At Paramount, Chierichetti kept listing jobs that other designers were getting and never revealing Edith's outcome or why. Where was Edith? What about Edith? is all I kept asking. Save your money, this book is not worth it.

Edith Head's young confidante tells all! Would that he had. In light of the author's access, this is a real disappointment for Head fans; much of the, uh, material (groan!) here has appeared elsewhere long ago. Sloppily researched (many of the dates in Head's filmography are incorrect, the name of Nancy Olson's "Sunset Boulevard" character is wrong, etc.) and even the lay-out is slapdash: Of all the legendary costumes Head created, the entire back cover is adorned by a sketch of a dull stewardess uniform she "probably" designed for one the "Airport" sequels. If you've never read anything about the designer, this is Edith Head 101. My advice to anyone else? Bolt!

This is a breezy, readable, can't-put-it-down bio on the infamous, iconic Edith Head. The real advantage this author has, is one of proximity, having worked with her.
This is not a filling meal... it made me want to find her own book - even though she dismisses it later in her life. It digs few probing holes, perhaps because she herself covered all the holes so well. But there is so much DISH here, we don't miss the meal. I'm giving this as a gift to someone who worked in the textile industry.
The real quibble of this book is that there are so FEW pictures of her finished work. With so many juicy anecdotes about different stars, and backstage stories about films, it would have been really nice to have wardrobe shots. Publishers... it isn't too late to add these!
I'm currently reading a bio of Coco Chanel, and it is interesting to see many paralells between the two women, including the trademark streamlined, simplicity they both shared. Edith Head didn't just look inscrutible. She was. This is a fun, fast read.

Don't read this book if you are expecting an exceptional book about Edith Head. Or even a good one. If you are looking for a book that is not-so-good, congrats - dig in. And enjoy.

The author purports to be a "friend" of Edith Head's, yet he assasinates her character. He states that Ms. Head put her name on other designer's work, yet it was common practice by all costume department heads at the movie studios to take credit (literally on the movie credits) for movies that fell in their jurisdiction. Ms. Head is no more guilty than any other department head of a major movie studio. That was the system that existed. The author comes across as either not having liked Ms. Head very much; or, shamefully to their friendship, was and still is, green with envy.

This is a rich, fulfilling introduction to the life of Edith Head. One needn't be interested in fashion to find the author's description of the studio system in which Head flourished fascinating. Although part of the Paramount studio, Head worked everywhere at one time or another, on loan or in demand. She was quite a character. Although intimidating, she was in fact a desperately insecure woman whose fears the author places squarely in the studio system's insecure power structure. Chierichetti persuasively makes the case that the weird nepotism and vicious back-biting made one relax at one's own peril. Head stayed on her toes for decades and survived while other's were forced out or replaced by the girlfriends or relatives of thoughtless executives. The author blends personal anecdote with careful research, thus creating a very satisfying biography of this remarkable figure as well as a fine summation of the system that produced her. I was especially intrigued by the idea of the role costume design played in the overall "look" of the films. This is probably rather obvious to those in the know, but for me this was a new way of looking at favorite pictures. Head seems to have had a hand, literally, in the making of hundreds of classic pictures, yet the author seems rather restrained in his praise of Head, whose limitations he points out. This seems a good approach, for while we must all recognize her remarkable career, Chierichetti wants the reader to bear in mind the numerous talents who populated the Hollywood design world.

Edith Head is the single best-known costume designer Hollywood ever produced (she's such an iconic figure that a character modeled on her appeared in the Disney movie "The Incredibles" a couple of years back) and has probably won more Oscars than anyone else in film history. Given that, you would have expected a pictorial biography of this woman to be chock-full of her best designs. Well, it isn't. As other reviewers have noted, the pictorial selection is disappointing, and the writing is plodding. Considering that the author wrote an excellent book on costume design in film some years ago ("Hollywood Costume Design", which should be available from various Marketplace sellers), it's perplexing that what should have been a tour de force has fallen so flat. I suppose those who want to see an in-depth exploration of Ms. Head's work should look for the book "Edith Head's Hollywood" instead.