Who was the better designer: Edith Head or Jean Louis?

Edith Head's contract with Paramount gave her screen credit in films she had no input into.

Edith Head.

The only costumer from the Golden Age of Hollywood who were her equals were Orry-Kelly and Adrian.

Travilla turned out some amazing work as well R2. Head didn't design as much as claimed or credited.

Travilla, Orry-Kelly, Adrian, Helen Rose & Irene Sharaff are my favorites.

Worst: Milo Anderson at Warner's.

Walter Plunket was also very good.

Balmain....fabulous, 1960's finest

Why does this verge on eldergay? Because one is required to have thoughts about something that took place more than twenty minutes ago?

Hard to tell just how good Edith Head was. She took credit for every design within a fifty mile radius! lol. Everyone who sewed a seam or cut a pattern on one of her films deferred to her and she STOLE all ideas or at least put her name on them. She did do some beautiful things, of course.

Edith was more varied. You can spot a Jean Louis creation a mile off but not always an Edith Head, which is a tribute to her versatility.

BORDERING on eldergay?!? This thread crosses the border and goes deep into the most remote backwoods of eldergay.

Jean-Louis. Absolutely. Edith Head was derivative.

Of the two, definitely Jean Louis though you're all forgeting Travis Banton who was the chief resident designer at Paramount before Edith Head.

Though he could be an uncontrollable drunk and went widly over-budget, he created most of Marlene Dietrich's, Mae West's, Claudette Colbert's and Carole Lombard's gowns in their best 1930s films. Many of those dresses are iconic.

Edith Head was brought in to replace him because the studio knew she was a "company man" and would be reliable and efficient, if somewhat duller.

Bernard Herrmann at RKO, who designed all of Ginger Rogers' fabulous gowns in the Astaire/Rogers musicals, was no slouch either and far more innovative than Edith Head.

If Jean Louis had designed nothing more than the black strapless "Put the Blame on Mame" gown for Rita Hayworth's Gilda, he would still be considered more worthy than Edith Head.

And speaking of iconic designs, don't forget Irene Sharaff who designed not only the films but the original Broadway productions of The King and I, West Side Story and Funny Girl as well as Meet Me in Saint Louis, An American in Paris and Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra.

Edith was a tireless worker bee and just knew how to market herself.

No love for Orry-Kelly and his fabu work for Warner Bros? He did wonders for Bette Davis!

Jean-Louis gave very good Head.

[quote]No love for Orry-Kelly and his fabu work for Warner Bros?

We pay attention to fabulous dresses, but Orry-Kelly was also good at defining character through wardrobe. [italic]The Maltese Falcon[/italic] is my favorite movie, so I noticed it first there, but take a look at some of the non-fabulous wardrobe he did.

Jean Louis' grecian influenced cut gowns are timeless, elegant and simply gorgeous. He made actresses LOOK like goddesses.

I agree - he made women look amazing . Check Crawford out in "Queen Bee". He actually made the (older) Joan look wonderful. And Hayworth never looked sexier than in the Gilda dress. They all were great, but Louis, and Sharaff, were my faces.

I meant favorites. Oops.

Lots of fun cross pollination between this thread and the Ginger Rogers thread!

KInd of like the old DataLounge.

If there's cross pollination, you can blame Queen Bee.

Edith Head gives good costume.

Bernard Herrmann r11? wasn't he the great music composer?

Helen Rose at MGM also created some great 50s gowns for Taylor (Cat On a Hot Tin Roof etc), Sandra Dee etc

I particularly like Balmain's great haute couture ensembles for the likes of Kay Kendall (Reluctant Debutante) - that feather boa!, Capucine (Pink Panther), Sophia Loren (Arabesque) etc - those gals knew how to wear clothes!

I simply love Edith's wardrobe for Kelly in To Catch A Thief.

eeeek! I am the elder gay who has been yakking on about Bernard NEWMAN on this and the Ginger Rogers thread but calling him Bernard Herrmann......please forgive!

Thank you for pointing out r21.

r11 -- I don't think you mean Bernard Hermann,the composer.

r22 -- sorry, I just saw your posting about Bernard Newman.

I thought Edith Head was incredibly overrated. The only dress I really liked by her was the white strapless worn by Elizabeth Taylor in "A Place in the Sun." The off-the-shoulder thing Betty Davis wore in "All About Eve" got a lot of notice, but I never liked it. I always thought Head was so-so, not nearly as good as Jean Louis and Adrian and Orry-Kelly.

r 22: You're thinking of Alfred Newman.

Jean Louis was the exclusive designer for Barbara Bel Geddes costumes on 'Dallas'

I love Sharaff. Her work in Nicholas & Alexandra is stunning: an apricot velvet cloak, a pale mauve tea gown, and a dress in a stunning bronze satin which Janet Suzman kneels in. A magic moment.

R25, the off-the-shoulder thing that Bette Davis wore in All About Eve was not designed as an off-the-shoulder dress. It had fairly mundane short sleeves; Davis pulled them down below her shoulders.

But Edith Head did design rather nice things that she used to show off on Art Linkletter's Houseparty. My grandmother used to compell me to sit next to her on the sofa while it was on. (There's a reason that the old lady's in Hell.)

Is Irene Sharaff the same person as "Irene" whose label I've seen in vintage clothing?

No that was Irene "Look out below" Gibbons.

R31, there is an inaccuracy in the link's claim of Kenneth Anger's inaccuracy in reporting Lupe Velez's death. Anger didn't say that she drowned in the toilet. He said that she had attempted suicide with pills, was throwing up into the toilet, and the lid came down and broke her neck. There's a difference.

Edith was very miffed that Grace Kelly chose Helen Rose to design her wedding gown instead of her. But Kelly made the right decision. The wedding dress designed by Rose was spectacularly gorgeous. Head wouldn't have come up with anything anywhere near as perfect.

And Princess Grace still allowed Edith to design her going-away-on-her-honeymoon suit and parts of her trousseau.

Orry-Kelly's dresses for Les Girls and Marilyn's almost transparent number in Some Like it Hot are terrific.

I love Irene Sharaff's costumes and hats for Streisand in Hello Dolly, and of course Taylor as Cleopatra - so many different outfits there.

Sharaff (a lesbian I undersand) also did Funny Girl on stage and film.

Helen Rose's white dress for Taylor in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is sheer classic, as of course are Travilla's for Marilyn.

Cecil Beaton's white dress with the black birds for Leslie Caron in Gigi is simply stunning, much better than his fussy designs for My Fair Lady.

Travis Banton dressed Dietrich wonderfully in the 30s.

Carrie Fisher lives in Edith Head's old hacienda home, on Coldwater Cyn. , in Beverly Hills. Betty Davis lived in the house, before Head bought it . And Debbie Reynolds (Carrie's mom) lives in a house in front, and next door to Fishers. Cute.

I have to give Head credit for making Barbara Stanwyck into a 40s fashion icon. She was the only one who made her rather unusual body shape (long torse, low-set butt) look great in everything.

Helen Rose was better.

Jean-Louis designed the "Happy Birthday Mr President" gown that Marilyn Monroe wore. It became the most expensive gown ever auctioned. Very clever designer. Didn't he marry Loretta Young in their later years?

In the link at R38 there's a picture of Doris Day in a fantastic blue gown from "Love Me or Leave Me." She looks sensational in it!

I liked the Orry Kelly dresses Monroe wore in "Some Like It Hot" but they were so revealing they only emphasized how plump she was at the time (she was pregnant during the making of this film; pregnant and boozing and addicted to pills).

As for the dress Monroe wore to sing "Happy Birthday" to Kennedy...well, she had to be sewn INTO it. It was so tight she couldn't actually put it on; it had to be sewn together around her body. It was more like a costume than a dress.

Cyd Charisse looked better in Doris' blue LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME dress. I remember her green monstrosity at the end of the film: just too much fabric - Scarlett O'Hara would've turned it down.

Fashion queens of the Datalounge, have I told you lately that I love you?

I do.

R11 Bernard Herrmann designed costumes AND wrote the scores for Citizen Kane, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and all those Hitchcock films? Talk about versatility!

You DL costume designer historians know your stuff. Five snaps and a bow to all of you bitches.

My grandmother (Josie Miller) was Edith Heads head seamstress for years. I remember Josie telling me Edith could not sew a stitch. The credit was never given to the seamstress. Josie sewed the Peacock dress for Hedy Lamarr in 1949 for Samson & Delilah and I remember her telling me how it took forever to make as each feather was all hand done. I believe the dress is in a glass cage and at one time was traveling all over the world for show.

Bill Travilla and Marilyn Monroe supposedly had an off-and-on affair (he was married to B-actress Dona Drake for more than 50 years).

Dona Drake was an octoroon passing for white...

Useless thread without photographs to prove your claims.

Edith for Rear Window. Not a dud in the bunch. Top that.

R28 — I think Castillo designed that.

....

I can’t even

Even the purse coordinates!

^^^ and it's a Kelly bag!

😱😱😱!!! That is TOO much r53!

The sleek wedding dress from THE LADY EVE...