Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head

Pattern, texture, and design are key in Toledano’s mixed-media artwork, which often uses white backgrounds to emphasize Head’s passion for these very elements, and the charming, childlike quality of the illustrations will appeal greatly to young readers. Together, the art and storytelling capture Head’s belief in the transformative magic of costumes, which will certainly strike a chord with dress-up enthusiasts. 

Film costume designer Edith Head (1897-1981) takes center stage in this celebratory narrative of her path to becoming an Academy Award winner. The account begins with Head's lonely early years in a desert mining town, where her "greatest treasure was her bag of fabric scraps," and she yearned for "people and sounds and dazzling sights." After a high school move to Los Angeles ignites her passion for cinema, Head lands in a film studio costume department. Taking a broad-brush approach, Walker Harvey describes the figure's determination and persistence as she develops her design skills, transitioning from creating costumes for animals to those for famous actors. Toledano's mixed-media artwork, which portrays Head with paper-white skin and large glasses, fittingly features a range of patterns that draw attention to her professional creativity. Combined with starry-eyed prose, the result is a glamorous life story with a Hollywood ending. An author's note and sources conclude. Ages 3-8. (Sept.)

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