Edith Head Quotes

#1. Many faux pas of fashion can be avoided if you curb your instinctive desire to buy things with your heart instead of your head.

Edith Head

#2. The cardinal sin is not being badly dressed, but wearing the right thing in the wrong place.

Edith Head

#3. What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen, he's become a different person.

Edith Head

#4. Just imagine dressing the two handsomest men in the world, and then getting this!

Edith Head

#5. Growing old gracefully used to begin at about 35, but today women prefer to 'stay young gratefully' with thanks to designers, beauticians and plastic surgeons.

Edith Head

#6. Life is competitive; clothes gird us for the competition.

Edith Head

#7. I assure you that even the most beautiful women are not pretty all over. They have merely learned to use clothes deftly enough to give
others the impression that they are.

Edith Head

#8. Couture has copied my things for years, in addition to countless other costume designers, claiming theirs were the original ideas. It's all part of the business, unfortunately.

Edith Head

#9. Marlene Dietrich and Roy Rogers are the only two living humans who should be allowed to wear black leather pants.

Edith Head

#10. I've dressed thousands of actors, actresses and animals, but whenever I am asked which star is my personal favorite, I answer, 'Grace Kelly.' She is a charming lady, a most gifted actress and, to me, a valued friend.

Edith Head

#11. There are three fashion periods: the past, the present and Mae West.

Edith Head

#12. Your dresses should be tight enough to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady.

Edith Head

#13. There's no such thing as a standard size movie star, or woman for that matter.

Edith Head

#14. Clothes are the way you present yourself to the world; they affect the way the world feels and thinks about you; subconsciously they affect the way you feel and think about yourself.

Edith Head

#15. Some people need sequins, others don't.

Edith Head

#16. My motto is that the audience should notice the actors, not the clothes.

Edith Head

#17. Building a proper wardrobe is like building a home. Indeed, you should think of it like a home, because it is something you're going to live in. It must be comfortable and suit all your needs.

Edith Head

#18. The subjective actress thinks of clothes only as they apply to her; the objective actress thinks of them only as they affect others, as a tool for the job.

Edith Head

#19. Many women dress for men before marriage, and for women after marriage ...

Edith Head

#20. As women, we all have certain weaknesses. I know one who can't resist pretty shoes but has nothing suitable to wear with them. Others adore frilly lingerie but never have any money to buy outer clothing.

Edith Head

#21. You can lead a horse to water and you can even make it drink, but you can't make actresses wear what they don't want to wear.

Edith Head

#22. Every different director has another language - for instance, Hitchcock does not like any bright color ever, unless the story says 'there goes the girl in a red dress.'

Edith Head

#23. A designer is only as good as the star who wears her clothes.

Edith Head

#24. I always wear beige, black or white. For one thing I look good in them. For another, when I'm beside a star at a fitting, and she looks into the mirror, I don't want to be competing in any way.

Edith Head

#25. Even the most beautiful legs - Marlene Dietrich's, for instance - look better when the kneecap is covered.

Edith Head

#26. Many women have asked me if it is possible to have a well-built wardrobe on a limited budget. 'Money,' I tell them, 'is no guarantee of taste, and an overstuffed wardrobe is often as bare as a skeleton when it comes to wearable apparel.'

Edith Head

#27. With women, there's a basic female instinct of caring deeply about the way they look; women stars have a narcissist complex.

Edith Head

#28. Before you are interviewed for the job you want, try on the complete outfit you intend to wear.

Edith Head

#29. We don't make glamorous movies today. Everything now is very realistic, artistic - and depressing. When is the last time you you saw a wonderful musical or a fabulous fantasy?

Edith Head

#30. You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.

Edith Head

#31. Fashion is a language. Some know it, some learn it, some never will - like an instinct.

Edith Head

#32. I have yet to see one completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie.

Edith Head

#33. We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or actor that they are a different person.

Edith Head