‘Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer’ dresses up OKCMOA

OKLAHOMA CITY — After years of planning and months of anticipation, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is finally kicking off what may well be their largest undertaking ever: a massive exhibition of the timeless, screen-worn dresses and costumes designed by Hollywood legend Edith Head.

Head is inarguably cinema’s greatest and most acclaimed costume designer, having won a staggering eight Academy Awards (the most ever won by a woman), and with her designs and creations still inspiring the most glamorous styles of today.

First conceived more than three years ago, the new exhibition, “Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer,” is finally ready for its close-up, sweeping the museum with a tie-in film series and unique live performance at the Sam Noble Theater and even a load of newly designed merchandise in the gift shop.

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A visitor looks at a display of Edith Head designs in OKCMOA used in a variety of movies. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

The exhibition is the museum’s very first to ever span the entirety of the third floor, requiring plenty of space to fit the huge number of display pieces, film installations, and more.

“It’s been a lot of work,” OKCMOA President, Dr. Michael Anderson, told Free Press before the exhibit’s opening. “But having all of that time has really been beneficial for our development team, and I think that we’ve made something really special.”

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Entryway into the Edith Head exhibit at OKCMOA running June 22 through Sept. 29, 2024 (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Hollywood Glamour

The stars of the show are, of course, the costumes themselves, each designed by Head to clothe some of the biggest stars in Hollywood history, with most of the pieces appearing on screen in some of the most indelible and influential films of all time.

Some of the truly iconic outfits worn by Grace Kelley and Kim Novak in monumental Alfred Hitchcock-directed films like “Rear Window” and “Vertigo” are on display beside costumes for cinematic giants like Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Barbara Stanwyck, and even Bob Hope.

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At left, costume worn by Grace Kelly as Lisa Carol Fremont in Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window”, 1954. On right, dress worn by Kim Novak in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, 1958 on display at OKCMOA until Sept 29 (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Throughout, video installations and original design sketches offer a look at Head’s process from concept to costume, as well as three of the real Oscar statuettes that she received across her career.

The unprecedented picture that it all creates is one of absolute glamour and “Old Hollywood” style owing to Head’s penchant for sleek, timeless, and even empowering designs.

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Some of Edith Head’s original sketches — an important step in her designs for movie characters — are on display as a part of the exhibit running through Sept. 29, 2024 at OKCMOA. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

But while Head’s work carried a great sense of her own personal style and designer’s eye, her costumes have retained their greatness not just for their fashion, but for their ability to develop and elevate the characters for which they were created.

“Edith really understood the transformative power of clothing,” said guest curator (and original conceiver of the exhibition) Catherine Shotick. “Her work was all about helping to create a character and really aiding in the performance.”

Film History

A walk through the exhibit is a trip through the most formative eras of Hollywood history, beginning with Head’s early work in the black-and-white era and trekking through the World War II period, the heightened styles of the 1950s, and of course the Swinging 60s.

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Costume worn by Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in the film “Sunset Boulevard”, 1950 on display at the OKCMOA Edith Head exhibition through Sept. 29. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Along the way, you’ll see costumes worn on screen in some of the greatest film musicals from Fred Astaire and even Elvis Presley, outfits from comedies like “What a Way to Go!” and “The Lady Eve,” and even one of Gloria Swanson’s dresses from the pantheon classic “Sunset Boulevard.”

But you’ll also see the effects of the changing decades on the film industry itself.

Head’s early designs were made to be filmed in black-and-white, creating unique design challenges of color and contrast that would rarely be considered today.

A section centered around designing for the Hays Code explains the strict standards and rules that dominated Hollywood for years and the clothing design choices that were forced by the guidelines.

A full display of costumes from wartime-era films in the 1940s even highlights the thinner, more simplistic designs of the time, owing to imposed fabric rationing during WWII.

“The amount of time and effort and thought that went into these costumes is just astonishing,” Shotick said. 

Delicate Art

Much more than just costumes or film memorabilia, the screen-worn dresses and suits on display in the exhibition are presented as carefully curated, brilliantly designed works of art, the products of one of a craft’s great masters.

The selections on display were culled from at least three separate collections – including the Paramount Pictures archive itself – and had to be overseen and handled primarily by internationally renowned textile conservator Cara Varnell due to the particularly fragile nature of fabric.

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Internationally renowned textile conservator Cara Varnell explains the careful process she has to carry out to preserve the costumes for years to come but yet display them for the public at a media preview at OKCMOA May 2024 (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Shows like this are rare – especially in traveling and temporary forms – entirely because of the dangerously delicate concerns of moving and displaying decades-old fabrics, many of which were only ever meant to be worn once for a few minutes of screentime.

As the exhibition’s developers anticipate that guests (especially the younger visitors) might desperately want to touch and feel the numerous fantastic fabrics that Head used, they’ve even included a “touch book” with fabric samples, ensuring that the costumes themselves are touched as little as possible.

“One of the most challenging and potentially damaging things you can do to a costume is to put it on a form,” Varnell said. “Minimal handling is what matters, and it matters a lot.”

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Internationally renowned textile conservator Cara Varnell explains the shipping process of getting the costumes to an exhibit site from the collectors who own them at a media preview at OKCMOA May 2024 (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Style and Substance

OKCMOA’s years-in-development exhibition, then, is a rare and unique opportunity to experience the craft of cinema, the history of Twentieth Century America, and of course straight-up, eye-popping fashion mastery all at once.

After three full years of planning and a year’s worth of increasing citywide buzz – particularly among members of OKC’s own exploding filmmaking community – this stands to be among the biggest exhibitions in the museum’s history in scope, attendance, and even sheer size.

“I really don’t know when we’ll do something this physically big again,” Dr. Anderson told Free Press with a laugh. “That might take us a while.”

“Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer” at Oklahoma City Museum of Art runs from Saturday, June 22nd to Sunday, September 29th.

For tickets, museum hours, and more information, including the full lineup of films in the Edith Head film series and the weekend-long live performance “A Conversation with Edith Head” starring Susan Claassen, visit okcmoa.com.

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Susan Claassen explains a design sketch for Robert Redford and Paul Newman in “The Sting”. Claassen portrays Edith Head in the play “A Conversation with Edith Head” (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Author Profile

Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.