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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.