Dressing Up the Stars
The Story of Movie Costume Designer
Edith Head
Overview
Discover the true story of how a shy miner’s daughter became one of the most legendary costume designers in Hollywood in this inspiring nonfiction picture book biography.
As a child in the small mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, Edith Head had few friends and spent most of her time dressing up her toys and pets and even wild animals using fabric scraps. She always knew she wanted to move somewhere full of people and excitement. She set her sights on Hollywood and talked her way into a job sketching costumes for a movie studio.
Did she know how to draw or sew costumes? No. But that didn’t stop her!
Edith taught herself and tirelessly worked her way up until she was dressing some of the biggest stars of the day, from Audrey Hepburn to Grace Kelly to Ginger Rogers. She became the first woman to head a major Hollywood movie studio costume department and went on to win eight Academy Awards for best costume design—and she defined the style of an era.
Dressing Up the Stars
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ISBN
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CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center) Best of the Year 2023 Choices
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CBC (Children’s Book Council) Children’s Favorites Awards 2023
*STARRED* Review: Booklist
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2025 Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award Nonfiction Nominee
Premiered on KidLit TV...
Watch the Dressing Up the Stars Trailer!
Gallery
text copyright (c) 2022 Jeanne Walker Harvey
illustrations copyright (c) 2022 Diana Toledano.
PRAISE FOR
Dressing Up the Stars
* “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.”
“Toledano's mixed-media artwork... combined with starry-eyed prose, the result is a glamorous life story with a Hollywood ending.”
QUOTES BY
Edith Head
“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.”
“To be a good designer in Hollywood, one has to be a combination of psychiatrist, artist, fashion designer, dressmaker, pin cushion, historian, nursemaid, and purchasing agent too.”
featuring Jeanne & Diana
BEHIND THE SCENES Q&As
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