The Dress Doctor

Book excerpt: Edith Head was perhaps the most famous Hollywood costume designer of all time. Long before Rachel Zoe, Andrea Leibermann, Estee Stanley, and Nicole Chavez were styling Hollywood celebrities, eight-time Oscar Award-winning Edith Head was the sartorial sensation behind the silver screen’s most high-profile stars and starlets. The Dress Doctor, adapted from her 1959 autobiography and enhanced with lavish illustrations of her most famous dresses by artist Bill Donovan, revisits the Golden Age of Hollywood with entertaining anecdotes about dressing some of the town’s biggest legends—Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and Marlene Dietrich, to name a few. In her lifetime, Head was also a sought-after authority by everyday women for her invaluable tips on dressing well: The Dress Doctor includes her witty observations and dispenses the no-nonsense timeless advice for which she was legendary.