Thursday, June 23, 2016

#TrulyEmpowering - Edith Head, California/Berkeley – Mu, 1968 Woman of the Year Designer to the Stars




 From now until August 14, 2016, a current exhibition going on at The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster, Ohio: Edith Head and Company: Costumes and Jewelry, 1924-2015, showcases 40+ costumes and 16 pieces of jewelry on display. Edith Head had an unprecedented career and this exhibition about her and her contemporaries highlights her talent and influence. She empowered women in the motion picture industry.


If you would like to connect with the Columbus (OH) alumnae chapter or Delta Zeta alumnae who might be attending the exhibition, please email Jessica Blevins, Columbus Alumnae Chapter President, at dzcolumbusalum@yahoo.com.
 
Chances are the movie credits on the screen at the height of Hollywood’s heyday would have included the name of Edith Head. A winner of eight Academy Awards for her costumes that dressed the stars for their motion pictures roles (a record that still stands today), she outdistanced anyone else. Good clothes, she said, “were the result of a pretty through-going knowledge of the people you are dressing.” As a designer she was actually part of a team, a team that translated a star into the different person he or she was playing.
Born in San Bernardino, California, in 1897, Edith Spare Ihnen received a BA from the University of California/Berkeley, and her MA from Stanford University. She later took art courses at the Chouinard Art School. It was while she was an art student in the late 1920s that she saw an advertisement for a sketch artist at nearby Paramount Pictures. She began her design career working for Howard Greer as that same sketch artist. Soon, she was designing clothes for minor characters and became Greer’s hardest working and most involved assistant.
Edith went on to She first designed the beautiful gowns that accented Mae West’s hourglass figure in her movies of the early and mid-1930s. Later, she won recognition when she designed the famous sarong for Dorothy Lamour in Jungle Princess in 1937. One of her most famous design projects was for Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941). She was the first woman at a major studio (Paramount) to become head designer. She had a talent for pleasing the stars, and many of them insisted that her services be written into their contracts. Later she would become the chief costume designer at Universal Studios.
In contrast to the glamour she created onscreen, Edith’s personal style was conservative: tailored suits, hair pulled into a bun with bangs, and tortoise-shell glasses. She authored two books, How to Dress for Success and The Dress Doctor, and worked with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Kim Novak, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Robert Redford, and Audrey Hepburn.
She became Delta Zeta’s Convention initiate in 1960 and was active in the Southern California Lamplighters’ Flame Fantasy fashion shows in the 1960s and 1970s with her friend, Gail Patrick, Samford – Alpha Pi, actress and executive producer of the “Perry Mason” television series. She was Delta Zeta’s Woman of the Year for 1968. She died in Beverly Hills, California in 1981. A scholarship was established in her memory through the Delta Zeta Foundation.

And read more here about “A Conversation with Edith Head,” a one-woman show about Edith, which Delta Zeta’s Southern California alumnae enjoyed seeing.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Celebrate National Running Day with Delta Zeta


June 1 is National Running Day.  It is a day for people around the world to celebrate the joys of running. Participation is easy—just pledge to take part in some type of running activity on June 1, 2016. Delta Zeta's Hike for Hearing supports our national philanthropy, speech and hearing, and can provide motivation to get up and get moving!

1. Download Delta Zeta's Hike for Hearing App and take a spin around your neighborhood while supporting our national partner, the Starkey Hearing Foundation

2. Sign up for a race. Delta Zeta chapters are hosting hikes and races and you can find the closest on  our Hike Map here.

3. Listen carefully. More than likely you are wearing headphones while jogging - so make sure to protect your hearing, turn the music down and Listen Carefully. 

4.  Join in with other Delta Zeta members worldwide and let us know you are running by RSVPing to our Facebook event.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Delta Zeta is #TrulyLifelong: An Open Letter to Our Graduating Seniors



As an alumna member of Delta Zeta, I love this time of year. My fellow alumnae and I have our social media newsfeeds full of images of our collegiate sisters in caps and gowns proudly clasping hard earned diplomas. We are so proud of you and the over 3,500 fellow Delta Zeta sisters who will transition from collegiate to alumnae members this year. We also know that our chapters, both collegiate and alumnae, can help you successfully make the transition beyond the college campus. It is our goal to help every Delta Zeta member stay engaged and connected to the truly lifelong sisterhood she joined as a new member. 

Founder Julia Bishop Coleman and her fellow graduating class of 1904. Julia Bishop Coleman stayed connected with Delta Zeta her entire life. 


Here are the six best practices for starting your alumnae life:

1

1. Update your Contact Information. Before you leave campus, make sure to update your contact information. You may do so on www.deltazeta.org/member, or you can give your collegiate chapter the update to make on the Chapter Inc. Membership Menu – Actions- Edit Member Information. Please remember to update your email addresses to your personal email addresses vs. your university email addresses.

2. Download the Delta Zeta App. For members only, the new Delta Zeta App has built in communication tools which graduating members can take advantage of. From finding DZ sisters near you to connecting with individual members, the Delta Zeta App makes connecting with sisters after you leave campus easy!

3. Connect with Area and Local Alumnae Contacts. Ask your collegiate chapter to provide the contact information for your local alumnae groups. You can find information on Delta Zeta’s Alumnae Areas and State Alumnae Chairmen on our website as well as a list of alumnae chapters using our chapter locator.

4. Stay Updated on Chapter Happenings. The first few months after leaving campus can be hard. Make sure you keep connected to chapter happenings by being included on your alumnae communications from the start. Don’t let months, or years, go by before making sure you are included on official chapter communications to alumnae. This leads back to number 1 - making sure you have updated your contact information!

5. Look for Examples on How to Stay Engaged. Alumnae advisors and nearby alumnae chapter members are examples of women whose lives have continued to be enriched by staying involved within Delta Zeta. Consider asking women about the many ways to stay involved with Delta Zeta. You could also reach out to some of your chapter sisters who graduated in previous years about how they stayed connected. There are many ways to stay connected including Alumnae Chapter membership and volunteering.

6. Network Online. Stay abreast of all the DZ happenings by following our national and local newsfeeds. It is easy to stay engaged via social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/LinkedIn/Pinterest) and finding connections to sisters is as simple as a click away!


What other ways do you connect recent graduates with Delta Zeta to make sure they stay engaged as alumnae?