Diana Eden

Diana Eden was born "Diana Moore Ede" in Tunbridge Wells England in 1940, however her family moved to Toronto when she was ten years old. Her father was a British medical physician and her mother Canadian. Eden began dancing at the age of five and by the age of fifteen she was dancing with the National Ballet of Canada,[1] for the company's touring performance of Swan Lake. She made her debut in the show's 1955 performance in Washington D.C. Eden grew too tall for ballet, despite being called "one of the National Ballet of Canada's most brilliant young dancers" by the Toronto Star.[2]

She graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA in Art and Archaeology, and immediately upon graduation she joined the National Company of My Fair Lady as a dancer, and toured with the cast for a full year.[1] She then moved to New York City to continue performing on Broadway.[3] She performed in the musical Hot Spot among others, and in June 1964 Eden was cast in the Broadway musical Fade In, Fade Out featuring Carol Burnett. Additionally she had appeared in small roles on TV series The Nurses, and films The Producers and Valley of the Dolls. She began designing clothing in her spare time for her fellow dancers as early as 1964, and eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1969 to advance her career as an actress.[1][3][4] She opened a small boutique near Melrose Avenue, selling clothing she designed while she pursued her acting career.[5]

Costume sketch by Diana Eden for the stage show Tamara produced in New York City, which opened December 3, 1987.

In 1974, Eden received a contract to provide some of the costumes for Ann-Margret and her dancers for her Las Vegas act at Caesar's Palace.[5] Eden began designing for additional stage shows as well,[6] eventually including nationally touring or premiering stage plays.[5] In 1980 she became a designer full-time[7] and continued to design for the stage, including shows produced for Broadway.[8] She also assisted Bob Mackie for the Las Vegas stage show Jubilee! as it entered the MGM Grand Hotel,[5] working under Mackie at Elizabeth Courtney Designs. In 1984, she received a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Costume Design for her work on the stage play Tamara.[9][10]

From 1985 to the series end in 1988, Eden was the resident designer for the television sitcom The Facts of Life, designing up to 40 original outfits per week for the show that featured a largely young female cast.[7] She also became the costume designer for the long-running television series Santa Barbara. In 1993 she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series for her work on the television series A League of Their Own.[11]

In the mid-1990s, Eden was the costume designer for the television drama Sweet Justice,[12] the sitcom Ned and Stacey[13] and the television show Family Law, which aired between 1999 and 2002.[14] She has also been the costume designer for the television soap opera Passions.[15] In both 2007 and 2008 she was nominated for an Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Series Daytime Emmy award for her work on the show.[16] Other shows Eden designed include The Tony Danza Show, For Your Love, and Ladies Man. Television and feature films she has designed include Making Contact, Stealing Christmas,[4] and Stealing Las Vegas.[17]

In 2002, Eden co-authored the book Retro Chic: A Guide to Fabulous Vintage and Designer Resale Shopping in North America and Online with Gloria Lintermans, a how-to manual for vintage shopping.[14] Eden stated that her book strived to determine the most important elements of past eras in fashion in order to provide advice on specific retro looks in addition to tips about retro shopping.[18]

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