Adrian - The Man Behind the Curtain

Jean Harlow

I've always marveled at the gowns worn in the films of the 1930s.  Even when you watch those old movies today, they steal every scene and make us shout, "I Want That Dress!!".  I was only vaguely familiar with the name Adrian and now realize it was his work I've been drooling over all these years.  

Born in 1903 in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Adrian Adolph Greenberg attended the NY School for Fine and Applied Arts in 1922 before transferring to the Paris campus.  There he was hired by Irving Berlin to design costumes for Berlin's The Music Box Revue.  Natacha Rambova, Rudolph Valentino's wife, hired him for A Sainted Devil (1924).  In 1925, he was appointed Head Designer for the DeMille  studio.  After loaning Adrian out to MGM in July 1928, DeMille followed 2 months later.   The director's contract was not renewed in 1931 but Adrian remained at MGM until 1941 ultimately designing costumes for over 200 films.  Despite being gay, in 1939 he married actress Janet Gaynor and they remained together until his untimely death of a heart attack in 1959.

His film credit line was "Gowns by Adrian".  Understanding the roles his dresses played, Adrian's costumes reflected the setting, character and plot.  In a 1937 interview he said, "Few people in an audience watching a great screen production realize the importance of any gown worn by the feminine star...the fact that it was definitely planned to mirror some definite mood, to be as much a part of the play as the lines or the scenery, seldom occurs to them."

Katherine Hepburn

Proving a woman didn't need a perfect figure to look good, he drew attention to the garment itself to camouflage a body's imperfections.  He magically transformed great actresses like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn and Jean Harlow into goddesses.  Crawford was 5'4" tall with broad shoulders and size 12 hips so Adrian created her signature look using Schiaparelli's broad, padded shoulder style that made Crawford's hips look smaller.  Garbo was flat chested and straight-waisted yet one look at her costumes for Mata Hari and you'd swear she had curves.  Preferring simplicity, his talent for draping resulted in designs featuring bold outlines, kimono sleeves and long tapered waistlines with diagonal fastenings. 

During his career, he worked on several period pieces.  Never an easy feat for a costume designer and unlike Walter Plunkett (Gone With The Wind), Adrian overlooked accuracy to please viewers by making historical dress more dynamic onscreen.  Norma Shearer's beaded cap in Romeo and Juliet was grossly inaccurate yet it became all the rage among American women.  His most fantastic work is undoubtedly 1939's The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland's blue and white gingham dress and iconic red shoes.

Adrian copies were everywhere. The wide-shouldered white organdy dress for Crawford's role in Letty Lynton was copied countrywide and Macy's Cinema Shop which sold dresses based on "Gowns by Adrian" alone reportedly sold 500,000.  Similar garments were also marketed as the "Adrian silhouette" and "Adrienne".  A major problem was that MGM used his costumes as a promotional tool, allowing magazines to demonstrate his techniques so that women could make them at home.  

Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton 1932

  

Greta Garbo Mata Hari 1931

He designed 14 evening gowns for Garbo's The Two Faced Woman (1941) but the studio wanted low-cut gowns that both Adrian and Garbo loathed so the pair left MGM.  He claimed, "It was because of Garbo that I left MGM. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me...' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her and so did I."  On an interesting note, Garbo really didn't care for Adrian's dress designs, she preferred more masculine elements.  He returned to MGM just once more for 1952's Lovely to Look At.  

After the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, the couture houses closed.  American designers had always based their work on Parisian fashions and they were also affected by the restrictions of WWII.  However, 1941 proved to be an opportune year to open his Beverly Hills salon, Adrian Ltd.  Along with designers like Pauline Trigère, Adrian helped create a new look of fashions ideal for the American lifestyle that were casual, practical and durable.

In January, 1942, his first collection was shown at the May Company department store in LA.  Unsuccessful at first, Adrian held another show the following month and was soon selling his designs in department stores across the USA.  His ready to wear line carried the "Adrian Original" label and his couture clothing was labeled "Adrian Custom".  To remain exclusive, he allowed only one store in each city to sell his collections.

His popular suits were produced with the help of NY textile designer Pola Stout.  The tailored suit at this time served as both career clothing for the emerging class of professional women as well as travel and leisure day wear.  Most featured solid colors with minimal decorative accents.  Wartime shortages forced all designers to be more inventive so Adrian added interesting details like subtle stripes and geometric shapes woven into the wool by Stout.  He used common fabrics like checked gingham, drapeable jersey and cotton organdy but after the war he created fuller gowns incorporating yards of fabric, particularly taffeta whose stiffer composition lent itself to sculpting a more dramatic shape.

One has to wonder why this man hasn't been posthumously honored by the Academy.  The Oscar for Best Costume Design began in 1948 and equally outstanding Hollywood designer Edith Head has won 8 times.  Adrian has a special place in American fashion and cinematic history as the definitive force behind 1930s Hollywood glamour, unequivocally the fashion decade that has never been matched.  When we watch those old black and whites we can only be grateful to this man.

Falls Avenue Vintage Fashion Shop 

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