A. Adrian

2010-03-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

Starting with the A for Adrian, the late Hollywood costume designer, responsible for Joan Crawford's Coat Hanger look, The Fashion Alphabet will swift to tomorrow's B, taking you on a month long trip from which you hopefully will come back more inspired and informed... Only to start a completely new trip (and alphabet) the next month. So, fasten your belt, throw on some heels and have fun!

‘Twelve hundred costumes, five thousand wigs and fripperies for two poodles were Adrian’s pre-occupation during the filming of Marie Antoinette,’ noted Vogue in 1938.

Born to Jewish immigrant parents, on March 3, 1903 in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Adrian Adolph Greenberg, simply known as Adrian was probably the most famous and influential American costume designer in Hollywood. Taking credit for Dorothy's magical red ruby slippers, it's The Wizard of Oz he's still famous for today, despite having over 200 films on his CV (1925-1952).

Viktor & Rolf's take on the red ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz for their S/S 2004 collection.

Adrian’s square ‘coat hanger’ shoulders and elongated silhouette, especially for Joan Crawford back in the 1930's, captured the audiences and destabilized Paris' Couture in the heyday of Hollywood. Today's BALMAIN jackets, with those significant shoulders, designed by Christophe Decarnin, are the modern translation of that coat hanger look.

During his 20 years tenure at MGM studios, Adrian, responsible for most of Joan Crawford's exquisite outfits from 1930-1940, designed most wardrobes for the likes of Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jeanette Mac Donald, Jean Harlow and Katharine Hepburn, to name just a few of the early Hollywood starlets.

Absolute must sees:

Letty Lynton (1932) by Clarence Brown. The film is remembered for the "Letty Lynton dress", designed by Adrian; a white cotton organdy gown with large ruffled sleeves, puffed at the shoulder. Macy's copied the dress in 1932, and it sold over 500,000 replicas nationwide. The film has become famous because of its unavailability due to a copy right question.

The Women (1939) by George Cukor, one of the great successes of the 1930's, the film starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Marjorie Main (recreating her performance as "Lucy" from the Broadway production), Hedda Hopper, Virginia Grey, Florence Nash, Phylllis Povah, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler and Butterfly McQueen.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland (Liza Minnelli's mother).

Grand Hotel (1932) by Edmund Goulding starring both Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo wearing Adrian's signature gowns. Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Adrian: "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 glamor ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamor went with her, and so did I."In 1941 he founded Adrian Limited in Beverly Hills, and showed his first collection the following year. He launched two complementary fragrances, Saint and Sinner, in 1946 and opened a boutique in New York in 1948. Although he was openly gay, he married actress Janet Gaynor, who stayed with him until he died in 1959 during the production of Camelot, for which he was hired as a costume designer.

The Fashion ABC

A. Adrian