Irene
1901 - 1962
Lentz was born in a small Montana town in 1901. At age 16, she moved to Los Angeles, where she studied dressmaking at the Wolfe School of Design. After graduation, she opened a small dress shop, which was frequented by actresses such as Dolores del Rio. Her celebrity patronage expanded when she became a designer for the Bullock’s Wilshire Custom Salon, which catered to wealthy Hollywood stars such as Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, and Ginger Rogers. Professionally, she preferred to be known simply as “Irene.”
In 1942, she left Bullock’s Wilshire to sign a seven-year contract with MGM Studios. As the successor to MGM’s executive designer, Gilbert Adrian, Irene quickly proved her ability to make movie stars look glamorous and sophisticated. In 1949, with financial backing from Bullock’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Marshall Field, and nearly twenty other department stores, Irene left the movie industry to focus on her ready-to-wear line, “Irene, Inc.” She was lured back to the movie industry from time to time, however—particularly to design for her friend, actress Doris Day. Her figure-revealing evening gowns also appeared on the red carpet: Vivien Leigh wore one of the designer’s creations when she accepted the Oscar for Best Actress in “Gone with the Wind.”
Irene ended her own life in 1962, but she remains an important figure in costume and fashion design. In 2005, the designer was posthumously honored with induction into the Costume Designers Guild Hall of Fame. In 2010, actress Parker Posey wore a vintage Irene dress to the CDG’s annual awards ceremony. That same year, Academy Award-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood looked to Irene’s work for inspiration while creating costumes for the film The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie.
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