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Adrian

Artist Info
Adrian1903 - 1959

Adrian created the most glamorous and widely seen clothing in the world during the interwar years. Ironically, the glittering gowns and flamboyant ensembles made for Jean Harlow, Norma Scherer, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo by this Hollywood designer were film costumes, not high fashion. During his tenure as chief costume designer for MGM, Adrian did more than design: he transformed leading actresses into glamorous movie stars. Watched by millions of fans in the United States and abroad, Adrian’s costumes were thought to have been, at the height of his film design career, the most copied clothes in the world.

Born Adrian Adolph Greenburgh (1903-1959) into a family of milliners, the young Adrian became a film costumer after training at the Parson’s School and working on Broadway. In 1928, at the height Hollywood’s Golden Age, he signed on at MGM, then the most powerful motion picture studio in the world. Adrian’s great skill was his ability to absorb high fashion trends from Paris, modify them for a particular star, and amplify the look to enhance a film’s dramatic story line. He could design an exquisite beaded gown for Joan Crawford or an ensemble of whimsical costumes for The Wizard of Oz. Adrian achieved such diversity by transforming the traditional studio wardrobe department into a full-fledged creative machine akin to the fashion workrooms in Paris and New York.

By 1941, as the glamour quotient in Hollywood films began to wane, Adrian left MGM to open his ready-to-wear and custom salon in Beverly Hills. Although he was based in California, far from the heart of American fashion in New York, Adrian’s influence continued throughout the war years. He produced a wide range of brilliantly-colored and cleverly cut day and evening wear that sold well and was frequently featured in high fashion publications.

For all the diversity of Adrian’s output, his best-known garment was the wool suit, a mid-century wardrobe staple. While many fashion designers in both Europe and the United States crafted tailored garments for women during World War II, Adrian’s versions were unsurpassed. His ability to seam and piece complimentary gradations of striped woolens, varying their widths and placement into seemingly endless pattern variations, attests to his fanciful genius. None of Adrian’s hundreds of suit designs were exactly the same. This creativity and high level of custom-made quality were all the more amazing in the wartime era of fabric restrictions. Yet for all his success as a ready-to-wear and custom fashion designer, Adrian is best remembered as a costumer whose glamorous film costumes still enthrall viewers today.

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Green velvet floor length suit with Hussar-style horizontal gold braid trim with buttons down f…
Film costume
Adrian
1933
70.8.4
17th century inspired suit in green silk velvet with gold metallic braid; elongated jacket with fitted cuffs, capelet effect; long skirt with front panel of gold braid, gathered at sides and back; costume for Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
Blue velvet hat with four silver bows on right side and grey feathers in plume
Film costume
Adrian
1933
70.8.2
18th-century French inspired dress and hat in blue velvet with beadwork and metallic embroidery; grey suede gloves with beaded cuff; costume for Anita Louise in Marie Antoinette
Brown velvet floor length dress with tassel trim on skirt and matching jacket with mink fur tri…
Film costume
Adrian
1935
70.8.3
19th century Russian inspired dress in brown silk velvet; jacket with mink (mustela siberica) fur trim, bows and tassels on sleeves; long skirt with tassel trim; costume for Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina
Black strapless two-piece dress with wide floor length flared skirt and oversize tulle ruffles …
Film costume
Adrian
1936
70.8.22
19th century French inspired two-piece dress in black silk velvet; strapless bodice with sweetheart neckline, black tulle ruffles at shoulders and lower edge in back, rhinestones and sequins on front; long skirt with rhinestone and jet beading; costume for Greta Garbo in Camille
Red beaded floor length V-neck evening dress with short train and matching capelet with rhinest…
Film costume
Adrian
1937
70.8.19
plunging V-neck sleeveless bias cut evening dress with train and short capelet (cape) in red bugle beads pavé beaded overall on crepe; costume for Joan Crawford in The Bride Wore Red
Black velvet two-piece dress with wide panniers decorated with gold scroll-like trimmings throu…
Film costume
Adrian
1938
70.8.21
18th century French inspired dress in black velvet with wide border of gold metallic lace, appliqué, sequins and tassels; boned décolleté bodice with flared sleeves, skirt with wide panniers and train; costume for Gladys George in Marie Antoinette
Knee-length dress with off-white blouson bodice and blue gingham skirt and tie with red gingham…
Dress
Adrian
c. 1942
71.248.1
Americana girl dress in cotton seersucker, off white blouson bodice with contrast red printed gingham yoke, self tie and bias cut apron insert, blue checked dirndl skirt; wide shoulder pads, cap sleeves; attached two tone self tie belt
Off-white floor length evening dress with long sleeves and gold braid and square paillettes on …
Film costume
Adrian
1940
70.8.15
Evening dress in off white rayon jersey with parallel rows of gold metallic novelty braid and square paillettes on bodice, collar and upper sleeve; wide band belt with metallic braid, beads and paillettes; costume for Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
Calf length dress with short sleeves, printed with white, black and blue abstract stripe patter…
Dress
Adrian
c. 1943
70.40.8
Calf length dress in rayon crepe printed with striped graphic design of linear plants and abstract pattern, in white, black and shades of navy blue; bias cut for mitered stripes and draped jabot on bodice and A-line skirt; shoulder pads, short sleeves, attached self tie belt
Black suit with high shawl collar, four button center closure, tabs on left shoulder and right …
Suit
Adrian
c. 1943
71.224.1
Black wool gabardine suit: semi-fitted jacket with high shawl collar, chevron insets at shoulder line and attached tabs on right shoulder and left hip; welt pockets. Matching calf length A-line skirt with attached tab on RS near hem
Two-piece dress of belted tunic and floor-length skirt with large scale design of ocean waves, …
Two-piece dress
Adrian
c. 1944
70.40.2
Tunic and long skirt in off white rayon crinkle crepe with large scale asymmetrical design of ocean waves, fish and shells hand painted in shades of green, blue and pink. Tunic is collarless with wide padded shoulders, cap sleeve and attached self tie belt. Floor length, slightly flared skirt; CB slit.
Black floor length dress with asymmetrically draped short sleeves for cape effect on left shoul…
Dress
Adrian
1942
74.60.2
Long collarless dress in black silk jersey; padded shoulders, short kimono sleeves, asymmetrically draped for cape effect on left shoulder; attached criss-cross double belt