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Adrian (1903 - 1959)
Born Adrian Adolph Greenberg in Naugatuck, Connecticut on 3 March, Adrian studied at the New York School for Applied and Fine Arts, then went to Paris to study further at the Parsons School of Applied Arts and Design. It was here, in 1921, that Adrian's designs came to the attention of Irving Berlin, who hired him to design the costumes for his Music Box Review in New York. Adrian continued to work on other shows on Broadway before he journeyed to Hollywood and was hired to design the costumes for the 1925 film Her Sister from Paris, with Constance Talmadge, and the scenery for a prologue sequence at the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. His work drew the attention of Natacha Rambova, who hired him to design the costumes for two of her husband Rudolf Valentino's last three movies, The Eagle and The Cobra. Adrian's work on the Rambova scripted What Price Beauty? in turn drew the attention of Cecil B. DeMille, who hired Adrian to design the costumes for The Volga Boatman (1926). Adrian's career as a Hollywood designer was by now well established, and he continued to work on films by such directors as Howard Hawks and Donald Crisp, though he most often worked with DeMille. From 1926 to 1939, Adrian worked on such film classics as The Wreck of the Hesperus (1927); A Lady of Chance (1928); The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929); Our Modern Maidens (with Joan Crawford, 1929); Anna Christie (with Greta Garbo, 1930); Montana Moon (again with Crawford, 1930); The Lady of Scandal (1930); Let Us Be Gay (with Rod La Rocque, 1930); Madame Satan (1930); Dance, Fools, Dance (Crawford, 1930); Mata Hari (again with Garbo, 1931); Grand Hotel (Garbo, 1932); The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932); Rasputin and the Empress (with initial script work by Mercedes de Acosta, 1932); Peg O' My Heart (1933); Dinner at Eight (1933); Dancing Lady (Crawford, 1933); Queen Christina (Garbo, 1933); The Merry Widow (with Maurice Chevalier, 1934); Mark of the Vampire (1935); Anna Karenina (Garbo, 1935); Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935); The Great Zeigfield (1936); San Francisco (1936); Romeo and Juliet (1936); Camille (Garbo, 1937); Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937); The Girl of the Golden West (1938); Idiot's Delight (1939); and Ice Follies of 1939 (Crawford, 1939). By the mid-30s, Adrian was head of the costume department at MGM. As quoted in Gowns by Adrian by Howard Gutner, Adrian summed up his job as being, "to dress his character in a manner that will intensify, to an audience, the mood of the scene." When working on historical films, he never tried to recreate actual historic period clothes, but used the basic concepts and styles as a template to create his own original renditions. An art connoisseur, Adrian incorporated many modern styles into his designs, including cubism, futurism, and surrealism. While one critic complained that Adrian was designing more of what he wanted, William J. Mann notes in his Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 that, “Adrian was so innovative that what he wanted soon became also what other people wanted.” The influence of Adrian's designs became apparent almost immediately. His design for Joan Crawford's gown in 1932's Letty Lynton created a rush at department stores for off the rack copies. Using an inverted pyramid as the basis for his designs, Adrian hit upon the idea of using padded shoulders and a tapered waist to give Crawford's upper torso a broader look, creating yet another fashion trend. Clothing retailers quickly adopted the custom of marketing ready to wear versions of Adrian's designs for the public, though they did not always give him credit for the original concepts. Adrian was once described by Wizard of Oz costume assistant John B. Scura in Aljean Harmitz's The Making of the Wizard of Oz as "a loner, not a friendly sort of person, but a genius." That genius was largely responsible for this "loner" making many friends in Hollywood, including many male and female members of the Hollywood gay subculture. In the days before the Hayes Code, Adrian was in fact quite open about his homosexuality, at least with other homosexuals. His loner status and innovative genius also appealed to controversial egoist writer and philosopher Ayn Rand, who worked as an extra on many of DeMille's silent films and maintained a friendship with Adrian during the years she and her husband lived in Los Angeles. As the country became more conservative and the Hayes Code and contract moral clauses made Hollywood a less friendly place for homosexuals, many gay and lesbian persons in the film industry, including Adrian, became less and less open about their sexuality. In 1939 Adrian married Janet Gaynor, best known for the original version of A Star Is Born and winner of the first "Best Actress" Academy Award in 1928 for Seventh Heaven. Recently retired from films, Gaynor had been a longtime friend of Adrian, and the designer often referred to her as his muse. Gaynor was herself a lesbian, yet her marriage with Adrian was slightly more than just "bearding" for one another, as she and Adrian did genuinely love one another. A son, Robin Gaynor Adrian, was born in 1940. Before marrying Janet Gaynor, Adrian had already been commissioned by MGM to design the 1000 plus costumes for the movie he would become most associated with, The Wizard of Oz. He had in fact read the original book as a child, and the story of Dorothy's adventures in the Land of Oz was his favorite. Straight through his school days Adrian had sketched his own designs for costumes for the various characters, using descriptions by author L. Frank Baum as his guide, and these early sketches were used as the basis for the costumes used in the film. The Munchkins costumes, made entirely of felt, were the most innovative of Adrian's designs, using such varied influences as Venetian, Bavarian, and Eastern European folk dress. It was the one instance where Adrian digressed completely from Baum's depictions, in which the Munchkins dressed all in blue and wore peaked hats brimmed with silver bells. Adrian was also responsible for the design of what in time came to be called the Holy Grail of movie memorabilia, Dorothy's ruby slippers, changed from the silver shoes mentioned in the book to better show off the Technicolor process. Adrian's other efforts to emphasize color in the film often met with frustration, as he clashed with the Technicolor consultant over certain shades and patterns which the still new process could not adequately translate to the screen. Costume designs for Aunt Em and Professor Marvel were also rejected in favor of more "authentic" clothes purchased from local second-hand shops. By coincidence, the frock coat purchased for Frank Morgan to wear as Professor Marvel turned out to have once belonged to Oz author Baum. The brilliance of Adrian's designs came to be indelibly associated with the characters in Baum's story. Yet while The Wizard of Oz was nominated for several Academy Awards, not one nomination or award went to Adrian. In fact, despite the critical accolades he received throughout his career, Adrian never garnered a single gold statuette. Among Adrian's closest friends and confidants was fellow loner Greta Garbo. His respect for her was so great that when he designed the masculine costumes for her title role in Queen Christina, he consulted Garbo through every step of the process. While he could be counted on to reveal anything and everything he knew about the other stars he dressed, Adrian never betrayed Greta's confidence in him. When Garbo left MGM in 1941 over a dispute with studio head Louis B. Mayer, Adrian left as well, soon after completing designs for The Philadelphia Story. "When the glamour goes for Garbo, it goes for me as well," he said. He continued performing freelance design for films, including Woman of the Year and Hitchcock's subtly gay-themed thriller Rope. In 1942 Adrian opened his own shop in Hollywood, catering mostly to the stars he had dressed for so many years. His label, Adrian Ltd., could be sold by only one store in each major city to maintain its exclusivity, and dresses bearing the Adrian label were greatly sought after by women across the country. However, the "New Look" introduced by Christian Dior in 1947, brought a decline in the popularity of Adrian's work. A heart attack in 1952 forced Adrian to close his store, and he left America with Janet and Robin to live on a ranch in Brazil, where he painted landscapes. In 1958, Adrian was persuaded to return to the states to design costumes for the stage musical version of GrandHotel, followed in 1959 by work on the Alan J. Lerner musical Camelot. While working on preliminary sketches for Camelot, Adrian suffered his second heart attack, and died on 14 September. His associate, Tony Duquette, used Adrian's initial concepts for the final designs for the 1960 production with Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. Nearly fifty years after his death, Adrian's influence continues to be felt. The designs of Bob Mackie and Calvin Klein, the costumes worn in such movies as Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Phantom Menace, and the padded shoulders worn by women to this day all derive to some extent from his work. In deference to his legacy, in 2002 both the Museum of the City of New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art held exhibits of Adrian's life and work in 2002. Internet Movie Database - Adrian Dressmaker for Stars and Secretaries Adrian: American Glamour, Metropolitan Museum of Art Village Voice - Star Trek: Adrian at the Met Master Class: The Lasting Influence of Hollywood's Wardrobe Wizard Costume Designer Guild Hall of Fame - Adrian
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