A

ADRIAN 1903-1959

HOLLYWOOD DRESS DESIGNER

Designer of the Stars

Adrian, described as "Hollywood's highest-priced couturier," designed the look that dominated American fashion in the first half of the 1940s. Gilbert Adrian studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York and at its Paris campus before becoming a costume designer for revues in New York. Adrian then moved to Hollywood and designed clothes for M-G-M through the 1930s. In 1942, with American designers cut off from Paris, Adrian opened his own fashion house in Beverly Hills, showing both ready-to-wear and custom-made clothes and hats. In 1944 he won a Coty American Fashion Critics' Award, and in 1946 he brought out two perfumes, Sinner and Saint, with accompanying lipsticks.

The Look

The look Adrian made famous in the 1940s consisted of a long jacket with little or no collar or lapel, a single-button front closure at the waist, wide shoulders with long fitted sleeves sporting two darts at each elbow, and a straight skirt with a kick pleat. Made famous by Joan Crawford, the designer's fashions fit perfectly with wartime fabric restrictions. Adrian also enjoyed using large, dramatic prints—incorporating his favorite animals, gigantic playing cards, palm leaves, or Etruscan figures—for his long dinner dresses. These dresses were usually made in fluid fabrics and characterized by asymmetric drapery. He also designed long dresses composed of abstract patchwork of solid colors known as "Picasso" or "Braque" dresses. More-formal evening wear included his full-skirted ball gowns of watercolor taffetas. Adrian had only been in business for himself ten years when in 1952 he suffered a heart attack. He closed his business and moved with his wife to Brazil, where he designed men's shirts and ties as well as theater costumes until his death in 1959.