Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label

This book highlights and showcases many of Adrian great costume and fashion designs from the 1920s through the 1950s. Not only are his timeless glamour gowns, period costumes, and amazing show-girl costumes shown from the movies, but also his impeccable suits and beautiful gowns from his private label. The ten years of Adrian Ltd. are summarized year-by-year, and his life with Janet Gaynor and his taste for decorating and art are described.

Adrian's great fashion influence is disproportianate to his name recognition. At his peak as head costume designer at MGM in the 1930s his looks for the film goddesses influenced how women wanted to look throughout the modern world. For the first time, even the Paris couture emulated his looks and those of the other Hollywood designers. And American women entering the workplace for the first time took their fashion cues from Adrian-dressed stars like Joan Crawford. When Adrian left MGM and opened his own business as the U.S. entered WWII, many thought he was crazy. He succeeded in using his endless creativity in the designs for his couture and ready-to-wear business, and American women could now aspire to be dressed by the designer to the stars. His attraction to contrast and polarity, his myriad uses of beauty, his centered design philosophy, ethnic influences, and his keen wit, informed most of his design. Adrian closed his own business rather than have any other designer involved, and his name was almost forgotten. But we have many great films to remind us now of his stunning creations, and which serve as endless inspiration for modern designers.