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ADRIAN, 1903 - 1959. Adrian was born Adrian Adolph Greenberg. As a teenager he changed his name to Gilbert Adrian in 1922. His father was Gilbert Greenberg, who later changed his own last name to Adrian to signal pride in his son's accomplishments. Adrian started out in costume design working with Irving Berlin and later George White's Scandals.
 
He went under contract with Cecil B. DeMille in 1926 and in 1928, he was lured to MGM. Adrian was a workhorse of film design, turning out scads of films of all types. He handled both period wardrobes and elegant modern fashions with great skill, although his period films were more representative of his personal interpretation of period clothing rather than of historical accuracy. He would exaggerate a silhouette, or move a story to a different time period he felt was more in line with current fashion. But Adrian's costumes were always attractive and very well received.
 Ca. 1948 Black Crepe 2 pc. Fringed Dress Photo courtesy of Deborah Burke, www.antiquedress.com
Margaret Bailey in Those Glorious Glamour Years : "....Adrian was not afraid to test surprising new styles or have a bit of fun with a design. He maintained it would either be fashionable by the time the movie was reviewed or be so unusual that it was exempt from fashion." As a film designer, he became a highly paid star in his own right. According to Hollywood and History, " In 1940, one thousand American buyers voted on their favorite designers. Three of the top nine names were designers from motion pictures; Adrian, Travis Banton, and Howard Greer". Adrian had that kind of recognition.
 1940s Grey Flannel Suit, photo courtesy of Deborah Burke,www.antiquedress.com
 1940s Black Crepe Dinner Gown, photo courtesy Vintage Textile, www.vintagetextile.com
Adrian's signature look in the 1940s became so widespread and that it is often remembered as the look of the period : padded shoulders, slim jacket with details that emphasized the shoulder and the triangular line and a pencil skirt. He often added or cut in different details on one sleeve than the other with his suits. His long draped and beaded evening gowns were another dominant style. When the New Look came, Adrian stayed with his 1940s silhouette, lengthening the hems, but keeping the square shoulders. He was very opposed to the corseted waist of the New Look. Adrian used a wide variety of themes with flair: manipulated stripes, trompe-l'oeil effects, contrasting fabrics and colors, beading, ethnic Spanish and Persian motifs, animals, even Gothic themes. His maternity smock for his wife Janet Gaynor was copied everywhere for years and years.
From Bret Fowler of Main off 5th: "A friend of mine interviewed Sam Sunshine, the last living tailor to work for Adrian. He said that each suit was tailor made from start to finish by one tailor, meaning one person did all the work for the suit he was making, instead of having a stable of stitchers passing them along. He said to interview for a position with Adrian, you were given a stack of all the cut garment pieces and interfacings and you had to work from a sketch or maybe one sample garment, [with] no instructions and had to assemble the entire suit from start to finish. If you did it properly you got the job, [the] bad thing was the job never changed and that was how you had to make the suits in real production."
 c. 1942-1952 Black Wool Gabardine jacket with inset circular motives and tabs, Photo courtesy of Bret Fowler, Main off 5th
Adrian retired in 1952 after a heart attack, living in Brazil part of each year. He retuned to costume design in 1958 for an opera, At the Grand, and was at work on costumes for Camelot on Broadway at the time of his death in 1959.
Representative Films , 1925 - 1952: Anna Christie, Private Lives, Mata Hari, Letty Lynton, Rasputin and the Empress, Dinner at Eight, Dancing Lady, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, The Barrets of Wimpole Street, The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta, China Seas, Anna Karenina, Rose Marie, Camille, Marie Antoinette, Idiot's Delight, Wizard of Oz, Pride and Prejudice, The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year, Keeper of the Flame, Humoresque, The Bishop's Wife, Lovely to Look At.
A few of the stars Adrian dressed included : Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Greer Garson, Katherine Hepburn, Jeanette MacDonald, Loretta Young, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Hedy Lamar, and Lana Turner
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