Gowns by Adrian : The MGM Years 1928-1941 Book

Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years, 1928-1941 is the first comprehensive look at a prodigiously talented designer in his glory years at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The result of more than 10 years of research, access to previously unavailable MGM personnel files, and containing many unpublished photographs and complete filmography, Gowns by Adrian brings us into the design studio and onto the sound stage and makes us privy to the everyday give-and-take between designer and star. For the reclusive Garbo, Adrian was the only designer who understood her wish to avoid revealing necklines or fur; Shearer was particular in another way: two versions of every dress were de rigeur before she would choose one of them; and Crawford, was there ever a star more demanding or more determined? As Adrian once exclaimed," Who would have thought that my entire reputation as a designer would rest on Joan Crawford's shoulders!"

As author Howard Gutner makes clear in example after example, Adrian never lost sight of the character he was dressing or of his audience. "Screen presentation is vital and living. It is not a fashion magazine. It lives and breathes." Adrian wrote these words in 1936 and more than 65 years later we continue to believe him. He was a man concerned with modernity and credibility. Indeed, so popular were his costume designs that his clothes were regularly copied by major department stores. (The "Letty Lynton" dress, worn by Joan Crawford, reportedly sold upwards of 50,000 copies by Macy's alone.)