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1930s
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Hollywood glamour

Film stars made evening fashion visible to a mass audience. Slender draped gowns shared the screen’s influence with dramatic shapes such as Adrian’s ruffled Letty Lynton dress.

Body-skimming gownsFluid drapeLow backs and long hems

About Hollywood glamour

Hollywood glamour joined screen costume to fashionable evening dress. Fluid satin, low backs and bias-cut gowns made a body-skimming line familiar, but cinema also promoted very different shapes. Adrian’s white organdie dress for Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932) used enormous ruffled sleeves and a full skirt to frame a small waist. Its widely copied silhouette shows how a film costume could move into shops and wardrobes. The couture gowns here show the parallel importance of drape; they are not themselves evidence of what Crawford wore on screen.

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Joan Crawford in the Letty Lynton gown — original sourceV&A: Art Deco fashionJoan Crawford in the Letty Lynton gown — photograph and reuse terms
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