Evening ensemble
Gilbert Adrian · 1945
Gilbert Adrian
- Hollywood costume
- American ready-to-wear
Gilbert Adrian brought the visual confidence of Hollywood costume to American fashion. After extensive film work, he developed a custom salon and ready-to-wear business in the 1940s.
Five looks to know
Collection selection
Evening ensemble
Modern Museum · 1945
This silk evening ensemble belonged to Adrian's Modern Museum collection and appeared among the garments shown when he received the 1945 American Fashion Critics Award. The Met connects its palette to Cubism and its interlocking shapes to modern art. A long coordinated outer layer carries the composition beyond the dress itself.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Collection selection
Roan Stallion
1945
Adrian painted the rearing horse directly onto this silk evening dress. The Met contrasts that method with his usual practice of drawing on a muslin toile before translating lines into intricate fabric insets. The large figurative image makes the entire length of the gown function as a painted surface.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Collection selection
Joan Crawford in the Letty Lynton gown
Letty Lynton (film), 1932
Adrian’s white organdie gown for Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932) puts enormous, fluttering sleeves above a close waist and full skirt. The contrast matters: Hollywood glamour could be romantic and expansive as well as slinky. Widely copied versions carried the screen costume into ordinary wardrobes; this publicity photograph shows Crawford in the original design.
Unknown photographer, 1932 publicity photograph; via Wikimedia Commons
Collection selection
Evening dress
1946 · The Met collection
Rayon, glass, plastic (cellulose acetate).
Paul Westlake / The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Collection selection
Evening dress
1944 · The Met collection
Silk.
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtCollections & archive pieces
1 collections represented · 4 piecesModern Museum · 1945
2 pieces · Season not recorded
1945
1 piece · Season not recorded
Roan Stallion
Gilbert Adrian · 1945
Letty Lynton (film), 1932
1 piece
Joan Crawford in the Letty Lynton gown
Gilbert Adrian · 1932
1932 publicity photograph
About Gilbert Adrian
The Met highlights his strong silhouettes, imaginative themes and sophisticated construction. His Modern Museum collection translated abstract art into carefully inset fabric shapes, while other dresses became surfaces for direct painting.