Adrian Adolph Greenburg was was one of the most influential costume designers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. After first creating costumes for Cecil B. DeMille and Rudolph Valentino, Adrian became the head costume designer at MGM from 1928 to 1941, creating sumptuous gowns for the leading ladies of the time, including Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Katherine Hepburn and Norma Shearer. He was the costume designer of the Wizard of Oz, creating the films many distinctive costumes, including the iconic ruby-red slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy. In the original book, the slippers were silver, but were changed to red in the movie so they would ‘pop’ on screen with the new Technicolour film process. Red sequins were sewn on to chiffon, which was then glued to the shoes.
Adrian had learnt to design for film, at first for black and white, avoiding middle greys and contrasting black and white, then with accents around the necks and collar for close-up and medium shots.
In 1941, he left MGM to start his own fashion house, designing both couture and ready to wear fashions.
The Wizard of Oz
Adrian produced 3210 costume sketches for the Wizard of Oz. Felt was used for the Munchkin’s costumes, and Adrian designed tiny vests, jackets, slippers, bonnets and dresses, all accessorised with oversized buttons and bows to accentuate their tiny stature.
Hollywood Glamour
Jean Harlow in a slinky gown designed by Adrian for Reckless (1935)
Hedy Lammar in the iconic star dress designed by Adrian for Zeigfield Girl. (1941). It was created for Lamarr’s climactic Ziegfeld Follies number and embodies the fantasy glamour associated with producer Florenz Ziegfeld’s stage revues.
The full dress was most likely built over an internal corset andboning and the star headpiece in a wireframe with hand-applied star details
Designs for Marie Antionette (1938)
When MGM set out to produce Marie Antoinette in 1938, it was not aiming for quiet historical drama. It was building spectacle. The close to 4000 costumes, designed by Adrian, became one of the most ambitious wardrobe undertakings of Hollywood’s Golden Age. If you want the defintion of over the top, then Adrian’s Narie Antionette would be it.
Adrian researched 18th-century French court dress, studying portraits, textiles and silhouette structures. Yet his goal was never strict museum accuracy. After visiting Europe in 1937, he returned with yards of silks, brocades and gold and silver lace, and even engaged a milliner previously employed by the Russian Imperial Opera, and scores of beaders to trace his intricate designers.
Steel hoops were specially commissioned, and the wedding gown weighed 108 pounds, with more than 500 yards of sheer white satin, hand embroidered in silve fleur de lis in seed pearls.
Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette, aged 35, looks considerably older than the 14-year-old princess. Robert Morley was 30 when he played the 15-year-old Louis XVI