Met honors wizard of costume design, Gilbert Adrian

NEW YORK — Think Katharine Hepburn in "Philadelphia Story," Joan Crawford in "Letty Lynton," and Judy Garland and the Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz." In each case the clothes helped mold the character.

The man who made the clothes, Hollywood designer Gilbert Adrian, is being honored in an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. The designer retired in 1952 after suffering a heart attack. He died in 1959.

"Adrian: American Glamour" features more than 80 of the designer's sensational and sometimes provocative designs, drawn mostly from collections at the Met, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The show, on view through Aug. 18, opens with dramatic floor-to-ceiling photos of an array of stars wearing costumes designed by the Connecticut-born designer between 1928 and 1941, when he worked for MGM Studios.

There's Jean Harlow in a slinky, beaded negligee adorned with ostrich-feather cuffs from the 1933 film "Dinner at Eight." Good girl-bad girl Crawford in a black and white crepe fluted gown from 1932's "Letty Lynton." Hepburn, every inch the independent woman, in a white silk and gold-trimmed gown from the 1940 movie "Philadelphia Story."

"He was very important in creating the characters that the stars were known by," said guest curator and movie and television costume designer Jane Trapnell Marino.

Dorothy and Toto were there too.

Adrian made 3,210 individual drawings and designed all the costumes for the 1939 movie classic, including Dorothy's blue and white gingham dress, the Tin Man's suit of armor and the Munchkins' flower-adorned felt ensembles.

But the exhibit stresses that Adrian's influence flowed far beyond the cardboard cutout sets of Hollywood. It shows how his designs shaped American fashion in the 1940s and early 1950s, leaving a lasting legacy.

"According to his son, after he'd done the 'Wizard of Oz' costumes, he felt that he'd done as much as he was going to be able to do at MGM," Marino said. "And then Louis B. Mayer started deliberately de-glamorizing stars like Greta Garbo when the war started."

Adrian saw the war as an opportunity for American fashion designers, since Europe was cut off to American consumers.

He quickly became known for designs featuring squared-off shoulders, slim lines and simple silhouettes.

"He had a mind-boggling range as a costume designer, and he had an even more extensive range as a fashion designer," said Marino.

The exhibit begins with clothes revealing how his costume designs influenced his later fashion styles.

One design — a seersucker and gingham dress — looks like a direct descendant of Dorothy's all-American design. At first glance it looks deceptively simple, but a closer look reveals hidden complexities: an inset waistband, a waist that appears narrower thanks to shoulder pads, a double bow instead of just one.

Next come Adrian's wild animal prints, including a tiger print ball gown and his "Roan Stallion" dress, high-necked, slim and black with a bright, bold red-and-white drawing of a horse extending down its length.

"They are not for a timid woman," Marino said. "He's almost used these dresses as a canvas for painting."

His suits were simple but designed with a hint of humor. Generally broad in the shoulders with nipped waists, they feature asymmetrical stripes, unusually placed pockets and discreet touches of complex tailoring.

A small section highlighting his hats leaves no doubt about Adrian's sense of wit. A red cellophane hat, for example, features bold red beets made of feathers.

"His hats were incredibly popular and always being talked about," Marino said.

More avant-garde dresses include several swishy, fringed styles, outfits with big spots reminiscent of later Pop art, and ensembles featuring biomorphic patterns in unusual combinations of colors like lavender and hot pink on a creamy beige background.

"A painter himself, he was very familiar with the cubists," Marino said. "He had a unique ability to combine colors that anyone else would have found hard to work with."

Another set of dresses goes a step further in joining the worlds of fashion and modern art. They feature funky fabric specially designed by surrealist painter Salvador Dali for Adrian's 1944 designs.

"He was wonderfully modern," Marino said. "His philosophy was, 'Just because these are difficult times doesn't mean we have to look drab.' "