This is a vintage 1960s 1st Adrian Retrospective exhibition brochure.
Unique folded brochure for the famous Gilbert Adrian circa 1960s, for the first public showing of the complete Adrian retrospective. The front shows a fashion drawing on one half with his signature.

"Gilbert Adrian was the creator of the broad shouldered suit, the turban, the pinafore look and many other American fashion innovations he designed for Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and his wife Janet Gaynor. His death in 1959 at the age of 56 was deeply felt by the fashion world. Tonight's presentation is the first public showing of the complete Adrian retro specs did retrospective.

The Adrian Retrospective made possible by the St Paul Minneapolis Fashion Group from Dayton's Department Store".

SIZE: 4 1/2" x 14" opening to 9" x 14".

Gilbert Adrian (1903-1959) was Hollywood's foremost costume designer during the 1930s and '40s, probably responsible for more fashion trends than any other designer in the United States during this time. From 1941 to 1952, he turned his attention to mass production and custom-made clothes. He produced high-quality, ready-to-wear for his own store in Beverly Hills and for other specialty stores throughout the U.S.

Adrian created the look and style that dominated American fashion in the 1930s and '40s. What movie stars wore was of interest to a large segment of Americans. Broad-shouldered suits and coats for Joan Crawford became very popular and widely copied. The huge puffed sleeves for the dress Joan Crawford wore in the 1933 movie "Letty Lyndon" caused American women from coast to coast to buy puffed-sleeve dresses. Adrian contributed greatly to establishing Hollywood as the glamour capital of the world.

His most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as "Gowns by Adrian". On occasion, he was credited as Gilbert Adrian, a combination of his father's forename and his own.

Adrian was hired by Rudolph Valentino's wife Natacha Rambova to design costumes for A Sainted Devil in 1924. He would also design for Rambova's film, What Price Beauty? (1925). Adrian became head costume designer for Cecil B. DeMille's independent film studio. In 1928, Cecil B. DeMille moved temporarily to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Adrian was hired as chief costume designer at the studio.

Adrian worked with some of the biggest female stars of the day like Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jeanette MacDonald, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford. He worked with Crawford 28 times, Shearer 18 and Harlow 9. He worked with Garbo over the course of most of her career. Adrian was behind Crawford's signature outfits with large shoulder pads, which later spawned a fashion trend.

Adrian was most famous for his evening gown designs for these actresses, a talent exemplified in The Women. The Women (1939), filmed in black and white, originally included a 10-minute fashion parade in Technicolor, which featured Adrian's most outré designs; often cut in TV screenings, it has been restored to the film by Turner Classic Movies. Adrian was also well known for his extravagant costumes, as in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and opulent (if not historically accurate) period dresses such as those for Camille (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938).

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Very good condition with one additional fold in the middle, a 1/2" tear in the top right edge, some handling wear, and some denting at the top and bottom.