Adrian's negligées

Norma Shearer in "Riptide", 1934.  The actress had such a great on-screen fondness for pale, barely-there, bias-cut satin gowns - quite
interchangeably evening frocks or negligées - that her coworkers referred to them all as "Norma's nightgowns".

Jean Harlow in straw-beads and marabout for "Dinner at Eight", 1933.  Adrian's most outrageous and most revealing negligées were
appropriately reserved for Harlow.

Greta Garbo in "Mata Hari", 1931.  As the photo reveals, this was a nightgown that really wasn't.  So much - or little - in fact, that this whole
seduction scene was soon cut from the film; we now merely see the un-self-conscious Swede waking the next morning, her un-negligée
discretely hidden by the bedclothes and a spray of orchids from her only recently departed lover.

Joan Crawford, portraits for "Letty Lynton", by Hurrell, 1932

Letty Lynton is one of classic Hollywood's most famously unseen major films; it's been locked away since 1936, when MGM lost a plagiarism case to playwrights who claimed the screenplay followed their playscript much too closely.  Even after years of legal wrangling, other than the rare bootleg copy, the film remains unavailable.

Interesting, too, considering the total disappearance of the film, that Crawford's Hurrell portraits and her costumes by Adrian are among the most famous of her entire career.  The white cotton ruffled organdy "Letty Lynton" dress, alone, started a major fashion trend at the film's debut; Macy's made an inexpensive replica of the dress and claimed to have sold more than half a million copies nation wide.

Most of Hurrell's portraits for Letty Lynton were done on the set of Grand Hotel, a film Crawford had just completed.

The original "Letty Lynton" dress.

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George Hurrell (1 June 1904, Covington, Kentucky – 17 May 1992, Los Angeles), one of the most important of the classic Hollywood portrait photographers.  His images of now legendary film stars, especially those taken during the Thirties, are iconic.

Garbo, portraits for Camille, by Clarence Sinclair Bull, 1936

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Clarence Sinclair Bull (May 22, 1896, Sun River, Montana - June 8, 1979, Los Angeles), one of the greatest portrait photographers of "Golden Age" Hollywood.  He was the head of the stills department at MGM for almost forty years, and was Garbo's preferred photographer for nearly her entire American career, from 1926 to 1941.

Though you see very little of it in these "head shots", the gown is by Adrian.

The Women - the fashion show, "Gowns by Adrian", 1939

Some of Adrian's handiwork from the Technicolor fashion sequence.

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Most of the screen captures from the Classiq blog.  : )

Norma Shearer in publicity for Smilin' Through, 1932

"Gowns by Adrian."

With Fredric March.

With Leslie Howard.

In the second of three filmed versions of the same story, Norma plays the dual role of Moonyeen Clare, a bride who is accidentally shot on her wedding day (!), and the niece of the same, the orphaned Kathleen.

 (The following photographs by Hurrell.)