| Introduction |
Most of Garbo's costumes were designed by MGM fashion designer – Adrian. He worked with Garbo over the course of most of her career. Adrian (Born Adrian Adolph Greenberg 1903, USA) was a Hollywood costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz, Garbo's Camille and many other MGM 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“.
Garbo and Adrian
 
Photos from the late 1920s
Adrian wanted to work for Garbo |
1928, Adrian went to MGM and was hired as chief costume designer at the studio. During this time, Adrian worked with some of the biggest female stars of the day. Garbo and Adrian met in June 1928 for the first time while Greta was filming A woman of Affairs. MGM wanted him desperately to design new gowns for Garbo.
Garbo and Adrian
   
Garbo and Adrian on the Camille set
Adrian left MGM |
Adrian left MGM in 1941 to set up his own independent fashion house, though he still worked closely with Hollywood. After he left MGM he said: "It was because of Garbo that I left M-G-M. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her, and so did I."
Garbo and Adrian
Garbo, Adrian and director Clarence Brown
on the Conquest set
In later life... |
In later life Adrian confided a friend that after he announced that he is leaving MGM , Garbo went to his office to said to the man who worked for since almost 13 years: “I'm sorry that you're leaving but, you know, I never really liked most of the clothes you made me wear.” They never met again. Adrian died in 1959.
Skizzes by Adrian
    
Adrian & Garbo trivia |
In the 1930s the bias-cut gowns that MGM's costumer Adrian designed for Greta Garbo were so sublime that fans wrote to her begging to buy them.
Adrian's picture book
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"Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941" was released in 2001. This picture book shows most of Adrian's famous gowns, in wonderful black and white pictures of costumes from 1920's to 1940's
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