Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Travis Banton Visits Colette

Claudette Colbert in Travis Banton

This month at Colette Patterns I get to write about my favorite subject: Hollywood costume designers of the 1930-50s. Designers such as Adrian, Orry-Kelly, Travilla, and new ones I've just been made aware of. Please check out my columns each Wednesday at the Colette Patterns blog.

First up is Travis Banton, head costume designer at Paramount Pictures who was responsible for the "Joan Crawford Look".* The shoulder pads and elegant long look of the gowns even started to effect what the average woman was wearing too. Here are just a few pictures that I had to leave out of the profile because of space.


His first costume picture, 1925's Dressmaker from Paris.


Joel McCrea and Kay Francis in Girls About Town (1931).


*Now remember, he did the clothes NOT the hideous makeup she started to wear in her later years in film.

Images: Silver Screen Modiste and Arts Meme

4 comments:

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Great article! I love those old movie costumes. Seeing an Adrian exhibit at the Met Costume Institute several years ago was awesome!

lsaspacey said...

Oh, lucky you! I would have loved that, I NEED to get myself to the MET one of these days.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to read your posts over there this month!

Debra Levine said...

I came to your nice blog through a link to one of my photos. Thanks for linking. One thing, I'm rather perplexed by your connecting Travis Banton to Joan Crawford. Adrian famously dressed Crawford at MGM -- Banton was a Paramount Studios man and connected with Lombard, Dietrich, and Colbert. Moreover, his look is very chic and soignée, nothing to do with Crawford's manly shoulder pad look. Am I missing something? / Debra Levine http://artsmeme.com