THE COSTUMES OF MGM

The foundation of Debbie Reynolds' phenomenal Hollywood costume collection was built at the old MGM studio. MGM's auction in 1970 is where Debbie started collecting.This was the studio that in its heyday "had more stars than were in the heavens," and also had the costume designers to make them look glorious. Even the noted Helen Rose complained that when she was first hired at MGM the studio had seven other designers, and no new work for her. But it was Adrian that created the costume design pinnacle that was MGM. He was the one that started turning film costume into world-wide fashion trends while dressing Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Hedy Lamarr, and many others.

Adrian had already been using the wide-shouldered look for Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford since 1929, but when he designed the gown above for Joan Crawford in Letty Lynton in 1932, a new international fashion trend was started. Not only were other costume designers copying the gown, but Parisian couturiers were as well.

 

 

 

 

Adrian shown above in his MGM office. He preferred doing his costume design drawings while seated on a chintz-covered sofa. He also liked shaking his water-color brushes onto the carpet underneath - until it too became its own canvas.

 

 



Adrian became MGM's head designer in 1928 when he went to the studio with Cecil B. De Mille. Previously, MGM had employed a succession of costume designers including Maude Marsh, Kathleen Kay,Gilbert Clark, David Cox, Andre-Ani, Rene Hubert, and even the great Erte. Adrian stayed at MGM until 1941, joined there by English costume designer Dolly Tree.

If the name MGM didn't tell you already, you sure knew when you came  through the entry portal that you were in the big leagues. MGM stood for quality: with its writers and directors; in its sets and cinematographers; with the hairdressers and make-up artists, and with costume designers and  the wardrobe.

The photo above shows the three floors of MGM Woman's Wardrobe. By the 1930s when this photo was taken MGM already had thousands of costumes. These included not only the          costumes worn by the principal actors but by the supporting cast as well.     

                                  

MGM's Wardrobe Department created most all of the costumes needed for the movies the studio produced. In its heyday, this was some forty movies a year. Hannah Lindfors, a cutter-fitter, made muslin patterns based on a designer's costume sketch. The patterns were used to cut the fabric, such as silk, velvet, wool, etc. Both the muslin patterns and the sewn fabrics were fitted onto dress forms custom-measured for each actor. The actress would then come in (at least once but often several times) to be fitted. Here the designer and the fitter would make adjustments.

A costume, whether contemporary or historical, would often need specialty fabrication skills to make. These processes included embroidering, dyeing, and lace-making. In the photo above, several lace-makers worked a week to make the wedding veil for Helen Hayes to wear in The White Sister in 1933.

MGM seamstresses work on a costume for Romeo and Juliet, starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard. Some 1250 costumes were made for the 1936 production.




The photo above shows cast members that will appear in the ballroom scene
of Romeo and Juliet. Even the supporting cast were given high quality
 costumes for the MGM productions

After Adrian left in 1941 to open his own fashion business and Dolly Tree also left, MGM scrambled to find new designers. Robert Kalloch filled in for a while, but MGM offered a lucrative salary to bring Irene Gibbons (known as Irene) in to design costumes and to supervise the costume design process. Valles and Gile Steele were there to design men's costumes, Kay Dean and Marion Herwood Keyes came in as Irene's assistants, and soon Irene Sharaff and Barbara Karinska were hired to work on period and musical costumes. In 1943 Helen Rose was hired by L. B. Mayer, she complaining of too many designers and not enough work. Not long after that Walter Plunkett was hired to work on Katharine Hepburn's wardrobe. It's amazing that these outstanding designers all worked at MGM, at least for a short period before several of them went off to other jobs. Helen Rose and Walter Plunkett became the lead designers after Irene left to become the fashion designer for her own business in 1949.

Lana Turner is shown above reviewing one of her eighteen costumes for The Prodigal, 1954. Both Helen Rose and Walter Plunkett designed costumes for Lana, although Herschel McCoy designed the costumes for The Prodigal.

Period films were big in the 1950s, and the needs for special wardrobe items and accoutrements was very strong. MGM had its owns cobblers and leather craftsmen. In the photo above, a leather craftsman makes straps for the metal breastplates in Quo Vadis. These craftsmen also made holsters, special saddles, and helmets.

Many costumes made it difficult to sit while the cast took breaks between shots. The "leaning board" above was used by Jane Halsey wearing a beaded costume for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936. The costume weighed 102 pounds.

Wardrobe ladies were always on site to make repairs or adjustments to costumes as needed. Vicky Nichola is shown above mending the lace on Greer Garson's gown in Mrs. Parkington, 1944. In many cases, duplicate costumes were made in order to avoid delays due to  costume damage.

By the mid-1950s, MGM had approximately 500,000 costumes in its storerooms. This was in addition to thousands of pairs of shoes, 100,000 yards of silks, crepes, jersey and other fabrics, and 20,000 accessories. Even if tens of thousands of these were various military uniforms and costumes for extras, this number dwarfs the nearly 1200 costumes that eventually made it to the MGM/Weisz Auctioneers sale in 1970.  Where did the others go? Unfortunately, most of them were purposefully destroyed, including the costumes of stars and principal cast members. The 1970 auction was a distant mirror to the recent Debbie Reynolds auction, and the reflection is still largely one of loss. For an excellent history of the old glory and final destruction of the MGM studio, see: MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot, by Steven Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester and Michael Troyan, Santa Monica Press, 2011.

We can be thankful for the far-sighted costume collectors of the 1970s and 1980s, many of them still active today, that preserved as many of these costumes as they could.  And thanks too for the few museums and institutions that have found a place for Hollywood "memorabilia" in their collections. We still need one museum in the U.S. that devotes itself to this mission.

Christian Esquevin is currently writing a book on costume designers Irene, Walter Plunkett, and Helen Rose.