Suit

Gilbert Adrian

1950 · wool · Costume Institute

An Adrian jacket is typically constructed from six pieces with front closures and a center back seam. Fitted at the waist, it has shoulder pads that measure anywhere between ¾ inches and 1 ¼ inches in thickness. Skirts are either slightly flared or fall straight with a side closure. While jackets are usually lined, normally with rayon crepe, skirts are left unlined. In 1945, Adrian commented in The New York Times that 'Women who have narrow shoulders look best with narrow hips to go with them. But most women don't have narrow hips so I broaden their shoulders in proportion.' After Christian Dior's introduction of the New Look in August 1947, Adrian commented that some women who had adopted the new silhouette 'looked as though they were coming up out of holes in the ground' particularly if they were short. Adrian's suits certainly date better than the New Look. As Virginia Pope pointed out in The New York Times, Adrian's impeccable tailoring was 'modern, exciting and completely Adrian.'

Artist

Gilbert Adrian

Date

1950

Medium

wool

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Joseph S. Simms, 1979