Sex, Hollywood and Fashion
Why did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We argue the reason wasn’t Schiaparelli or Chanel, but the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions in Hollywood. MGM’s Adrian Greenberg was the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day, designing for the camera, experimenting with hats and calf-length dresses that flattered the lead actresses, but stuck to the code, and could be copied cheaply and quickly and sold to ‘Nancy’ in the plush picture-house seat.
Why did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We look at the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions, and at MGM’s Adrian Greenberg, the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day. The arrival of colour film stock and the invention of the close-up meant Adrian designed for the camera, experimenting with hats and calf-length dresses that flattered both the lead actresses and ‘Nancy’ in the plush seat. MGM’s Louis B Mayer, who’d started out selling second hand clothes, made a fortune producing mass-made copies to coincide with each film’s release for Nancy’s modest budget.
Good introductions to fashion in this period are in Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye, Twentieth Century Fashion (2010) and more specifically Charlotte Fiell and Emmanuelle Dirix, 1930s Fashion (2012). Emmanuelle Dirix and Neil Kirkham, have also edited a collection of essays on fashion in 1930s Hollywood in Film, Fashion and Consumption 3 (2014). Their introduction is a useful short survey of themes in this discussion.
For an analysis of Hollywood’s response to changing issues of gender see Sarah Berry, Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood (2000). Also Christina Ornelas Gomez’s thesis, ‘1930s Hollywood Film Fashion; Transgressing 1930s Class and Social Barriers through Fashion.’ You can find an extended abstract here.
There’s a brief account of Adrian’s career in Brenda Polan and Roger Tredre, The Great Fashion Designers (2nd ed 2020). The definitive – if extremely expensive - survey is Howard Gunter, Gowns by Adrian The MGM Years (2001).
For the introduction and impact of the Heys Code look no further than Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality and Insurrection in American Cinema (1999).
Probably the best way to get to know the films of this period is on-line. Start here and here. For a series of brief, thoughtful starting points try Digital History, head on over here.