Banton

Travis Banton (1894-1958) was an american fashion designer and film costume designer. His career began in New York in the fashion houses of Lucile and Madame Frances. In 1920, he designed the wedding dress that Mary Pickford wore when she married Douglas Fairbanks, which introduced him to Hollywood society. His first film sketches were for the femme fatale Pola Negri and for the “It Girl” Clara Bow. In 1927 he became chief costume designer for Paramount, a position that, notwithstanding his eccentric behavior, he would maintain until 1938. Less daring than Adrian — his antagonist at MGM — he had a more multi-faceted creativity. Thus, if for Mae West he could caricature in a felicitous way the genre of “1890s burlesque,” for Marlene Dietrich he could invent not only exotic disguises that went to the limits of the absurd (Morocco, 1930, and The Garden of Allah, 1936), but also sophisticated evening outfits (Desire, 1936) and the famous brocade tunic with an undulating skirt (Angel, 1937) which influenced even Schiaparelli and anticipated the New Look. Whereas his creations for Claudette Colbert always had a delicious chic Parisian style, those for Carole Lombard had a cold and impeccable elegance. Miraculously balanced between the sublime and the ridiculous were the one thousand yards of cock feathers in a thousand shades of black created for the incredible apparation of Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932), indisputably the icon of Hollywood camp at its highest level. Contrary to Adrian, he aimed to exalt the female figure to the highest, and his period costumes were often confidently anachronistic, more interested in the star’s glamour than historical precision. The costumes of Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934) were a glittering example of this, not really Egyptian but audaciously sexy and an anticipation of today’s nude look, to the point that Banton could be given the credit or the blame for it. His recurrent problem with alcohol forced the end of his contract with Paramount. In 1938 he left his position to his collaborator and protégé Edith Head. Later on he worked for Fox and Universal, but his golden season was over. He is to be remembered for his fanatic attention to details and an obsessive search for perfection. He remains an example of high professionalism and of creativity that was versatile and controlled in a masterly way.