Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/635454
42 The Costume Designer Winter 2016 When Travis Banton met Marlene Dietrich in June 1930, the newly arrived German actress did not say more than four words to him. His first fittings with her for Morocco (1930) had to take place after midnight because director Josef von Sternberg kept Dietrich working late on location. Dietrich would arrive, obviously fatigued, but she did not complain, nor would she accept any gesture of sympathy regarding her plight. In the still quiet of the wardrobe department in those early morning hours, Banton and his fitter would pin, measure, and adjust the gowns on Dietrich's figure while the actress stood in total silence. It was deafening. Banton wanted to yell, "Say something. Say anything. Tell me it's ter- rible, impossible, amateurish, but just say something." Years later, Banton came to realize that Dietrich's initial reticence was rooted in her discomfort with the language and her bewilderment by America's egalitarian society. Being mind- ful that she was no longer in Europe, Dietrich was uncertain how to treat the designer and his staff. "I love making clothes for Marlene," Banton once said, "but sometimes her exotic personality leads me into certain excesses." Her obsession with feathers, for example, led Banton to design the iconic sleek, black-feathered vamp ensemble for Shanghai Express (1932). With its cascad- ing sea of feathers swirling about Dietrich's shoulders and completely swallowing her neck, the design was an essay in overindulgent Hollywood fantasy that seemed too extreme to have any impact on real women's ready-to-wear clothing. But it did. "You can't imagine how many paradise birds you saw on American women," Banton said. "They put them everywhere." Ten years later, columnist Hedda Hopper was still talking about Banton's impact. "Travis did more than any single person to make Marlene Dietrich the clothes horse of the mov- ies," she wrote. "When she arrived here, her after- noon gowns of black satin were trimmed with ostrich feathers. He taught her to wear the feathers where they'd do the most good." An excerpt from Creating the Illusion TRAVIS BANTON Marlene Dietrich in Angel. Lilyan Tashman, Travis Banton, and Carole Lombard at a party at Banton's home. Photos: Creating the Illusion by Jay Jorgensen & Donald L. Scoggins