Travis Banton(1894-1958)

Travis Banton was the star costume designer at Paramount during the studio's heyday of glamour and sophistication in the 1930's. During his tenure (1924-38), he created imaginative, often daring designs for stars like Kay Francis, Carole Lombard, Mae West and, most famously, Marlene Dietrich. His best work was done in tandem with the director Josef von Sternberg, cinematographer Lee Garmes and art director Hans Dreier. Collectively, they created a visual style of costume, make-up and scenery, which became known as 'Hollywood baroque'. For Banton, this emphasized the use of sumptuous, figure-hugging, often heavily embellished or reflective fabrics, as well as imparting a sense of kinetic energy through the prodigious use of trailing feathers or veils. He also coached stars like Dietrich on posture and demeanour to compliment 'the look'.

Banton's family had left Texas for New York when he was just two years old. After schooling, he briefly served aboard a submarine during World War I, subsequently resuming studies at Columbia University and the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. Like his contemporaries Robert Kalloch and Howard Greer, Banton spent his apprenticeship in New York, working for the fashion house of Lucille until 1924, eventually setting up his own couture label. Heavily influenced by the French fashion industry, he initially designed for theatre, creating gowns for the Ziegfeld Follies and for Broadway musical comedy, such as "Little Miss Bluebeard" and "My Girl". In 1924, he was recruited by producer Walter Wanger to work under Howard Greer at Paramount. For several years, the future Oscar-winning designer Edith Head was assigned to him as a sketch artist and assistant, duly acknowledging him in later years as a crucial influence on her career. By 1927, Banton had become Paramount's leading, most innovative designer. During the next decade, his work set the benchmark for lavish elegance in continental haute couture, with credits like Shanghai Express (1932), Trouble in Paradise (1932) and Belle of the Nineties (1934).

A drinking problem forced Banton to leave Paramount in 1938, though he did not remain out of work for long. Joining Howard Greer's label, Greer Inc., he also found employment at United Artists (1938-39). After that, he free-lanced in between stints with 20th Century Fox (1939-41), Columbia (1943-44) and, as head stylist, at Universal (1945-48). His creative flair in this period is best exemplified by films like The Mark of Zorro (1940), Lillian Russell (1940), and, particularly, Cover Girl (1944), perfectly balancing contemporary design with 1890's period costume.

In the end, the pressure of consistently creating high-end fashion for both the studios and for his own label, plus frequent feuding with stars and executives and a longing to leave the West Coast and return to New York - were all beginning to take their toll. Banton's on-set behaviour became more erratic and his increasing alcoholism made him less reliable. After his final motion picture assignment, the hopelessly flawed biopic Valentino (1951), Banton left the film business altogether and went back to work for Greer Inc.. He returned to Hollywood once more in 1956, to open a fashion salon with Russian-born couturiere Marusia Toumanoff Sassi, collaborating with her in designing the extravagant gowns worn by Rosalind Russell in the Broadway play "Auntie Mame". Banton died two years later, in February 1958, at the age of 63.