Irene (costume designer)
Irene Lentz (married Irene Gibbons, born December 8, 1900 in Baker, Montana, USA, † November 15, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA) was an American costume designer whose mention uncredited Irene was mostly.
Life
Early years
Irene Lentz was already in the silent era to the movie. In 1921 she started as an actress in slapstick comedies at the working side of Mack Sennett, Ben Turpin, and Billy Bevan. The director of her first film, F. Richard Jones, she married in 1929. Yet already in December 1930 her husband died from the effects of tuberculosis disease.
Film career
Irene, who had learned to sew at a young age, opened a small boutique with their own designs. The success led to a job in a prestigious fashion boutique, whose clients also included Hollywood stars. Soon the film industry took notice of the young designer. Independent studios turned to them, the costumes to design for some productions. From now on, she called herself only Irene. In 1933, she first worked for a film production. 1937 found her work for the costumes by Ginger Rogers in the musical Dance with me! very well received. This meant that it was now increasingly also worked for large studios. Irene made the costumes, inter alia, for Marlene Dietrich, Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard, Merle Oberon and Deborah Kerr.
Through her work she met the writer Eliot Gibbons and married him in 1936. Her husband was the brother of the award winning film outfitter Cedric Gibbons. Through the influence of the outfitter Irene could switch to MGM. Here she became head of the costume department of the studio, with their avant-garde creations for Lana Turner were particularly praised. Consequently, it was in 1949 nominated for an Oscar.
Working with her powerful and arrogant brother- and even marriage with Eliot were for Irene not easy despite all the successes. She left MGM in 1950 to open up her own fashion house. Ten years she stayed away from the film industry. Only her friend Doris Day could persuade again return to the film. Prompt turned back on the old success. Your work on Doris Days costumes in the thriller Midnight Lace brought her a second Oscar nomination. In 1962, she retired completely back from the film business.
Death
On November 15, 1962 committed Irene Gibbons, nee Lentz, in the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles suicide. The now 62 -year-old first tried to slit his wrists. When this did not succeed, it sprang at 15 clock in the afternoon out of the bathroom window. Her body hit the canopy of the lobby, was discovered in the same evening.