Dolly Tree - Still A Shining Star.

 Firstly - What a delightful name. It just trip's off the tongue, and once heard it is never forgotten. Nor should she be. Perhaps you have never heard of her before, Dolly Tree was one of Hollywood's finest fashion designers. Of English birth and born near Bristol in 1899 she aspired to be an actress but by the 1920's and 1930's she was the darling of London's and Paris' Theatre's with her ingenious stage costume designs. Working for the British film company when she could, she was also involved and allied to the couture house of Jean Peron.

It was upon her designs for Mae West's gowns in her saloon scenes, thus creating for her the quintessential 1890's look for her films that Dolly finally moved to America and began her career with the MGM studio during the 1930's.

It was whilst at these studio's that she created the glamorous costumes for Myrna Loy in The Thin Man and other stars such as Judy Garland, Janette MacDonald, Maureen O'Sullivan and  Jean Harlow, as well as historical costumes for great classic films such as Viva Villa, David Copperfield and A Tale Of Two Cities.

Unfortunately Dolly Tree has through out her career consistently been overshadowed by others often taking her credit. For me it is evident that she brough to Hollywood a certain Parisian chic and simplistic air of quality. Unlike Edith Head, Dolly Tree was rather unasertive in a male dominated working environment and so recieved little of the acclaim that she deserved. She is still rather forgotten, except for her gowns and costumes that roles past us in the reels of film on the silver screen. Look at her beautiful costumes in A Tales Of Two Cities (1935) once again and then see if you ever forget her name.

As well as all the above she also kept her hand in designing beautiful delicate commercial illustrations. From her earliest days she had designed posters and programme covers for theatre shows. This led to comic art and illustrations for newspapers and magazines. She was also jolly good at movie star charicatures and sold many to magazines of the time. Most of her illustration designs involved or featured a young woman with the most gorgeous outfit or costume which she described as "Fluffy Flappers". They were the early beginnings of her truly outstanding expressive and stylised fashion sketches she would produce in later years for the Hollywood studios.

Myrna Loy and Dolly Tree.

Myrna Loy in a Tree dress.

For me it is most certainly the fact that she almost exclusively designed for the actress Myrna Loy, and boy did she look good in them! She did all of Myrna's costumes for The Thin Man productions, for which I am eternally grateful. Her sketches and designs are so beautiful on paper, that it would be almost a sin not to breathe life into them with flesh and fabric.

Dolly Tree was slim, petite with a dark sleek bob cut and large blue eyes, she was the epitome of chic. The producer and designer Alex Shanks once described her as "a chic, bobbed ex flapper, cigarette holder an all".

Dress design for Jean Harlow.

Her genius as a visual designer is her childlike quality and love for all things simplistic, saying "I try to get a mental picture of the whole finished effect and then I arrange my colours, rather like playing with toy soldiers." 

Her designs were always imaginative but with a simple flourish. She disliked a cacophony of colours together preferring a harmonious colour palette. She considered the figure of the woman against the background. The silhouette was just as important as the form, giving rise to her often being known as "the two colour lady". Instead to gave her emphasis to minute unusual detail and has often been credited at the woman who gave us the strapless gown.

"Give me a blank piece of paper, a peaceful hour to think out designs - and I'm perfectly happy" 

In 1931 whilst working at Fox's studio's she met and married a young Naval officer by the name of Thomas Kimes. Although a happy marriage, his career in the Navy kept them apart and they sadly divorced nine years later. After her divorce she drank heavily and this is almost certainly why she left MGM and went back to work for Fox studios at a later date where she married her second husband Don E.Whiteford, but again things didn't work out and they soon divorced. Alone again Dolly dove further into alcoholism. Her divorce and the recent death of her father in 1942 all helped to contribute to the loss of her second studio job. In disgrace she returned to Long Island in New York and died aged 63 in obscurity in 1962. What a terrible shame to see such a glorious shinning star fizzle out and fade away. To me though her costumes will always shine bright up on the silver screen.