She is a fashion designer born in 1930 as Adrienne Steckling in Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA.
She studied arts at the University of Washington in Saint Louis, Missouri.
In the summer of 1955 she became guest editor at the university edition of Mademoseille magazine.
The following year she enrolled at “Parsons School of Design” in New York, where she could take classes with one of her biggest influences, designer Claire Mccardell.
Shortly after graduation, she began working as an assistant designer and then as an official designer at B.H. Wragge.
In 1972 she started his own brand of clothing and accessories.
Adri’s looks were functional, practical and easy to wear.
She believes in an interchangeable piece-by-piece wardrobe, so she used to make similar-looking clothes in different colors so that customers could slowly assemble their wardrobes without having to change them throughout the season.
Her looks remembered American sportswear, consisted of soft-touch pants and blouses with good fit.
Making clothes to her trim was something Adri habit that she got from Maccardell, but instead of making skirts like her, Adri preferred to make pants.
Despite this preference she ended up producing short dresses and skirts and then long dresses and long skirts. The fabrics she used were mostly knitwear, jerseys, crepe, challis and leather.
In 1960 she produced a short skirt and high waist dress, and V-neck in synthetically colored jerseys.
In 1970 she began using natural dyed fabrics and continued to wear knitwear for trousers, dresses and tunics of all lengths.
In the 1980s Adri’s looks consisted of silk pants with sleeveless chenille tops and flowing lace jackets.
As said before, because of Adri’s concern about allowing customers to match their clothes over the years, their clothes are long lasting and allow them to match neutral products with bright colors.
Shortly after the 1980s, Adri began manufacturing men’s clothing, creating swethers, cardinals and unisex vests.
Her nightly looks continued to be based on daytime clothing formats, but were produced with bright rayon and mohair.
Jackets, pullovers, and vests were often long, and Adri continued experimenting with fabrics, such as using eel skin for accessories.
The use of tapestry jackets with velvet trousers, as well as silk and jacquard, made the 80’s feeling evident in the new collections. Her clothes could be easily sewn in home-made machines, so in the 1980s she started a partnership with Vogue Patterns that lasted until the mid-1990s.
Adri continues to work as a fashion designer, now for her new brand Adri Studio.
Check out:
The Post’s Pinterest Board: https://br.pinterest.com/fashionsummedup/a/adri/
The Post’s Brazilian Portuguese version: https://amodaresumida.com/adri/
Bibliography: Callan, Georgina O’Hara; Enciclopédia da moda de 1840 à década de 90 / Georgina O’Hara Callan ; verbetes brasileiros Cynthia Garcia : tradução Glória Maria de Mello Carvalho, Maria Ignez França – São Paulo : Companhia das Letras, 2007.