ETHEL PAINTER CHAFFINETHEL PAINTER CHAFFIN

Another designer popular with the press, Ethel Painter Chaffin, became head of wardrobe at Famous Players-Lasky in 1919.

She was born Ethel Painter on January 14, 1885, in Pasadena, the second of two children born to Alzono and Hannah G. “Nannie” Negus Painter. Her father was a real estate agent who died when Ethel was eight years old. A year later, Nannie married Albert Royal, M.D., a Pasadena physician who had been widowed two years earlier. Ethel and her older brother, Harry Painter, both attended the prestigious private college preparatory school, Throop Polytechnic School (now Polytechnic School) in Pasadena. Ethel attended the Hopkins Art School (now San Francisco Art Institute) in San Francisco. Following a brief marriage to John S. Barber, whom she wed on May 29, 1904, Ethel returned home to Pasadena and worked as a dressmaker for a local department store.

In 1914, Ethel married George Duclos Chaffin, a fine arts merchant. She opened her own dress shop and by 1919, word of her dressmaking talents reached studio execs at Famous Players-Lasky, who hired Chaffin to head their wardrobe department. For the next six years, Chaffin designed for the studio’s biggest stars, including Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Nita Naldi, and Bebe Daniels.

By 1923, Chaffin, along with Wachner and Clare West, had revolutionized movie costuming, at least in the eyes of the press. “These women have elevated it to the dignity of an art. And handsome salary checks attest to the importance the respective studios attach to their talents,” wrote syndicate reporter Jack Jungmeyer of the trio in 1923. “Motion Picture costuming, once a slipshod and casual consideration, today is one of the most important and often the most expensive factor in movie-making.”

Unlike her colleagues, Chaffin did not consider an actress’s personal tastes a factor when creating a design. “I design gowns for directors rather than stars or leading women,” Chaffin said in 1921, an unexpected statement for its time. “They generally have more to say about what the feminine characters in a motion picture will wear than the ladies themselves.”

Chaffin moved to MGM in 1924, where she designed for Norma Shearer in The Tower of Lies (1925) and Marion Davies in Lights of Old Broadway (1925), among others. In 1925, she worked on King Vidor’s production of The Big Parade (1925), one of the most successful and well-regarded films of the silent era. She retired from film design later that year.

During their marriage, the Chaffins took numerous trips to Europe for pleasure combined with business. George acquired art for his import business, and Ethel bought fabrics and observed European fashion trends. On one of these trips, George Chaffin died on board the R.M.S. Carinthia on September 3, 1927. Ethel never remarried. She spent the rest of her life in Los Angeles making gowns for private clientele. She died there on December 30, 1975.

Norma Shearer in an Ethel Painter Chaffin costume in Pretty Ladies (1925).

Carmel Myers in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Costume design by Harold Grieve and Ethel Painter Chaffin.