Adele Balkan (August 27, 1907 – November 20, 1999) was an American costume designer whose career spanned 40 years working on motion pictures during Hollywood's Golden Age of Classical cinema.
Her credits for Paramount, Universal Studios, RKO, and 20th Century Fox include work on “Mighty Joe Young,” “The Blue Angel” (with May Britt), and The Fly.
[1] Much of Balkan's subsequent work was as a sketch artist assisting chief designers such as Edith Head, Travis Banton, Marjorie Best, Howard Greer, Irene, Charles LeMaire, Vittorio Nino Novarese, Renié, and Edward Stevenson.
In this transcript, she discusses the suggestion, made by Edith Head, to make the costume sketch in the shape and proportions of the actress who would wear the garment.
A dancer as a child, she studied with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn at Denishawn and auditioned for Ziegfeld and George White's Scandals.
"I wanted to be [at Paramount], because I had seen Travis Banton's name on the screen for credit for the costumes, in the movies, and I loved his work.