What is the divide between red carpet and runway? Where should a designer’s vision extend past the cut of a garment? Contemporary designers are pushing these lines but long before them, a man named Adrian did.

If you don’t know Adrian by name, you know his work. He gave us Dorothy’s blue gingham dress, for example. From near-couture to comical, Adrian’s costume designs were so enthralling that studio executives built fashion show scenes into their films, and department stores opened “cinema shops” where women could purchase his garments. He was a one name force with his own perfume line and a power publicist as in Eleanor Lambert, also the founder of the CFDA. What is less discussed about Adrian –  and is now the focus of an exhibition at the Museum at FIT –is his deep relationship with textiles, in both his costume and commercial designs.

Adrian: Hollywood and Beyond was organized by graduate students in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies program, who work as colleagues to produce an exhibition in their second year. Inspired by the trove of Adrian textiles in the FIT archives, the show takes an intimate look into this innovator’s process, which is impressive considering that he destroyed his sketches to control his intellectual property. From the gallery’s paint color and neoclassical elements to the font of the wall placards, all elements have been considered to bring the viewer into Adrian’s world. The dusky pink walls are lined with promotional video clips of the designer at work and magazine ads from an era that told consumers to check the selvage for their favorite textile maker’s name.

The incredible breadth of his costume work comes into view in a sampling of movie clips but it is the garments that steal the show. Beside a chic wool suit jacket, a diagram recreates the six pattern pieces he used to make its pocket. A dress printed with theater scenes is angled to show the back, where playfully draped swags evoke stage curtains. From painting his own prints to collaborating with textile artists, Adrian’s consideration of how a garment’s elements could work in harmony resulted in a level of mastery that isn’t always so evident at first glance. But the exhibition’s placards, and an iPad with additional resources, alert the viewer to what’s extraordinary about the textile or dress before them—though in the case of an embellished and pleated silk jersey gown with a sweeping hood, Adrian’s design can speak for itself.

“Adrian: Hollywood and Beyond” is on view at the Museum at FIT through April 1. “Black Fashion Designers” is also on view, through May 16.