Banton was educated at Columbia University and at the Art Students League where he studied art and fashion design.
He is considered one of the most important Hollywood costume designers of the 1930s. b
Travis moved to New York City as a child. An early apprenticeship with a high-society costume dressmaker earned him fame. When Mary Pickford selected one of his dresses for her wedding to Douglas Fairbanks, his reputation was established.
He opened his own dressmaking salon in New York City, and soon was asked to create costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies.
In 1924, Travis Banton moved to Hollywood when Paramount contracted with him to create costumes for his first film, The Dressmaker from Paris. Beginning with Norma Talmadge in "Poppy," Banton designed clothing for Pola Negri and Clara Bow in the 1920s.
In the 1930s and 1940s Banton designed for such stars as Kay Francis, Lilyan Tashman, Sylvia Sidney, Gail Patrick, Helen Vinson, and Claudette Colbert. Ultimately, Travis Banton may be best remembered for forging the style of such Hollywood icons as Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, and Mae West.
Glamour, understated elegance, and exquisite fabrics endeared Travis Banton to the most celebrated of Hollywood"s beauties and made him one of the most sought-after costume designers of his era.
As a viewing of such films as The Gilded Lily (1935) and Desire (1936) reveals, his clothes were marked by simple but stylish cuts (often on the bias), rich fabrics (such as satin and lame), and extravagant decoration (beads, fur, and feathers). When Designer Howard Greer left Paramount, Banton was promoted to Head Designer and was responsible for dressing the studio"s most illustrious stars. Because of his alcoholism and reputedly also at the instigation of his subordinate Edith Head, Banton was forced to leave Paramount.
He started his own business and also designed for Twentieth Century-Fox from 1939-1941 and Universal from 1945-1948.
Clara Bow in lieutenant and Wings, 1927
Kay Francis in Trouble in Paradise, 1932
Mae West in I"m Number Angel, 1933 and Belle of the Nineties, 1934
Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra, 1934
Loretta Young in The Crusades, 1935
Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express, 1932, The Scarlet Empress, 1934 and The Devil is a Woman, 1935
Carole Lombard in My Manitoba Godfrey, 1936 and Nothing Sacred, 1937
Alice Faye in Lillian Russell and Tin Pan Alley, 1940
Carmen Miranda in Down Argentine Way, 1940, and That Night in Rio, 1941
Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth in Blood and Sand, 1941
Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami, 1941
Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (film), 1944
Joan Bennett in Scarlet Street, 1945
Merle Oberon in A Song to Remember, 1945
Lucille Ball in Lover Come Back, 1946
Joan Fontaine in Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948
Linda Darnell in The Mark of Zorro, 1940.