Ridley Road | Trailer - BBC / Colin Jordan and Françoise Dior

Ridley Road review – fascism thriller resonates in our current dark age

 

Based on Jo Bloom’s novel, Sarah Solemani’s drama tells the story of amateur spies infiltrating neo-Nazis in 60s London. Despite some cartoonish moments, it is highly disturbing

 

Lucy Mangan

@LucyMangan

Sun 3 Oct 2021 22.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/03/ridley-road-review-fascism-thriller-resonates-in-our-current-dark-age

 

A sunlit bedroom in a country house in Kent, 1962. An adorable moppet is helping a young blond woman make the bed. They are joined by the dapper man of the house. They gather in front of the window and smilingly give a Nazi salute.

 

So begins Ridley Road (BBC One), the four-part adaptation by Sarah Solemani of Jo Bloom’s 2014 novel of the same name. It is an arresting opening, made even more so by the fact that the story about to unfold, we are told, was inspired by true events.

 

The true part is the rise of neo-fascism in 60s England, when the dismal rags of Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement, and the version of the British National party that would become the National Front, were supplemented by the National Socialist Movement led by a man called Colin Jordan. It is he – played by Rory Kinnear – who we see sieg-heiling in the sunshine.

 

The drama is named after the road that housed the headquarters of the coalition of Jewish men known as the 62 Group who took direct militant action against the NSM in particular. Their most famous confrontation was in Trafalgar Square in 1962, when Jordan – protected by the Free Speech Act – held an antisemitic rally where a riot broke out between attenders and protesters.

 

Ridley Road unfolds from the perspective of the blond woman we see in the opening, the fictional Vivien Epstein. Epstein (Agnes O’Casey, giving not a sign that this is her first television role) moves from her loving but claustrophobic home in Manchester, where she lives with her parents, to swinging London in search of ex-boyfriend Jack Morris (Tom Varey).

 

Morris, it turns out, is embedded in the NSM as a spy for a covert group of Jewish anti-fascist activists led by Epstein’s uncle Soly (Eddie Marsan), who is ably supported by his formidable wife Nancy (the estimable Tracy-Ann Oberman, who has herself braved relentless and public anti-Semitic abuse in recent years, bringing another and even more immediate layer of relevance to the story). After taking part in an NSM arson attack on a yeshiva during which a student is killed, Morris disappears, leading Epstein to charm her way into Colin Jordan’s good graces to find out whether Morris has been unmasked, injured or killed.

 

Injured only! From there it is only a short leap to Epstein becoming embedded herself and working with Jack to avert further NSM attacks (including plans to disrupt the yeshiva boy’s funeral – there is a heartbreaking shot of a Jewish man having to hide behind the headstone of the grave he is visiting when they are directed to the wrong cemetery). The group gathers intelligence on Jordan’s plans and the “paramilitary force” he is training in the country house lent to him by a sympathetic aristocrat.

 

Though the main thrust of the story is the amateur espionage and the increasing involvement of Epstein in Jordan’s world, it is in the quieter, more domestic moments that the drama is most convincing. The ghostlike presence of the Epsteins’ relative, Roza (Julia Krynke), a survivor of the Holocaust scoured out by grief and suffering, abrades the conscience of Vivien’s mother, Liza (Samantha Spiro, who excels at nervy, inarticulately stricken characters and is well deployed here). Not appreciating how much danger they were in, she refused Roza’s family a place to stay when they were fleeing the Nazis, and her guilt fills the house as it must have done so many.

 

Elsewhere, the fertile ground in which the seeds of antisemitism and assorted other bigotries flourish is well evoked. We see the comfort that Epstein’s aged London landlady, Nettie (Rita Tushingham), finds in the local community leader, Gary Burns (Nigel Betts), and his explanations as to why the world is changing so rapidly around her. You’ll never guess whose fault it is.

 

The London parts, however, have a much broader-brush feel to them. The romance element – complete with potential rival in the form of Stevie (Gabriel Akuwudike), who currently has Vivien down as a secret fascist but, one suspects, will have the scales fall from his eyes before the credits on the third episode roll – feels awkward and unconvincing. The direction feels strangely stilted and the dialogue flimsy, the script never quite first-class. The parts set in the hairdresser’s where Vivien gets a job are almost cartoonish, and the relentless salt-of-the-earthiness of everyone born in the East End becomes quite grating.

 

Still, even if you might wish it exhibited a bit more complexity and artistic refinement, it is a drama with resonance. It has the right story to tell – alas – in our current dark age.

The Horrifying True Story Behind Ridley Road's Most Sinister Character

 

Colin Jordan – played by Rory Kinnear in the BBC series – is based on a real-life fascist leader.

 

BBC/Red Productions

By Sophie McEvoy

Oct. 4, 2021

https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/is-ridley-roads-colin-jordan-a-real-person

 

Set in the 1960s London, the BBC’s latest drama Ridley Road sees 20-year-old hairdresser Vivien Epstein infiltrate a facist, neo-Nazi group as they follow their leader Colin Jordan on a violent campaign against the UK’s Jewish community.

 

While Vivien and the majority of the characters of this new drama are fictional, Jordan was actually a real person. Played by Rory Kinnear in the series, Jordan leads the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM), which was a far-right fascist organisation in sixties Britain. Through this group (and others), Jordan incited racism and rioting through his speeches and public appearances.

 

Born John Colin Campbell Jordan on July 19, 1923, the future neo-Nazi leader first found far-right politics while studying history at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. It was here that he started following the teachings of Arnold Leese, who was the leader of the pre-war Imperial Facist League, per the Guardian. This led to Jordan forming a “nationalist club” while at Cambridge, which became the Birmingham Nationalist Book Club once he graduated.

 

In 1956, Jordan was handed his first conviction in relation to his far-right activism for “insulting words and behaviour during a protest” led by the League of Empire Loyalists. Soon after, Jordan formed the White Defence League, which he ran out of a property in Notting Hill left to him by Leese following his death in 1956.

 

Jordan went on to merge this group with the National Labour Party, which soon became the British National Party. He soon left the BNP following a disagreement within the party in 1962, leading to the formation of the NSM. That same year, Jordan was convicted at the Old Bailey under the 1936 Public Order Act for attempting to form a paramilitary force called Spearhead, modelled after a paramilitary organisation associated with the Nazi Party called the Sturmabteilung (SA).

 

During his time in prison, Jordan married the niece of fashion designer Christian Dior, Françoise. According to the Independent, Françoise was “as fervently Nazi as Jordan” – so much so that part of their marriage ceremony included the couple cutting their fingers and mixing their blood over a copy of Adolf Hitler’s 1938 manifesto Mein Kampf. The couple divorced in the mid-1960s, however.

 

Jordan and the NSM were regular faces within the British court system in the ’60s and ’70s following demonstrations, protests, riots, and arson attacks against the Jewish community, synagogues, and other buildings across London. It was these acts of terror that led to the formation of the 62 Group, an anti-fascist organisation that fought against the NSM.

 

The neo-Nazi leader eventually “fell from grace […] if you can ever say that he was in a place of grace to start with” as Kinnear explained during an interview about Ridley Road, but continued his “diatribe of hate” until he died in 2009.

Françoise Dior

Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior (7 April 1932 – 20 January 1993), better known as Françoise Dior, was a French socialite and neo-Nazi underground financier. She was the niece of French fashion designer Christian Dior (1905–1957) and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior (1917–2008), who publicly distanced herself from her niece after she married British neo-Nazi activist Colin Jordan in 1963. She was a close friend of Savitri Devi.

 

Early life and family

Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior was born on 7 April 1932, the daughter of Madeline Leblanc and Raymond Dior, a left-wing journalist and the brother of French couturier Christian Dior and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior.Her father Raymond, who had been employed at the family business headquarters in Paris for some years, was a Communist International sympathizer, to the despair of his own father Maurice Dior, a fertilizer industrialist. Raymond was involved with the satirical gazette Le Crapouillot and embraced radical ideas, advocating the '200 families [fr]' conspiracy theory, that is the belief that 200 French industrial and financial families are responsible, in his own words, "for all the ills of the land".[2] Raymond was bisexual, and scholar Graham Macklin notes that her biological father could have been Valentin de Balla, a Hungarian nobleman.

 

Dior's attraction to Nazism emerged in her childhood, during the Nazi occupation of France (1940–1944). According to historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, "one of the sweetest memories" of Dior was the compliment "What a beautiful little Aryan girl" made to her by an SS-man in Paris. She was initially a fervent royalist and took an interest in the study of pre-Revolutionary France. Dior came to believe that the ideals of the French Revolution were in reality a cover for a global conspiracy led by international elites whose aim was national degeneracy.

 

On 27 April 1955,[5][6] Dior married Count Robert-Henri de Caumont-la-Force,[7][4] a Grimaldi descendant of Prince of Monaco Honoré III (1720–1795), with whom she had a daughter.

 

World Union of National Socialists

Dior came to be disappointed by traditional aristocracy and her marriage turned out to be unhappy.The couple divorced in 1960. Having heard in the press of the Trafalgar Square rally held by British neo-Nazi activist Colin Jordan, she travelled to England in the summer of 1962 and became a frequent visitor of the London headquarters of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), a neo-Nazi organization led by Jordan. The latter began courting Dior and introduced her to Savitri Devi; Dior and Devi became close friends from that moment.

 

Dior used her fortune and social network to support the creation of the French chapter of the World Union of National Socialists (WUNS), an Anglo-American neo-Nazi organization established by Jordan and George Lincoln Rockwell at the Cotswold Camp in August 1962. Upon her return to France, she began to head the national section of the WUNS. Dior brought former Waffen SS officer Claude Jeanne to the movement, who founded the West European Federation (FOE) in 1963 – a WUNS branch encompassing France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Spanish Basque Country and Romandy. However, her success in recruiting former high-ranking Nazis and members of the social elite turned out to be limited. By the time the police dissolved the FOE in May 1964, the group had only 42 members, most of them social misfits.

 

Marriage to Colin Jordan

While Jordan was imprisoned following a 1962 conviction for establishing a paramilitary group, Dior became engaged for around a month in June 1963 to another NSM member and friend of Jordan, John Tyndall. That event contributed to a growing feud between the two allies, which led to a split within the NSM in 1964.Upon Jordan's release, however, Dior chose to marry him instead. Jordan proposed to her in September 1963 during a flight to Britain; his relationship with Dior soon took priority over the movement.

 

After a civil ceremony held in Coventry on 5 October 1963, where demonstrators hurled rotten eggs and apples at the couple as they gave the Nazi salute, Dior and Jordan had a second wedding on 6 October at the NSM headquarters in London. The photographs and newsreel footage of the ceremony – illustrating them mingling blood after cutting their ring fingers with a dagger before letting a "unity drop" fall over an open copy of Mein Kampf – were published widely by the press. The guests gave the Hitler salute and the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" was played.[9] Dior also stated, "All I want is little Nazi children." Dior's mother rejected the marriage, saying, "We want to have as little to do with this sad affair", and adding that she would not allow Jordan into her home.[3] Following the media coverage of the events, her aunt Catherine Dior, a Ravensbrück concentration camp survivor, issued a press release denouncing "the publicity given by the press and television to [her] niece Françoise Dior's nonsensical statements. The fame of [her] brother Christian Dior must not be used to highlight the scandal and risk tarnishing a name carried with honor and patriotism by members of my family."[17] Savitri Devi was unable to attend the wedding; she had been banned from Britain following the Cotswold founding camp of the WUNS in 1962.

 

Only three months after her wedding to Jordan, the couple separated,[9] again attracting sensational coverage in the press. Dior-Jordan – as she was by then calling herself – was rapidly disillusioned by her husband's leadership qualities and publicly dismissed him as a "middle-class nobody". The Daily Mirror ran a front-page headline reading, "Nazi Told: 'Marriage is Over'", with the subheading "You're no Leader, says Françoise". The next day, the paper ran another story with the headline "Please – I love you says Führer", quoting Jordan as he reportedly begged Dior to "please, please, please come home". Dior and Jordan reconciled once she was convinced of his ability to lead the NSM, which had proven to easily fall into factionalism.

 

Arrests

Dior remained influential within the NSM in London. On 31 July 1965, she was involved in an arson committed by six NSM members against the Ilford and Lea Bridge Road synagogues. Dior was also the official WUNS representative in France by that year. On 4 June 1965, she was convicted in absentia to a 4-month jail sentence for having displayed neo-Nazi leaflets on the walls of the British embassy in Paris on a previous occasion. Dior then returned to France, where she was arrested in Nice on 4 October 1966 and held in custody for the Paris event

 

She was released in February 1967, then eloped to Jersey with her new lover, Terence Cooper, whom she had met at the NSM. The couple soon relocated to Normandy, where they were visited by Savitri Devi,[1] then reappeared in the summer of 1967 in a council house of Dagenham, East London rented by Cooper's family. Both of them had been expelled from the NSM at this point. Dior was questioned by the police and charged with inciting NSM members to set fire to the synagogues in London two years earlier. She received an 18-month jail sentence in January 1968 and was sent to Holloway prison.[19] While in jail, Dior was nicknamed "Nazi Nell" by the other inmates. Jordan divorced his wife in October 1967 on grounds of adultery with Cooper.

 

In 1969 Dior entered in contact with French neo-Nazi Mark Fredriksen and the FANE to create an antisemitic movement called the Front Uni Antisioniste ('Anti-Zionist United Front'). A meeting was held on 6 February 1969 with Dior, Fredriksen, Henry Coston and Pierre Sidos in order to organize the fight against "Jewish influence and Zionist propaganda", but the organization never came to light. In October 1970 Dior invited Savitri Devi to stay in her home in Ducey, Normandy.Devi spent 9 months there, working on her memoirs; then returned to New Delhi in August 1971.

 

Later life and death

Cooper and Dior lived together in Ducey, Normandy, in a home that had been a former presbytery, from August 1970 until July 1980, when their relationship ended. By the early 1980s, Dior was financially ruined after a bad investment in a Parisian nightclub, and she had to sell the home in 1982.

 

She joined the mainstream right-wing Rally for the Republic (R.P.R.) and married in 1983 Count Hubert de Mirleau. A leading member of French ethnonationalist think tank GRECE,[27] de Mirleau belonged to one of France's oldest noble houses – although he was not particularly wealthy. He later joined the far-right Front National in 1985.

 

When British fascist Martin Webster started his short-lived group Our Nation following his expulsion from the National Front in December 1983, Dior allegedly paid some of his legal expenses.

 

She died of lung cancer on 20 January 1993 in the American Hospital of Neuilly-sur-Seine, aged 60.

 

In his autobiographical account of the relationship, entitled Death by Dior and published in 2013, Terence Robert Cooper, better known as Terry Cooper, her partner for 13 years, states that Françoise had incestuous relations with her daughter Christiane, who committed suicide in 1978.

L'INCROYABLE HISTOIRE DU FACTEUR CHEVAL Bande Annonce (2019)

Ferdinand Cheval

Cheval's Palais idéal

Ferdinand Cheval (19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924) was a French postman who spent thirty-three years of his life building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives.The Palace is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture.

 

Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, also known as Facteur Cheval (Postman/Mailman Cheval)[3] was born in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse into a poor farming family.[4] He left school at the age of 13 to become a baker's apprentice, but eventually became a postman.

 

In 1858, Cheval married his first wife, Rosaline Revol. Together they had two sons, Victorin Joseph Fernand (1864), and Ferdinand Cyril (1867). Victorin died in 1865 just a year after he was born. His first wife Rosaline died in 1873. Five years later Cheval met and married Claire-Philomène Richaud.[5] Because of his marriage to Claire, the new couple found themselves with a dowry that accompanied some land on which the Palais Idéal stands today.[3] Later that same year, Claire gave birth to their daughter Alice-Marie-Philomène. Alice died in 1894 at the age of 15. Alice's death hit Cheval the hardest and she was the last child he would have. Eighteen years later, his son Cyril and his second wife, Claire, would die within two years of each other in 1912 and 1914 respectively.[5]

 

Palais idéal

 

The starting point: the unusually-shaped stone that Cheval tripped over

Cheval began the building in April 1879 when he was 43 years old. He reported:

 

I was walking very fast when my foot caught on something that sent me stumbling a few metres away, I wanted to know the cause. In a dream I had built a palace, a castle or caves, I cannot express it well... I told no one about it for fear of being ridiculed and I felt ridiculous myself. Then fifteen years later, when I had almost forgotten my dream, when I wasn't thinking of it at all, my foot reminded me of it. My foot tripped on a stone that almost made me fall. I wanted to know what it was... It was a stone of such a strange shape that I put it in my pocket to admire it at my ease. The next day, I went back to the same place. I found more stones, even more beautiful, I gathered them together on the spot and was overcome with delight... It's a sandstone shaped by water and hardened by the power of time. It becomes as hard as pebbles. It represents a sculpture so strange that it is impossible for man to imitate, it represents any kind of animal, any kind of caricature. I said to myself: since Nature is willing to do the sculpture, I will do the masonry and the architecture.

 

For the next thirty-three years, Cheval picked up stones during his daily mail round and carried them home to build the Palais idéal. He spent the first twenty years building the outer walls. At first, he carried the stones in his pockets, then switched to a basket. Eventually, he used a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp.

 

The palace materials mainly consist of stones (river washed), pebbles, porous tufa and fossils of many different shapes and sizes. When a visitor first comes up on the palace, the first face they see is the southern facade. This is approximately 26 metres long and up to 10 metres high. The decoration resembles aspects of both the Brighton Pavilion and Gaudí's Sagrada Família. Cheval did not travel and he had even given himself the title of peasant, so even though the qualities resemble those pieces of art, he had never seen them.[6] Three giant stones, each with doll-like faces, standing about 10.5 high, serve not only as decoration but as a support system for the Barbary Tower, with an elegant spiral staircase lined with swans made of cement leading up to it.[4] The tall stones were named Vercingétorix, Archimedes and Caesar. Cheval hand-carved the names into each individual figure.

 

The north face exhibits a long path dotted with large openings to provide plentiful light leading into the heart of the palace itself. This facade is very forest-like with walls coated in moss and massive seaweed. The ceiling, swirling patterns of pebbles and shells that outline the chandeliers. Upper walls are lined with horizontal bands with animals carved into them in an Egyptian-like style. Other animals on the north face facade include two ostriches (presumably mother and father) and an ostrich chick, a 1.2m tall camel,[6] flamingos, octopi, lions, dragons, and a polar bear.

 

The east facade took the longest to build before, a shocking 20 years. This face includes 'The Temple of Nature', an Egyptian style temple-like structure supported by large, thick sandstone columns. It includes two waterfalls called the Source of Life and the Source of Wisdom.

 

The Palais is a mix of different styles with inspirations from Christianity to Hinduism. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement.

 

The palace is sprinkled with short quotes and poems hand-carved by Cheval himself. Some examples being "If you look for gold you will find it in elbow grease.", "The Pantheon of an obscure hero."[6] "The work of one man", "Out of a dream I have brought forth the Queen of the World", "This is of art, and of energy", "The ecstasy of a beautiful dream and the prize of effort", "Dream of a peasant", "Temple of Life", and "Palace of the Imagination". Perhaps the most iconic phrase he inscribed on the wall reads "1879-1912 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try."

 

Burial

Cheval wanted to be buried in his palace. Because that is illegal in France, he spent eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the Hauterives cemetery. He died on 19 August 1924, about a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.

 

Recognition

Just before his death, Cheval received recognition from figures including André Breton, Bernard Buffet, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Doisneau, and Pablo Picasso. His work is commemorated in an essay by Anaïs Nin. In 1932, the German artist Max Ernst created a collage titled The Postman Cheval. The collage belongs to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and is on display there. In 1958, Ado Kyrou produced Le Palais idéal, a short film about Cheval's palace.

 

After admiring Cheval's work, Picasso created a series of drawings telling a narrative, in a cartoon fashion, which is now recognized as Facteur Cheval sketchbook in 1937. Picasso drew him as twisted, hybrid-like creature (or beast), carved with the initials of the French postal service (P.T.T) on his skin, dressed in typical postman's attire, holding masonry tools and a letter. The creature was standing in front of his creation. In the drawing, Picasso took a humorous route sketching Cheval's body in the shape of a horse and his head that of a bird. Picasso did this in an effort to make a sort of pun about Cheval's name and career given birds are messengers (as Cheval was a postman) and the meaning of Cheval is horse.

 

In 1969, André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, declared the Palais a cultural landmark and had it officially protected. In 1986, Cheval was put on a French postage stamp.

 

In 2018, English singer-songwriter Will Varley included a song about Cheval and Palais idéal on his album Spirit of Minnie called The Postman.

 

In 2018 French director Nils Tavernier released the feature film L'incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval, English title: Ideal Palace, about Cheval's life and work, with Jacques Gamblin starring as Postman Cheval.

The American father and son building a Gothic folly in France - BBC News

John Collier The Window To Watch

I found this one in a big soup of clothes laying on the ground at The Waterloo Plein Market in Amsterdam.

Without the leather buttons the price was 5 euros !

Judging from the old label,  this item had a lot of adventures

This is straight from the atmosphere of “All creatures Great and Small” and it is the kind of Jacket that the brother of Siegrified or James Herriot will wear …

Bellow some information about John Collier tailoring …

Greetings, JEEVES.

John Collier was a British chain of shops selling men's clothes.

 

Founded in Leeds in 1907 by Henry Price, the chain expanded to over 399 stores across the country, most of which traded under the Fifty Shilling Tailors brand.

 

In 1958, the company was sold to UDS, which renamed it John Collier. It continued to trade within the UDS empire until 1983 when UDS was sold to Hanson plc. In order to recoup the cost of the purchase Hanson sold on a number of UDS assets, including John Collier to a management buy-out team. In 1985 the company was sold on to the Burton Group, but the brand was discontinued and no longer exists today.

 

On 17 December 1975, the Prince of Wales visited to officially open the head office extension. The huge complex in Kirkstall Road, Leeds, had two factories, No. 1 factory and No. 2 factory, in Evanston Avenue. This is now occupied by the Cardigan Fields Leisure and Entertainment complex. Other factories existed in Westland Road in Leeds, Powlett Road in Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, South Shields and Peterlee. One by one they closed, leaving only Hartlepool and Middlesbrough by the late 1970s. The last factory to remain open was Hartlepool, after the closure of the Middlesbrough factory.

 

The advertising tagline used in a number of variations over the years was "John Collier – The Window to Watch".

Two princesses, a royal dressmaker and a row about a wedding gown / Norman Hartnell, British fashion designer / VÍDEO: THE QUEEN'S CORONATION ROBE - COLOUR - NO SOUND

Two princesses, a royal dressmaker and a row about a wedding gown

 

Queen’s dressmaker’s private documents and scrapbooks detailing furore over Princess Margaret’s wedding dress are up for sale

 

Vanessa Thorpe

Sun 3 Oct 2021 08.15 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/03/two-princesses-a-royal-dressmaker-and-a-row-about-a-wedding-gown

 

Drawings and legal documents that once belonged to the Queen’s former dressmaker Sir Norman Hartnell have revealed details of a row that rocked the House of Windsor and his own illustrious fashion house 60 years ago.

 

A rediscovered bundle of private papers and scrapbooks, to be auctioned next month, also includes previously unseen designs by Hartnell created for Princess Anne. “The colours are amazing and very evocative of the era,” said vintage fashion specialist Susan Orringe.

 

Hartnell, who died in 1979, hit the headlines in 1960 when news broke of an alleged company decision to take out cancellation insurance on the upcoming wedding of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s younger sister, to Antony Armstrong-Jones. True or untrue, it was a damaging allegation and private legal letters flew. Hartnell had designed the wedding dress, as he had the Queen’s wedding dress in 1947 and her coronation gown in 1953. Margaret’s wedding dress was his last commission for a full state occasion, although when Princess Beatrice married last summer she wore a modified Hartnell dress loaned by her grandmother.

 

A week before the royal wedding in early May 1960 the Daily Express ran an article claiming Hartnell’s company had taken out a £10,000 insurance policy against cancellation of the wedding. The story caused a scandal and put Hartnell’s coveted royal warrant in jeopardy.

 

Among papers to be sold next month by Ewbank’s auction house are Hartnell’s personal denial of the claim and an explanation of his previous dealings with the journalist concerned, Peter Baker, in February 1960. “This would have been an extremely shocking claim at the time,” said auctioneer Andrew Ewbank.

 

“To make such a claim about any royal wedding would have caused huge distress and embarrassment, but after the scandal and fallout of the Townsend affair that had kept Princess Margaret in the headlines for much of the early to mid -1950s, this would have been seen as a particularly vicious attack and one that would undoubtedly have put Hartnell’s business and royal warrants at considerable risk.”

 

Another document from George Mitchison, the general manager of Hartnell’s firm, claims that Baker had “hounded” him at his office and made multiple threatening phone calls regarding the claim.

 

In fact, the letters of proof given as evidence by Mitchison reveal the company had indeed asked for a quotation for insurance. However, this was argued to be “in accordance with the usual practice obtaining on such occasions”, rather than because of any doubts over the princess.

 

The drawings and papers have been in private hands since a subsequent owner of the company gave them as a gift. Many of the 35 watercolour drawings are of classic 1960s and 70s designs made for Princess Anne. One of two original 1970s illustrations marked “HRH Princess Anne” is an embellished evening dress in turquoise and white, while the other is an A-line dress in lemon with a matching coat. Other Hartnell designs are currently on display in Kensington Palace as part of the exhibition Royal Style in the Making. It was this show that prompted the owners to consider putting the bundle up for sale.

 

Other designs include smart daywear and costumes for race meetings and formal evenings. “These were the inspirational creations of one of the leading lights of fashion design at the time and it is easy to see why they captured the imagination of society women,” said Orringe. “To see them looking as fresh today as they would have looked 50 years ago is a thrill, and I expect them to create quite a stir.”

 

Hartnell, whose parents owned a London pub, came to fashion after making costumes for the Cambridge Footlights performances while an undergraduate. He first gained a royal warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1940 and became dressmaker to the Queen in 1957.

 

The sale consignment, which includes two scrapbooks of international press cuttings, also features a sketchbook file full of complete and incomplete designs from the 1960s painted in watercolour, as well as fabric swatches and multiple pages of handwritten notes.

 Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell, KCVO (12 June 1901 – 8 June 1979) was a leading British fashion designer, best known for his work for the ladies of the Royal Family. Hartnell gained the Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1940; and Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

 Hartnell is famous as the man who made London a viable twentieth century fashion centre during the inter-war years. Born to an upwardly mobile family in Streatham, in southwest London, his parents were then publicans and owners of the prophetically named Crown & Sceptre, at the top of Streatham Hill. Educated at Mill Hill School, Hartnell became an undergraduate of Magdalene College in the University of Cambridge and read Modern Languages. His main interest lay in performing, and designing productions for the university Footlights and he was noticed by the London press as the designer of a Footlights production which transferred to Daly's Theatre, London. He then worked unsuccessfully for two London designers, including the celebrated Lucile, whom he sued for damages when several of his drawings appeared unattributed in her weekly fashion column in the London Daily Sketch. In 1923 he opened his own business at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair, with the financial help of his father and first business colleague, his sister Phyllis. He is second cousins with actor William Hartnell (Doctor Who).

1923-1934

Thanks to his Cambridge connections, Hartnell acquired a clientele of débutantes and their mothers intent on fashionable originality in dress design for a busy social life centred on the London Season. and was considered by some to be a good London alternative to Parisian or older London dress houses. The London press seized on the novelty of his youth and gender. Although expressing the spirit of the Bright Young Things and Flappers, his designs overlaid the harder silhouettes with a fluid romanticism in detail and construction. This was most evident in Hartnell's predilection for evening and bridal gowns, gowns for court presentations, and afternoon gowns for guests at society weddings. Hartnell's success ensured international press coverage and a flourishing trade with those no longer content with 'safe' London clothes derived from Parisian designs. Hartnell became popular with the younger stars of stage and screen, and went on to dress such leading ladies as Gladys Cooper, Elsie Randolph, Gertrude Lawrence (also a client of Edward Molyneux), Jessie Matthews, Merle Oberon, Evelyn Laye and Anna Neagle. Even top French stars Alice Delysia and Mistinguett were impressed by the young Englishman's genius.

Alarmed by the lack of sales, Phyllis insisted that Norman cease his pre-occupation with the design of evening clothes and he create practical day clothes. He achieved a subtlety and ingenuity with British woollens, previously scarcely imagined in London dressmaking, yet already successfully demonstrated in Paris by Coco Chanel, who showed a keen interest in his 1927 and 1929 collections when shown in Paris. Hartnell successfully emulated his British predecessor and hero Charles Frederick Worth by taking his designs to the heart of world fashion. Hartnell specialised in expensive and often lavish embroidery as an integral part of his most expensive clothes, creating the luxurious and exclusive effect which justified the high prices. They were also created to deflect the ready-to wear copyists. The Hartnell in-house embroidery workroom was the largest in London couture and continued until his death, also producing the embroidered Christmas cards for clients and press during quiet August days, a practical form of publicity at which Hartnell was always adept. The originality and intricacy of Hartnell embroideries were frequently described in the press, especially in reports of the original wedding dresses he designed for socially prominent young women during the 1920s and 1930s, a natural extension of his designs for them as débutantes, when many wore his innovative evening dresses and day clothes.

1934–1940

By 1934 Hartnell's success had outgrown his premises and he moved over the road to a large Mayfair town house already provided with floors of work-rooms at the rear to Bruton Mews. The first floor salon was the height of modernity, like his clothes and the glass and mirror-lined Art Moderne space was designed by the innovative young architect Gerald Lacoste (1909–1983). The interiors of the large late 18th-century town house are now protected as one of the finest examples of art-moderne pre-war commercial design in the UK. The timeless quality of Lacoste's designs was the perfect background for each new season of Hartnell designs, created for aristocratic British women of all ages and worn by most of the famous theatre and film stars of their day, including Vivien Leigh, Gertrude Lawrence, Merle Oberon, Ann Todd, Evelyn Laye, Anna Neagle and trans-Atlantic stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Linda Christian. At the same time, Hartnell moved into the new building, he acquired a week-end retreat, Lovel Dene, a Queen Anne cottage in Windsor Forest, Berkshire. this was extensively re-modelled for him by Lacoste. London life was based in The Tower House, Park Village West Regent's Park, also re-modelled and furnished with a fashionable mixture of Regency and modern furniture.

In 1935 Hartnell received the momentous first royal commands, inaugurating four decades of his world-wide fame and success in providing clothes for the ladies of the British Royal Family. Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, the future Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, a daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch, approached Hartnell to design her dress and those of her bridesmaids for her marriage to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George V. Two bridesmaids were Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, daughters of the Duke and Duchess of York (the future King King George VI and his consort Elizabeth). Both George V and Queen Mary approved the designs, the latter also becoming a client. The future Queen Elizabeth, then a client of Madame Handley-Seymour, who had made her wedding dress in 1923, accompanied her daughters to the Hartnell salon to view the fittings and met the designer for the first time.

Although Hartnell's designs for the new Duchess of Gloucester's wedding and her trousseau achieved worldwide publicity, the death of the bride's father and consequent period of mourning led to the cancellation of the large State Wedding at Westminster Abbey. The substitution of a small private ceremony in the chapel of Buckingham Palace prevented the full theatre of a royal occasion and Hartnell regretted that his work on the designs for the magnificent occasion was denied world-wide publicity. Vast crowds did see the newest member of the royal family drive off from Buckingham Palace wearing her going-away Hartnell ensemble and the seal of royal approval was reflected in increased business for Hartnell.

For the 1937 Coronation of King George VI, his consort Queen Elizabeth ordered the maid of honour dresses from Hartnell, remaining loyal to Handley-Seymour for her Coronation gown. Until 1939 Hartnell received most of the Queen's orders and after 1946, with the exception of some country clothes, she remained a Hartnell client, even after his death. Hartnell's ability in adapting current fashion to a personal royal style began with slimmer fitted designs for day and evening wear. The new Queen was short and her new clothes gave her height and distinction, public day-clothes usually consisted of a long or three-quarter length coat over a slim skirt, often embellished by fur trimmings or some detail around the neck. His designs for the Queens evening wear varied from unembellished slim dresses, which in the fashion of the day formed a background to the jewellery worn. Some evening wear was embroidered with sequins and glass. There was a complete change of style apparent in designs for the grander evening occasions, when Hartnell re-introduced the crinoline to world fashion, after the King showed Hartnell the Winterhalter portraits in the Royal Collection. King George suggested that the style favoured earlier by Queen Victoria would enhance her presence. It also cam to symbolise the continuing values of the established British monarchy world-wide, after the debacle of the Abdication Crisis, when the uncrowned Edward VIII wanted to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. Having failed to gain the support of the British government, and that of the Dominions, he left for exile and marriage abroad.

Mrs Simpson, subsequently the Duchess of Windsor, was also a London Hartnell client, later patronizing Mainbocher who made her wedding dress. Main Bocher was a friend of Hartnell's with whom the latter credited with sound early advice, when he showed his 1929 summer collection in Paris. Then a Vogue editor, Bocher told Hartnell that he had seldom seen so many wonderful dresses so badly made. Hartnell took his advice and employed the talented Parisian 'Mamselle' Davide, reputedly the highest paid member of any London couture house, and other talented cutters, fitters and tailors to execute his designs to the highest international couture standards. by the 1930s. In 1929 Hartnell showed his clothes to the international press in Paris and the floor-length hems of his evening dresses, after a decade of rising hems, were hailed as the advent of a new fashion, copied throughout the world as evidenced by the press of the time. His clothes were so popular with the press that he opened a House in Paris in order to participate in Parisian Collection showings.

Within a decade, Hartnell again effectively changed the fashion able evening dress silhouette, when more of the crinoline dresses worn by the Queen during the State Visit to Paris in July 1938 also created a world-wide sensation viewed in the press and on news-reels. The death of the Queen's mother Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, wife of the Earl of Strathmore, before the visit resulted in court mourning and a short delay in the dates of the visit to a vital British Ally, of enormous political significance at a time when Germany was threatening war in Europe. Royal Mourning dictated black, and shades of mauve, which meant that all the clothes utilising colour for the planned June Visit had to be re-made and Hartnell's work-rooms worked long hours to create a new wardrobe in white, which Hartnell remembered had a precedent in British Royal Mourning and was not unknown for a younger Queen. The designs featured some lavish use of detail, such as the courtesy shown to France with a day dress of yards of Valenciennes lace, day ensembles trimmed with white fox and the magnificent satin crinoline dress, the ruched decoration highlighted by camellias, worn for a Gala at the Opera and seen to effect on Garnier's impressive staircase Hartnell was decorated by the French government and his friend Christian Dior, creator of the full-skirted post-war New Look, was not immune to the influence and romance of the look. He publicly stated that whenever he thought of beautiful clothes, it was of those created by Hartnell for the 1938 State Visit, which he viewed as an young aspirant in the fashion world. The crinoline fashion for evening wear influenced fashion internationally and French designers were not slow to take up the influence of the Scottish-born Queen and the many kilted Scots soldiers in Paris for the State Visit; day clothes featuring plaids or tartans were evident in the next seasons collections of many Parisian designers.

The Queen commanded another extensive wardrobe by Hartnell for The Royal Tour of Canada and Visit to North America during May and June 1939. At a critical time in world history, the Visit cemented North American ties of friendship in the months before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. The King and Queen were received with enormous acclaim by great crowds throughout the Tour and Visit and the dignity and charm of the Queen were undoubtedly aided by her Hartnell wardrobe. Hitler termed Queen Elizabeth "the most dangerous woman in Europe" on viewing film footage of the successful Tour. The aura of majesty encapsulated by the Queen during the last two years of peace is poignantly captured by Cecil Beaton's 1939 photographs at Buckingham Palace in which she wears some of the Hartnell dresses made inn 1938 and 1939. In 1940 Norman Hartnell received a Royal Warrant in 1940 as Dressmaker to the Queen

By 1939, largely due to Hartnell's success, London was known as an innovative fashion centre and was often first visited by American buyers, before they travelled on to Paris. Hartnell had already had substantial American slaes to various shops and copyists, a lucrative source of income to all designers. Some French designers, such as Anglo-Irish Edward Molyneux and Elsa Schiaparelli opened London Houses, which had a glittering social life centred around the Court. Young British designers opened their own successful Houses, such as Victor Stiebel and Digby Morton, formerly at Lachasse where Hardy Amies was the acclaimed designer after 1935. Peter Russell also opened his own House and all attracted younger smart women. Older more staid generations still patronised the older London Houses of Handley Seymour, Reville and the British owned London concessions of House of Worth and Paquin. Before Hartnell established himself, the only British designer with a worldwide reputation for originality in design and finish was Lucile, whose London house closed in 1924. Then as now, the younger members of the British Royal Family attracted world-wide publicity. Whilst it was a triumph for Hartnell to have gained the impressive figure of Queen Mary as a client wearing his most shimmering sequin encrusted designs off-set by fabulous jewels, the four young wives of her four sons created fashion news - even if Mrs Simpson was a worrying distraction. Princess Marina, was a notable figure and a patron of Edward Molyneux in Paris. He designed her 1934 wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses for her marriage to Queen Mary's fourth son Prince George, Duke of Kent and when Molyneux opened his London salon, also designed by Lacoste, she became a steady client of his until he closed the business in 1950. Thereafter, she was often a Hartnell client.

During the Second World War (1939–1945) Hartnell – in common with other couture designers – was subject to government trading and rationing restrictions, part of the utility scheme; apart from specific rules on the amount of fabric allowed per garment, the number of buttons, fastenings and the amount and components of embroideries were all calculated and controlled. He joined the Home Guard and sustained his career by sponsoring collections for sale to overseas buyers, competing with the Occupied French and German designers, but also a growing group of American designers. Private clients ordered new clothes within the restrictions or had existing clothes altered. This also applied to the Queen, who appeared in her own often re-worked clothes in bombed areas around the country. Hartnell received her endorsement to design clothes for the government's Utility campaign, mass-produced by Berketex with whom he entered a business relationship that continued into the 1950s. Through this partnership, he became the first leading mid-20th century designers to design mass-produced ready-to-wear clothing. In 1916 Lucile, had shown the way during the First World War by designing an extensive line of clothes for the American catalogue retailers Sears, Roebuck.

Hartnell was among the founders of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers – also known as IncSoc – established in 1942 to promote British fashion design at home and abroad. Hartnell was also commissioned to design women's uniforms for the British army and medical corps during the war. He would go on to design service uniforms for nurses and for the women's Metropolitan Police in London.

In 1946 Hartnell took a successful collection to South America, where his clients included Eva Peron and Magda Lupescu. In 1947 he received the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award for his influence on world fashion and in the same year created an extensive wardrobe for Queen Elizabeth to wear during the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947, the first Royal Tour abroad since 1939. Both slimline and crinoline styles were included. In addition Hartnell designed for the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret; Molyneux also designed some day clothes for the Princesses during this trip.

Although worried that at 46 he was too old for the job, he was commanded by the Queen to create the wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth in 1947 for her marriage to Prince Philip (later the Duke of Edinburgh).With a fashionable sweetheart neckline and a softly folding full skirt it was embroidered with some 10,000 seed-pearls and thousands of white beads. He also created the going-away outfit and her trousseau, becoming her main designer to be augmented by Hardy Amies in the early 1950s  appealing to whole new generation of clients. While Princess Elizabeth began to take on more duties and visits abroad, her less restrained younger sister, Princess Margaret, became the obsession of the press, her Hartnell clothes given tremendous media attention.

Hartnell's elegant evening wear from this period can be seen in museum collections to this day.

A lifelong bachelor, Hartnell had many women friends, often drawn from theatrical and film cicrcles. one of whom, Claire Huth Jackson, later Claire de Loriol, appointed the designer as guardian to her son, Peter-Gabriel. He also designed dresses for his long-term friend and fellow Streatham resident, the London socialite and ex-Tiller Girl Renee Probert-Price. A rare Hartnell evening ensemble features in the collection of vintage dresses inherited by Probert-Price's great-niece following her death in 2013.

1952–1979

Hartnell designed the coronation gown for Elizabeth II – which proved to be a complex process due to the gown's weight and embroidery

Following the early death of George VI in 1952, Hartnell was commanded by Queen Elizabeth II to design her 1953 Coronation Dress. Many versions were sketched by Hartnell and his new assistant Ian Thomas. These were then discussed with the Queen. At the command of the Queen, the final design had the similar 'sweet-heart' neckline used for Her Majesty's wedding dress in 1947, the fuller skirt with heavy, soft folds of silk embellished with varied embroideries, including the depiction of the national botanical emblems of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, echoing earlier Coronation Dresses. The complicated construction of the supporting undergarments and frustrating hours of work involved are described by Hartnell in his autobiography. The weight of the dress made it difficult to effect a perfect balance and lend a gentle, forward swaying motion rather than the lurching list of the prototypes. This was the work of his expert cutters and fitters, as he could not sew a stitch, although he understood construction and the handling of various fabrics.

In addition, Hartnell designed the accompanying dresses worn by the Queen's Maids of Honour and those of all major Royal ladies in attendance, creating the necessary theatrical tableaux in Westminster Abbey. He also designed dresses for many other clients who attended the ceremony, and his summer 1953 collection of some 150 designs was named The Silver and Gold Collection, subsequently used as the title for his autobiography, illustrated largely by his assistant Ian Thomas. Thomas subsequently opened his own establishment in 1968 and together with Hardy Amies created many designs included in the wardrobes of the Queen. Queen Elizabeth II undertook an increasingly large number of State Visits and Royal Tours abroad, as well as numerous events at home, all necessitating a volume of clothing too large for just one House to devote its time to. During 1953-1954 she made an extensive Royal Tour of most of the countries forming the British Commonwealth. The Coronation Dress was worn for the opening of Parliament in several countries, and her varied wardrobe gained press and newsreel headlines internationally, not least for the cotton dresses worn and copied worldwide, many ordered from a specialist wholesale company Horrockses. Hartnell designs were augmented by a number of gowns from Hardy Amies, her secondary designer from 1951 onwards. Most of the ladies of the Royal Family used Hartnell as well as other London designers to create their clothes for use at home and abroad

Hartnell's design for the wedding dress of HRH Princess Margaret in 1960 marked the last full State occasion for which he designed an impressive tableau of dresses. It also marked the swan-song of lavish British couture. The bride wore a multi-layered white Princess line dress, totally unadorned yet demanding in its construction, utilising many layers of fine silk, and requiring as much skill as the complexities of the Queen's Coronation dress, which it echoed in outline. The Queen wore a long blue lace day dress with a bolero echoing the design with a slight bolero jacket and a hat adorned with a single rose, reminiscent of the Princess's full name, Margaret Rose. Victor Stiebel made the going-away outfit for the Princess and the whole wedding and departure of the couple from the Pool of London on HMY Britannia received worldwide newspaper and television publicity.

Fashion rapidly changed in the 1960s, and by the time of the Investiture of The Prince of Wales in 1969, Hartnell's clothes for the Queen and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were short, simple designs, reflecting their own personal style. His royal clothes created an impeccably neat look that managed to be stylish without making an overt fashion statement. This ability exemplified his genius and was practised to perfection, as he became increasingly pre-occupied with royal orders. In this he was helped by Ian Thomas, who left to found his own establishment in 1966, and the Japanese designer Yuki (Gnyuki Tormimaru), who similarly left to create his own highly successful business.

In the mid 1950s Hartnell reached the peak of his fame and the business employed some 500 people together with many others in the ancillary businesses. In common with all couture houses of the era, rising costs and changing tastes in women's clothing were a portent of the difficult times ahead. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the name of Norman Hartnell was continually found in the press. Apart from designing two collections a year and maintaining his theatrical and film star links, he was adept at publicity, whether it was in creating a full evening dress of pound notes for a news-paper stunt, touring fashion shows at home and abroad or using the latest fabrics and man-made materials. Memorable evening dresses were worn by the concert pianist Eileen Joyce or TV cookery star Fanny Cradock and typified his high profile as an innovative designer, although in his sixth decade - then considered to be a great age. Hartnell designed and created collections on a smaller scale until 1979 with designs for the Queen and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother still commanding his time and attention. The business struggled with overheads in common with all couture businesses and various merchandising ventures had some success in helping to bolster the finances. The sale of 'In Love' scent and then other scents was re- introduced in 1954, followed by stockings, knitwear, costume jewellery and late in the 1960s, menswear. But it was not enough to turn the tide of high-street youthful fashion and he even had to sell his country retreat Lovel Dene to finance the Bruton Street business.Hartnell's elegant evening wear from this period can be seen in museum collections to this day.

At the time of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, Hartnell was appointed KCVO and on arriving at Buckingham Palace was delighted to find hat the Queen had deputed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to invest him with the honour. Prudence Glynn / Lady Windlesham, the astute fashion editor then of the London 'Times' termed him The First Fashion Knight and his work as The Norman Conquest Hartnell designed and created collections on a smaller scale until 1979 with designs for the Queen and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother still commanding his time and attention. The business struggled with overheads in common with all couture businesses

Hartnell was buried on 15 June 1979 next to his mother and sister in the graveyard of Clayton church, West Sussex.

A memorial service in London was led by the then Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood, a friend, and was attended by many models and employees and clients, including one of his earliest from the 1920s, his lifelong supporter Barbara Cartland, and another from a time as the Deb of the Year in 1930, Margaret Whigham. Wearing a spectacular Hartnell dress, her wedding to Charles Sweeny stopped the traffic in Knightsbridge. As Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, she remained a client.

After his death the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother remained a steadfast client, as did other older clients. In order to continue and revive the business John Tullis, a nephew of Edward Molyneux, designed for the House until the business was sold. A consortium headed by Manny Silverman, formerly of Moss Bros., acquired the company. Guest collections were designed by Gina Fratini and Murray Arbeid and the building was completely renovated under the direction of Michael Pick who brought back to life its original Art Moderne splendours. The famous glass chimney-piece forming the focal point of Lacoste's scheme leading on from the ground floor to the first floor salon with its faceted art moderne detailed mirror cladding and pilasters was returned by the V&A as the focal point of the grand mirrored salon. The house re-opened with an acclaimed collection designed by former Christian Dior designer Marc Bohan. Unfortunately, the Gulf War and subsequent recession of the early 1990s killed the venture and the house closed its doors in 1992.

On 11 May 2005, the Norman Hartnell premises were commemorated with a blue plaque at 26 Bruton Street where he spent his working life from 1934 to 1979.

The Norman Hartnell name was acquired by Li & Fung as part of an extensive London fashion portfolio which includes Hardy Amies Ltd, acquired in 2008 by Fung Capital. Hardy Amies is now owned by No.14 Savile Row, which in turn is owned by Fung Capital, the private investment holding company of the Fung family also the controlling shareholders of publicly listed Li & Fung Limited and Trinity Limited. Various Norman Hartnell themed housewares have been produced and there are plans to further develop the brand.

Hartnell never married, but enjoyed a discreet and quiet life at a time when homosexual relations between men were illegal. In many ways, the consummate Edwardian in attitudes and life-style, he considered himself a confirmed bachelor, and his close friends were almost never in the public eye, nor did he ever do anything to compromise his position and business as a leading designer to both ladies of the British Royal Family and his aristocratic or 'society' clients upon whom his success was founded. He was on chilly terms with the self-publicising Cecil Beaton and others of the more flamboyant theatrical set. Hartnell was generally considered to be the leading British dress designer, even by most of his INCSOC colleagues. He rarely socialised with any of them. The younger Hardy Amies, fellow designer for Queen Elizabeth II, was surprised to discover how much he enjoyed his company in Paris in 1959. They were both there during the State Visit to France to view their creations being worn. Hartnell had been known to term Amies 'Hardly Amiable'. In late years, long after Hartnell's death and in a more liberal climate, Amies became known for some unfortunate ad lib remarks during interviews and in explaining his business success compared to Hartnell's near penury at the end, he more than once termed Hartnell a 'soppy' or 'silly old queen' whilst describing himself as a 'bitchy' or 'clever old queen.' Hartnell's elegant evening wear from this period can be seen in museum collections to this day.

Hartnell had many women friends, often drawn from the more talented actresses seen on the stage or on film or more private circles. Claire Huth Jackson, later Claire de Loriol, appointed the designer as guardian to her son, Peter-Gabriel. His dresses were also worn by another Streatham resident of the past, ex-Tiller Girl Renee Probert-Price. A Hartnell evening ensemble features in the collection of vintage dresses inherited by Probert-Price's great-niece following her death in 2013.

He was the second cousin of original Doctor Who star William Hartnell.