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
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.
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