Norman Hartnell
Sir Norman Hartnell (1901–1979) set up his own label in 1932, employing 550 people in the 1950s in-house and thousands more in ancillary trades. He was known for his opulent yet elegant designs, lavishly adorned embroidery, and use of intricate details. His career spanned six decades.
Hartnell designed many important gowns for the royal family including the wedding dresses of The Queen and Princess Margaret and the coronation dress and robes. His design for Queen Elizabeth’s wedding dress in 1947 featured a fashionable sweetheart neckline and softly folding full skirt, embroidered with 10,000 seed-pearls and thousands of white beads. His summer 1953 collection of some 150 designs was named The Silver and Gold Collection.
Together with Hardy Amies, Hartnell shared the large task of creating wardrobes for The Queen’s many state visits, royal tours abroad and numerous events at home.
Hardy Amies
Sir Edwin Hardy Amies (1909–2003) established his own couture fashion house business in Savile Row in 1946. He became known for his classic and beautifully tailored clothes for both men and women.
During the Second World War, together with other leading designers including Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies designed for the CC41 scheme (Civilian Clothing 1941), a government-led initiative to produce elegant, fashionable designs which complied to rationing restrictions. Amies' association with the Queen began in 1950 and he was awarded a Royal Warrant as official dressmaker in 1955.
In 1977 he designed the gown for Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee portrait, which he said was "immortalised on a thousand biscuit tins."
Ian Thomas
Ian Thomas (1929–1993) worked from 1952 as an assistant designer at Norman Hartnell. Thomas assisted with the work on the Coronation robes which featured intricate embroidery, a tradition of the house, which was to be continued by Thomas in his own business.
Thomas stayed at Hartnell for 17 years, leaving to start his own couture business in Lowndes Street, Belgravia, in 1969. Under his own label he dressed many members of the Royal Family, notably the Queen, for whom he made both day wear and grand-occasion clothes. He was known for his restrained elegance and the relaxed style of his flowing chiffon dresses, which captured the more fluid fashions of the 1970s.
Marc Bohan
Marc Bohan (1926- ) was chief designer for 30 years at the house of Dior. In 1961, he presented his first collection under the Dior label entitled ‘Slim Look’. Bohan's collection was inspired by the straighter silhouette of the 1920s, and was a bold departure from the popular hour-glass shaped designs of the 1950s. Bohan designed for many famously elegant women including Princess Grace of Monaco, Brigit Bardot, Jackie Kennedy and Princess Margaret. Some of his most widely influential pieces were from his 1966 collection which featured garments based on the film Doctor Zhivago.
"N'oubliez pas la femme," his comment in a 1963 Vogue magazine, is the tenet which underscored all of Bohan’s work. His designs were always based on the adult female form and a recognition of his customers' needs rather than a desire to shock and provoke headlines in his name.
He left Dior in 1989 and worked for another royal instition, the House of Hartnell, until 1992.
Carl Toms
Carl Toms OBE (1927–1999) assisted Norman Hartnell in the design of Princess Margaret’s wedding dress in 1960 but was better known for his set designs and costumes for the theatre and opera. In 1960 he designed the world premiere of Benjamin Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Aldeburgh Festival. He then worked with the Old Vic, English Stage Company andthe National Theatre on various productions.
He had commissions to redecorate several West End theatres including the Theatre Royal, Windsor, and, most notably, the Theatre Royal, Bath, which he restored to its former glory in 1982.
