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Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell KCVO 1977, MVO 1953, PA Officier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques 1939 (born 12 June 1901 London, died 8 June 1979 Windsor) was an influential British fashion designer. Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM The Queen 1940, subsequently Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth II 1957.
[edit] Early Life and careerHartnell is famous as the man who made London a fashion centre. Born to an upwardly mobile family in Streatham, a suburb in southwest London, his parents were then publicans and owners of the prophetically named Crown & Sceptre, a large coaching inn at the top of Streatham Hill. Educated at Mill Hill School, Hartnell became an undergraduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge and read Modern Languages, but was more interested in performing in, and designing productions for, the university Footlights, still an incubator of dramatic talent, where he gained fame. He left Cambridge without a degree, but was noticed by the London press as the innovative designer of a Footlights production transferred to Dalys Theatre in London. Having unsuccessfully worked for two London designers, including Lucile,whom he sued for copying his designs without a credit, he opened his own business at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair in 1923 with the help of his father and sister Phyllis. [edit] 10 Bruton Street Mayfair 1923–1934Hartnell built his initial success with a clientele of young women and their mothers intent on fashionable originality in dress design for a busy social life centred on the London Season during the Jazz Age. Although expressing the spirit of the Bright Young Things and Flappers, his innovative designs overlaid the harder silhouettes with a more fluid romanticism in detailing and construction, most evident in his predeliction for evening dresses and afternoon clothes often admired at Court Presentations and many lavish Society weddings, then held in London. Hartnell's success in London, Paris and New York ensured continual press coverage and growing business with those no longer content with 'safe' London clothes derived from Parisian designs. Hartnell became swiftly popular with younger stars of stage and screen, then still in its silent days, and went on to dress such names as Gladys Cooper and Elsie Randolph, later gaining as clients Gertrude Lawrence ( also a client of Edward Molyneux ), Jessie Matthews, Merle Oberon, Evelyn Laye, Anna Neagle and even Alice Delysia and Mistinguett, two French stars impressed by the young Englishman's genius. Hartnell's more business-like sister Phyllis insisted on the design of practical day clothes for the bread-and-butter of the House and he achieved a subtlety and ingenuity with British woollens, scarcely imagined in British dress-making, but famously investigated by Chanel. She also showed a keen interest in his designs, when he showed in Paris in 1927 and 1929. He emulated his British predecessor Charles Frederick Worth, by taking his designs to the heart of world fashion, Worth being the closest Hartnell came to having a hero. Hartnell rapidly specialised in expensive and often lavish embroideries to heighten his designs and create a distinction between mundane or wholesale clothes with his own distinctive form of luxury. The in-house embroidery workroom became a famous Hartnell speciality and remained so until his death. It even producing the famous embroidered and prized Christmas cards during quiet August days, a practical form of publicity at which Hartnell was always adept. The originality and intricacy of Hartnell embroideries were repeatedly publicised by press reports of highly original wedding dresses designed for socially prominent young clients during the 1920s and 1930s, a natural extension of his designs for them as debutantes, when they wore his equally innovative evening dresses. [edit] 26 Bruton Street Mayfair 1934–1940By 1934 Hartnell's financial success ensured his acclaimied move to the sensational glass and mirror art moderne interiors designed by young innovative architect Gerald Lacoste (1909–1983). within the large late C18th town house at 26 Bruton Street, Mayfair. These are now protected as one of the finest examples of moderne pre-war commercial design and through the years the mirrors reflected royalty, famous manequins { later models }, such as Margaret Vyner, and a galaxy of society names and stars of stage and screen, such as Marlene Dietrich, Merle Oberon and amongst the post-war stars, Elizabeth Taylor. At the same time he acquired his beloved Lovel Dene, the small foresters lodge remodelled by Gerald Lacoste as an oasis of contemplation and inspiration in Windsor Forest. Berkshire. He also lived in The Tower House, Regents Park, when in London. Hartnell soon received his first royal orders at 26 Bruton Street and designed the wedding dress and trousseau of Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, a daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch, engaged to HRH Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, third son of HM King George V. Two bridesmaids were TRH Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, daughters of TRH The Duke and Duchess of York, who later ascended the throne of the United Kingdom and its Empire and Dominions on the abdication of HM King Edward VIII, later HRH The Duke of Windsor. Both King George V and Queen Mary approved the designs, Queen Mary also becoming a client. The future Queen accompanied her daughters to the salon to view the fittings and met Norman Hartnell, whose dresses had been seen at varied Royal or social events for over a decade. It is difficult today to comprehend the might and majesty exemplified by those on the throne, but Britain still ruled the waves. Although Hartnell's designs for the Duchess of Gloucester achieved worldwide publicity, the death of her father and consequent period of mourning led to the cancellation of the large state celebration of a wedding in Westminster Abbey . The substitution of a small private wedding in the chapel of Buckingham Palace meant that the full theatre of a royal wedding and display of the Hartnell wedding dress amongst the uniforms and dresses of the guests was cancelled. However much Hartnell regretted this from as personal and business angle, his Society, stage and film commissions soon included those of other members of the Royal Family and he was patronised by all the many Royal ladies until his death. Vast crowds did at least see Princess Alice leave in her Hartnell going-away ensemble. On the accession of King George VI as King-Emperor, his consort Queen Elizabeth ordered the dresses of her Maids of Honour from Hartnell, remaining loyal to Madame Handley-Seymour for the creation of her Coronation dress, as she was a client of long standing. Thereafter, Hartnell soon received most and then all of the major orders from Queen Elizabeth. He created the famous streamlined fitted look for her day and evening wear, this together with his all-over sequinned evening wear worn by his most chic clients, was expertly created by Mademoiselle Davide, the French workroom magician said to be one of the highest paid experts in the business. This was augmented by the re-introduction of the crinoline to fashion, after The King showed Hartnell the Winterhalter portraits in the Royal Collection with the suggestion that the petite Queen would gain stature and incorporate a visible symbol of updated continuing tradition for the monarchy worldwide, following the uproar over the Abdication Crisis. Mrs Simpson, subsequently the Duchess of Windsor, had also been am elegant Hartnell client and the creator of her wedding dress, Mainbocher, was credited by Hartnell with sound early advice ,when he showed his 1929 summer collection in Paris. Then a Vogue editor, Main Bocher told Hartnell that he had seldom seen so many wonderful dresses so badly made. The advent of 'Mamselle' Davide and other specialists was soon accomplished to visible effect. But Hartnell's long evening dresses, after a decade of rising hems, made the Parisian silhouette outmoded overnight and all French designers then followed his lead. He opened a House in Paris. Within a decade Hartnell again changed the silhouette of fashion worldwide as the crinoline line worn by The Queen created a sensation on the State Visit to Paris in 1938. The death of the Countess of Strathmore, mother of Queen Elizabeth, shortly before the Visit led to Court Mourning and a complete re-creation of the colourful wardrobe designed by Hartnell. With the bitter experience of the Gloucester wedding in his mind, he was intent on success and luckily knew the history of dress, so was able to suggested that black and shades of mauve were unnecessary for the July Visit, as white had also been used for Court Mourning. The sparkling designs for day and evening created in slim and crinoline silhouette were recreated within two weeks of continuous work, led to huge acclaim and Hartnell was decorated by the French government. Christian Dior, creator of the full-skirted post-war New Look, publicly stated that whenever he thought of beautiful clothes, it was of those created by Hartnell for the State Visit in 1938, which he viewed as an ingenue in the fashion world. The crinoline fashion for evening wear influenced world fashion and the French designers contributed their own take on the influence of Hartnell and the Queen's ancestry by creating day clothes featuring plaids or tartans in their next seasons designs. The Queen was provided with another extensive wardrobe created by Hartnell for The Royal Tour of Canada and Visit to North America in the worrying days of 1939. Hitler termed Queen Elizabeth "the most dangerous woman in Europe" on viewing film footage of the successful Tour for which Hartnell created a visual feast, again augmenting the diplomatic skills of the King and Queen. This is captured forever by the skill of Cecil Beaton in his 1939 portraits of the Queen wearing her Hartnell dresses in and around Buckingham Palace. Hartnell received a Royal Warrant in 1940 for his accomplishments. By 1939, other young designers such as Victor Stiebel had also set up their own Houses in London. Redfern, Worth and Paquin already had London salons, when Hartnell began in 1923, but were safe rather than innovative. Schiaparelli and Molyneux were two amongst others opening branches in what had become a viable fashion centre attracting overseas buyers, especially from the USA. There were also tax implications involved in this.Molyneux also had a favourite royal client, HRH Princees Marina of Greece, who married HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. At the heart of the British Empire, London life scintillated with an opulence that employed tens of thousands of people in industries allied to fabric, leather, felt, ribbon and other allied trades throughout the country and Empire, as well as the catering and photographic trades,and the press and entertainment industries. At the pinnacle of elegance was the Queen, displaying British design to the world and Hartnell's name was synonymous with British style. [edit] 26 Bruton Street Mayfair 1940–1952During the Second World War (1939–1945) Hartnell was subject to the same government trading and rationing restrictions as every one else, the number of buttons, fastenings and even amount and components of embroideries were all calculated – and rationed. He joined the Home Guard and maintained his designing career with government sponsored collections for show and sale to overseas buyers,competing with the Occupied French and German designers, but also a growing band 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 best possible clothes in bombed areas around the country. Hartnell received her endorsement to design elegant and innovative clothes conforming to strict rationing , mass produced by Berkertex with whom he entered a business relationship that continued into the 1950s. He became the first great designer involved with mass production on a large and varied scale, not simply clothing women, but lifting morale. Together with other prominent designers he founded The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, known as INCSOC, early in the war, to promote British fashion design at home and abroad. Hartnell was also commissioned to design women's uniforms for both army and medical corps during the war and subesquently designed others, including those for the women's Metropolitan Police in London. In 1946 Hartnell took a varied and successful collection to South America, where his clients included Eva Peron and Magda Lupescu. In 1947 he received the Neiman Marcus Award for his influence on world fashion and in the same year created an extensive wardrobe for Queen Elizabeth to wear on the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947, the first Royal Tour abroad since 1939. Both slim-line and crinoline styles were included. Hartnell also designed for the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, Edward Molyneux also designing some day clothes for the young Princesses. Although he worried that he was perhaps too old for the order, he was commanded by The Queen to create the wedding dress of Princess Elizabeth in 1947 for her marriage to Prince Philip, subsequently 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 subsequently became one of the Princesses main designers and so gained a new worldwide younger generation of clients, as the Princess began to take on more duties and visits abroad. The younger Princess Margaret became the obsession of the press and her Hartnell clothes were similarly given huge publicity, together with much news-reel footage. [edit] 26 Bruton Street Mayfair 1952–1979Following the untimely death of George VI in 1952, Hartnell was the obvious choice for the design of what is now seen as the iconic dress of the mid-twentieth century, the 1953 Coronation Dress of Queen Elizabeth II, recognised by millions around the world. Many versions were drawn by Hartnell, a talented sketch artist, and his new assistant Ian Thomas. These were then discussed with The Queen. The final design was finally ordered and made with the sweet-heart neckline used for the wedding dress in 1947, the fuller skirt with heavy, soft folds of silk embellished with varied embroideries, including the depiction of all the national botanical emblems of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, echoing earlier Coronation Dresses of the C20th and earlier with the Tudor rose of England, the Scots thistle, the Welsh leek, shamrocks for Ireland, the wattle of Australia, the maple leaf of Canada, the New Zealand fern, South Africa's protea, two lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan's [[wheat[[, cotton, and jute.The time-consuming and complicated construction of the various supports forming the undergarments is vividly described by Hartnell in his autobiography, the weight of the dress having to be perfectly balanced to give a gentle forward swaying motion. This was the work of his workroom hands, as he famously could not sew a stitch, although he understood construction and the varied handling of fabrics. Hartnell designed not only the Maids of Honour dresses, but those of all the major Royal ladies, creating a wonderful tableaux in the setting of Westminster Abbey. He also designed dresses for many clients and his summer 1953 collection of some 150 designs was named The Silver and Gold Collection, subsequently used as the title for his slight book of memoirs, illustrated largely by his assistant Ian Thomas, a more polished sketch artist. Together with Hardy Amies, Thomas subsequently shared the large task of creating wardrobes for The Queens many State Visits and Royal Tours abroad and endless events at home, all three maintaining flourishing Houses. During 1964 Queen Elizabeth II 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, but it was her remarkably inventive and varied large wardrobe that captured the press and newsreel headlines aroound the world, not least for the many cotton dresses worn and copied worldwide, many oredered from a specialist wholesale company Horrockses. The subsequent press interest in the young Queen gave the work of Norman Hartnell renewed appeal to younger women, as did her fashionable sister, Princess Margaret, who also ordered from other British designers within INCSOC and some French desigers, including Christian Dior. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the name of Norman Hartnell was continually found in the press. He was always available for publicity stunts, whether they involved making a dress of pound notes or creating sensational evening dresses for celebrities such as the pianist Eileen Joyce or the TV cookery star Fanny Cradock. All the ladies of the Royal Family used Hartnell's skills at one time or another, not only for personal wear within the United Kingdom, but also for their own visits abroad. Hartnell fashion shows travelled the UK and were shown on publicised trips abroad. Norman Hartnell was perceived as embodying British fashion until the new London fashion revolution of the mid-1960s and the mini-skirt. 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 for his many Royal clients. It also marked the swan-song of lavish British couture. The bride wore a multi-layered white Princess line dress, totally unadorned, but demanding in its making as much skill as the complexities of the Coronation Dress, which it echoed in outline. The Queen wore a long blue dress of similar design with a slight bolero jacket and a hat adorned with a single rose reminding everyone of the Princess's name used in full only when she was a girl, Margaret Rose. Victor Stiebel made the going-away clothes for The Princess and the whole wedding and departure of the couple from the Pool of London on HMY Britannia received worldwide press and television publicity; the design of the wedding dress had clear references to the Coronation Dress of the Queen worn in the same building only seven years previously. Fashion rapidly changed in the 1960s and by the time of the Investiture of The Prince of Wales in 1969 the Hartnell clothes worn by The Queen and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother were short day clothes ingeniously reflecting their own styles. Royal clothes designed by Hartnell created a style for each client and the style was made fashionable without being a high fashion statement. This exemplified his genius and was practised to a sophisticated level, as he became increasingly pre-occupied with the large number of royal orders, many worn for Tours and State Visits. In this he was helped by Ian Thomas, who left to create his own business, and the Japanese designer Yuki (Gnyuki Tormimaru), who similarly left to create his own highly succesful business. At the time of The Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977, Hartnell was appointed KCVO. On arriving at Buckingham Palace to receive the honour, he was delighted to find that The Queen had arranged for it to be given by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, a loyal client of Hartnell beyond his death and until the House closed. Hartnell was termed by the press The First Fashion Knight. Only the late Sir Hardy Amies was similarly honoured and it is unlikely that we shall witness another in this reign. Hartnell was still designing collections at his death in 1979. Although much quieter, the enormous House also sold ready-to-wear and was the source of merchandising,the many products ranging from scent to stockings, bags to costume jewellery and Hartnell mens-wear – also found in stores around the globe. His career truly began around 1920 up at Cambridge and so spanned six decades. It is unlikely that there will ever be such a House in London again, employing at its peak in the 1950s some 550 people in-house and many thousands more employed in allied supplier trades. Hartnell was buried on 15 June 1979 next to his mother and sister in the graveyard of Clayton church, West Sussex.  A large memorial service in London was led by the then Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood, a friend, and was attended by many clients including one of his earliest from the 1920s, Barbara Cartland and from the 1930s the former Margaret Whigham, whose marriage in a Hartnell dress stopped traffic in Knightsbridge , when she became Mrs Charles Sweeny, latterly still a client as Margaret, Duchess of Argyll. The service brought together not only former clients , but a large number of his models and employees. The business continued after Hartnell's death, HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother remaining a loyal client with many others. For a short time John Tullis, a nephew of Molyneux, designed for the Hartnell business. A consortium headed by Manny Silverman, formerly of Moss Bros., acquired the business and after some guest collections designed by Gina Fratini and Murray Arbeid, the building was renovated under the direction of Michael Pick and the original art moderne splendours designed by Gerald Lacoste for Norman Hartnell were brought to life, the famous glass chimney-piece retrieved from the V&A as the focal point of the grand mirrored salon. The House re-opened with an acclaimed collection designed by Marc Bohan. 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 and his rare British genius were commemorated with a Blue Plaque at 26 Bruton Street, Mayfair , London, W1, where he spent his working life from 1934 to 1979. [edit] FilmographyNorman Hartnell designed costumes for the following films ( list incomplete ):
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
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