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WELCOME TO THE TWEED RIDE! AMSTERDAM / Sunday, May 8, 2016

May 5, 2016, 3:44 am
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 WELCOME TO THE TWEED RIDE! AMSTERDAM / Sunday, May 8, 2016
Sunday, May 8, 2016, it’s Amsterdam’s turn. After the successful previous editions in Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, the cavalcade of well-dressed, and often mustachioed, gentlemen and elegant ladies will bring the sartorial bike ride to the capital and cycle along the canals. Furthermore, this year, the Tweed Ride will be supporting a special cause: the Red Cross.
In 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross was founded through Henry Dunant’s initiative. The Red Cross has become the symbol for neutral and impartial assistance for those in need: whether these are the victims of conflict, earthquakes, those in distant countries, or people in the Netherlands who are struggling.
“The Red Cross always helps everyone, everywhere”
The Tweed Ride was founded in 2009 on Savile Row in London, the heart of classical men’s fashion and home to the best tailors in the world. Love of tailoring, the finest tweeds, along with (vintage) bicycles and paraphernalia brought together a mixed cohort that, fuelled by cups of tea, made its way through the city. Meanwhile, now all over the world comparable ‘rides’ and ‘runs’ are organised. And of course, Amsterdam could not be left behind!
The bike ride is quite the sight to behold. To the delight of the public and press, a sartorial strut of round about 150 ladies and gentlemen make their way through the city to a splendid picnic spot where the gents and ladies can indulge in cucumber sandwiches and tea and scones, accompanied by the authentic sounds of an old crank gramophone.
Upon retrieving the starting permit, participants will also receive a dandy linen bag (musette) with a few sandwiches, refreshments and more stylish goodies provided by the sponsors. At the finish of the Amsterdam Tweed Ride, several prizes will be awarded in multiple categories, including, finest tweed outfit, most original old bike, shiniest shoes, and best groomed ‘handle bar mustache’! Tally ho!
Do you have questions about Tweed Ride - Amsterdam Edition? Contact Paul van der Blom & Cees Huisman



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Headfort County Meath.

May 5, 2016, 11:39 pm
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Headfort

In 2004, Headfort, Co. Meath, was selected by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) for inclusion in its List of 100 Most Endangered Sites due to the significant interest of its Robert Adam interiors and for the threat posed to these by water ingress. Since that time, the Headfort Trust, through funding from the WMF, the Heritage Council and the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, has spearheaded a conservation and research programme that has revealed an extraordinary decorative scheme that had remained hidden for over 100 years.

In 2008 to celebrate the Society’s 50th anniversary, events held by our Chapters in New York, Palm Beach and London raised the funds required to restore the original decorative scheme of the ‘Eating Parlor’, the greatest of Robert Adam’s rooms in Headfort. Specialist decorators have been working on this exciting project since November 2008 and are scheduled to finish mid-spring.

Headfort was constructed in the 1760s to the designs of the Dublin-based architect George Semple (1700-1782) for Sir Thomas Taylour, later 1st Earl of Bective (1724-1795). It lies above the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Boyne, just outside the early ecclesiastical town of Kells in the northwest of Co. Meath.

From Kells the approach road to Headfort is lined by high demesne walls and crosses a fine triple arched bridge by Thomas Cooley (1740-1784) before reaching the main entrance gates, also by Cooley. These lead to a wooded avenue and past stable buildings, recently sympathetically converted for residential use, to emerge at the front of the house.

Headfort was renowned for its designed parkland that was laid out in the style of Capability Brown with plantations of mature woodland and a serpentine lake with manmade islands that are home to a collection of Asiatic trees. A great parterre lawn with topiary hedges is overlooked by the rear of the house. In recent years the parkland has been developed as a golf course.

Semple’s design for Headfort was one of a number produced for the site by Sir Thomas Taylour and previously by his father. Prior to the adoption of a final design both Richard Castle (1690-1751) and John Ensor had prepared proposals for great Palladian houses whilst Sir William Chambers, during the actual construction works, was commissioned to produce a revised design that was never used.

The house was completed using an adapted version of Semple’s design and constructed using a local grey Ardbraccan limestone. It stands as a three storey over-basement building of 11 bays with a three-bay central breakfront and two-bay terminating breakfronts on its entrance elevation. The garden elevation has a three bay central breakfront with sweeping steps leading down to the parterre lawn. Leading from either side of the house are long single storey wings.

With its restrained neo-Classicism and grey monolithic appearance, the Duke of Rutland in 1789 described Headfort as a “long range of tasteless building” whilst the author George Hardinge described it in 1792 as “more like a college or an infirmary. Though justification may be found for these remarks in considering the architecture of the building’s exterior, they do no justice to its interior which establishes Headfort as one of Ireland’s great houses.


 Between 1771 and 1775, Robert Adam (1728-1792), the pioneering neo-Classical architect, was commissioned by the 1st Earl of Bective to design a suite of rooms for the newly completed house. Adam produced designs for the decorative treatment of the entrance and staircase halls and also designed an enfilade facing out onto the garden front that culminated in a great double height space with a flat coved ceiling that he called the ‘Eating Parlor’.

Adam’s designs for Headfort survive today and are held in the Mellon Collection, Yale, USA. These drawings illustrate the evolving design process for Adam’s interiors and demonstrate how closely the completed works adhere to the original designs. Of great interest are the designs for the ‘Eating Parlor’ which show an initial proposal to construct a barrel vaulted ceiling instead of the flat deep coved ceiling eventually built.



The ‘Eating Parlor’ is an immense space that was formed by reconfiguring the floor plan of the house and merging two rooms at ground level with the rooms above these on the first floor. The room is lit by four windows between which are situated pier glasses and pier tables. These stand across from twin chimney pieces with overmantles containing classical compositions by Antonio Zucchi which are surmounted by drapery swags and panels of classical scenes. Mounted between and to either side of the chimney pieces are wall panels containing portraits and to either end of this wall are matching doorcases. The outer end wall contains further wall panels whilst the inner end wall contains matching doorcases and wall panels.

Adjoining the ‘Eating Parlor’ is the Saloon which was completed to Adam’s designs with a central painted medallion of Bacchus and Ariadne surrounded by eight small medallions of Classical heads and figures. Opening from this room is the Chinese Drawing Room which was so called for a set of three landscape papers on the north, east and west walls that sadly no longer survive.

Adam’s drawings for the staircase hall are also of considerable interest for showing the original grand aspirations of both architect and client. These drawings illustrate proposals for decorative treatments on all three levels of this space along with a newly installed staircase. However, the completed version stripped back Adam’s ambitious decorative plans to include only the designs for the ceiling. Furthermore, instead of the proposed tailored staircase, the original plain mahogany staircase was retained though with simple moulds applied on the underside. In a similar fashion, Adam’s designs for the entrance Hall were also not executed as planned though the final works left the room with a notable decorative ceiling.

Robert Adam’s work in Headfort is of national significance for the calibre of the designs he produced and also because it is the most significant of only three Irish commissions with which he was involved. Little survives of his other two Irish works: (i) Langford House, Mary Street, Dublin, was the home of Bective’s father-in-law, the Rt Hon. Hercules Rowley MP and is now the site of a shopping centre; (ii) in the 1780s Adam was engaged by Clotworthy Upton, 1st Lord Templetown, at Castle Upton, Co. Antrim, but much of his work was lost through reconstruction works in the 20th century.

Today, whilst the parkland at Headfort is owned by a golf club, the house is owned by the Headfort Trust, a registered charity that leases the building to a long established school. Following long periods of minimal maintenance, the Headfort Trust has taken on the task of repairing significant structural problems in the roof and addressing damp problems that arose because of this. In doing so the Trust successfully nominated the building to the WMF’s List of 100 Most Endangered Sites which has opened up significant fundraising opportunities. Since 2004 a programme of works has seen the completion of repairs to the roof, chimney stacks and rain water goods as well as other necessary works.

An investigation of Adam’s original decorative interiors has been undertaken by stuccodore and historic interiors specialist Richard Ireland in addition to this. Through a painstaking process, Ireland took hundreds of samples of paint from each of Adam’s rooms which were subsequently microscopically analysed. This analysis allowed Ireland to determine the colours used in the original decorative scheme and also allowed him to build up a detailed picture of how each room would have looked.

In the ‘Eating Parlor’ it was found that the decorative scheme used mid and dark green verdigris colours which tallied with those suggested in the Adam drawings. However, the application of these colours was undertaken in a varied and detailed manner which defies conventional expectations. The original decorative treatment of the adjoining Saloon ceiling showed a similarity to that of the ‘Eating Parlor’ but is not consistent with Adam’s drawings. In the Chinese room standing at the end of the garden front enfilade, it was found that the scheme used white, brown, violet as well as a mid-green verdigris.

In the Stair Hall it was found that the colour scheme applied to the ceiling shared significant similarities to that in the ‘Eating Parlor’ with two related green colours and a white relief. In contrast to the other rooms, the scheme revealed in the entrance hall used plain colours with a strong mid grey and white scheme unusually reflecting what is considered a Palladian preference for a ‘stone’ decorative treatment of entrance halls.

The Headfort findings have generated an international level of interest amongst Adam scholars and other architectural historians with lectures delivered on the subject in Ireland, the UK and the USA. Eileen Harris, author of The Genius of Robert Adam, has described the discoveries as ‘unique, extremely interesting and very exciting’. The original decorative scheme in the stair hall has already been reinstated to stunning effect through funding from the WMF.












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Ah ! L'EMPIRE et SÉVRES ...

May 8, 2016, 12:48 pm
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 "The vast and diverse production of the Sèvres factory in the nineteenth century resists easy characterization, and its history during this period reflects many of the changes affecting French society in the years between 1800 and 1900. Among the remarkable accomplishments of the factory was the ability to staycontinuously in the forefront of European ceramic production despite the myriad changes in technology, taste, and patronage that occurred during this tumultuous century.

The factory, which had been founded in the town of Vincennes in 1740 and then reestablished in larger quarters at Sèvres in 1756, became the preeminent porcelain manufacturer in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. Louis XV had been an early investor in the fledgling ceramic enterprise and became itssole owner in 1759. However, due to the upheavals of the French Revolution, its financial position at the beginning of the nineteenth century was extremely precarious. No longer a royal enterprise, the factory also had lost much of its clientele, and its funding reflected the ruinous state of the French economy.

However, the appointment in 1800 of Alexandre Brongniart (1770–1847) as the administrator of the factory marked a profound shift in its fortunes. Trained as both an engineer and a scientist, Brongniart was both brilliant and immensely capable, and he brought all of his prodigious talents to the running of the troubled porcelain factory. He directed the Sèvres factory as administrator until his death in 1847, and during those five decades influenced every aspect of its organization and production. Much of the factory’s old, undecorated stock was immediately sold off, and new forms—largely in the fashionable, more severe Neoclassical style—were designed to replace out-of-date models. The composition for hard-paste porcelain was improved, and the production of soft paste, for which the factory had been famous in the previous century, was abandoned in 1804. New enamels colors were devised, and Brongniart oversaw the development of a new type of kiln that was both more efficient and cost-effective.

Much of the factory’s output during Brongniart’s first decade reflected the prevailing Empire taste, which favored extensive gilding, rich border designs, and elaborate figural scenes .
Backgrounds simulating marble or a variety of hardstones were employed with greater frequency ; the new range of enamel colors developed under Brongniart made it easier to achieve these imitation surfaces, and it is thought that his interest in mineralogy provided the impetus for this type of decoration.

For objects produced in sets, such as dinner, tea, and coffee services, and even garnitures of vases, Brongniart preferred decorative schemes that linked the objects in terms of subject matter as well as stylistically. Dinner services were given coherence by the use of an overall theme, in addition to shared border patterns and ground colors. One of the best examples of this can be found in the “Service des Départements,” which was conceived by Brongniart in 1824 . Each of the plates in the service was decorated with a famous topographical view of the département (administrative unit) of France that it represented, and its border was painted with small cameo portraits of figures from the region, as well as symbols of the major arts, industries, and products of the area. This same type of thematic unity is found on a coffee service produced in 1836 . All of the pieces of the service are decorated with scenes depicting the cultivation of cacao, from which chocolate is made, or various stages in the preparation of chocolate as a beverage. The compositions were conceived and executed by Jean-Charles Develly, a painter at Sèvres who was responsible for many of the most ambitious dinner services produced at the factory during Brongniart’s tenure.

The range of objects produced in the first half of the nineteenth century was enormous, as were the types of decoration that they employed. A recent exhibition catalogue devoted to Brongniart’s years at Sèvres indicates that ninety-two new designs for vases were introduced, as were eighty-nine different cup models, and the types of objects produced by the factory included every sort of form required by a dinner or dessert service, coffee and tea wares, decorative objects such as vases, and functional objects such as water jugs, basins, and toiletry articles." (…)

in “Sèvres Porcelain in the Nineteenth Century” / Jeffrey Munger
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 2004





















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Charles Creed (1952)

May 10, 2016, 8:46 am
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Charles Creed / British fashion designer / VIDEO: Charles Creed Aka Military Uniforms AKA Model Soldiers (1955)

May 10, 2016, 8:46 am
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Charles Creed (1909 – 17 July 1966) was a British fashion designer. Born into the longstanding tailoring house of Henry Creed & Company in Paris, he launched his eponymous label in London in 1946. The first elected member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, he had success in both Britain and the United States.

Like Charles Worth, the Creed family was British and became part of the French couture establishment, rising to prominence in the 19th century. The company – which said its tailoring roots dated back to the 1700s – had a reputation for creating fine women's riding habits as well as men's tailoring; clients included the British and French royal families. Creed's father was said to have designed the outfit worn by Mata Hari when she was shot.

Charles Creed was born in Paris and educated in France and Vienna, also spending some time as a designer with Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where he was said to have been very popular with clients. After a six month spell completing his fashion industry education at Linton tweed mill in Carlisle – a key supplier to couturiers, notably Coco Chanel – he returned to work at the family firm in Paris in 1933. He retained a workspace in Knightsbridge during the early 1930s, which he shared with fellow designer – and later IncSoc member – Mattli. He was already considered notable enough in the United States to be chosen – alongside names such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Jeanne Lanvin – to design clothes for Frances Drake in the 1936 version of I'd Give My Life. Creed was designing for the family firm in Paris at the outbreak of war, moving back in 1940 after the fall of France. He later described how he left Paris hours ahead of the Germans – with his father Henry Creed, then 80, refusing to evacuate the city where he had spent his life.

Charles Creed established his London showroom and workspace initially in Fortnum & Mason, moving to a basement air raid shelter once the London air raids started in earnest. In early 1941, he toured the United States to promote British woollens to American consumers and encourage them to support the war effort. He also contributed to the war effort as a member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (IncSoc) in 1942. According to the fashion journalist Ernestine Carter, while Creed contributed to a 1941 collection with other IncSoc founding members, he was not among the eight founder members, but was the first elected member of the Society.

Creed opened his eponymous label in London in 1946. His 1947 collection – produced in a year when rationing was still in force in Britain – was greeted enthusiastically by a reviewer for Melbourne newspaper The Age, who described wool and jersey dresses with coordinating coats and box jackets, plus tailored suits in striped tweeds and black barathea worn with brightly coloured blouses. His 1947 range was also showcased in a British Pathé feature, alongside hats by Danish milliner to the Queen Aage Thaarup. Three years later, Creed's place among the British couture establishment was cemented by the inclusion of one of his suits in a fashion show sequence in the film Maytime in Mayfair – all the designers were IncSoc members.

Creed was well connected among broader fashion circles. His wife Patricia Cunningham had been appointed fashion editor of Vogue at the age of 23; a 1952 article in The Sydney Morning Herald about the women behind London's top designers described her as: "his severest critic", adding that she attended his fashion shows in order to take notes about hits and misses in the collection.



Creed's store was located at 31 Basil Street, Knightsbridge.The premises was masculine in tone, with dark panelling on the walls and displays of Napoleonic toy soldiers (Creed had a fine collection that was later to be the subject of a British Pathé film). This love of military themes and detailing was to influence his designs, which featured frogging, braiding and piping. Capes and tricorn hats were also part of his design signature. While he did make some evening wear, designs were normally slim and tailored.



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Tweed Ride Amsterdam / Last Sunday

May 10, 2016, 10:52 am
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Tweed Ride Amsterdam / Last Sunday
It was great fun! But 25C in the shadow was too much for Tweeds . JEEVES decided to face the temperature challenge in "Seer Sucker"...



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The Drawing Room: English Country House Decoration

May 13, 2016, 2:07 am
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The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939. By Adrian Tinniswood.

May 13, 2016, 2:07 am
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The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939. By Adrian Tinniswood. Basic; 344 pages; $30. To be published in Britain by Jonathan Cape in June; £25.

Partying, hunting, shooting
May 7th 2016

LOOKING back on the years before war broke out across Europe in 1914, Vita Sackville-West, an aristocratic English novelist, remembered an upper-class world of “warmth and security, leisure and continuity”. For many of her aristocratic contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s, the Edwardian country house was the heart of that world. For them, the pre-war age of innocence stood in stark contrast to what followed. In many memories, it was a period of decline and decay.
One-tenth of titled families had lost their heirs in the trenches. Mansions and estates were put up for sale at an unprecedented rate, which rose further after the stockmarket crash of 1929. Some were torn down, others abandoned: in the 12 years to 1930 more than 180 country houses were destroyed. Wollaton Hall, one of the most flamboyant Elizabethan examples, was transferred to the local city council and became a museum; Claremont in Surrey became a girls’ school. As the importance of land declined, mansions and family seats no longer had much use as a home.
The inter-war era has long been seen as an “Indian summer”, awaiting the death knell of the second world war. But as Adrian Tinniswood argues in an engaging new account of inter-war country-house life, this has obscured a world of energy, invention and change. “Fast”, the byword of the era, applied not just to Soho “flappers” and Jazz Age ballrooms, but to the country-house set, too. The loosening bonds between family, mansion and local community meant the country house was changing, but it was not dying. New owners—often Americans—brought “new aesthetics, new social structures, new meanings”.
A “spirit of restlessness” characterised the age. Country-house parties could last from 48 hours to three weeks. The word “week-end” entered common usage as expanding rail networks and car ownership meant that people could dash to the country on Friday and return on Monday exhausted after a race, a ball, a shoot or a political gathering. (Although, as Mr Tinniswood points out, the phrase in polite circles was still “Saturday-to-Monday”, to distinguish the leisured class from those who had to be at work on Monday morning.) Women, in particular, were confronted with gruelling social expectations: a seven-day shooting party, for example, would require multiple outfits for every day of the week, and spending whole seasons like this was arduous.
Only a fraction of all country houses, mansions and estates was destroyed. And new ones were built. Philip Sassoon, a hyperactive Conservative politician, built Port Lympne in Kent as a “fairy palace”—a gaudily theatrical Cape Dutch-style red-brick mansion overlooking Romney Marsh towards the English Channel. To its architect, it stood as a declaration that “a new culture had risen up from the sickbed of the old, with new aspirations.” There were modernist novelties, too—Crowsteps near Newbury, Joldwynds in Surrey—shocking the public with their shiny white walls, flat roofs and angular façades. But these were anomalies: most of the design in this period was backward-looking, as aristocrats and nouveaux-riches seeking stability and refuge embarked on a frenzy of castle restorations in a bid to “domesticate the past”.
The picture was never uniform. Mr Tinniswood provides rich detail from all corners, uncovering plenty of angst, but also much optimism—until 1939. When the next war came, the idea returned that the world was lost, symbolised, to many people, by the disappearance of domestic service (which, contrary to some alarmist inter-war accounts, had held up buoyantly for most of the preceding two decades). In the 1950s, the National Trust came into its own as a flood of houses passed into its stewardship. The “English Country House” became an object of nostalgia. Mr Tinniswood’s book is a work of historical scholarship, not heritage fetishism. For all its merits, though, it still seems to be a product of the mindset. The English country house casts a long, rose-tinted shadow.

From the print edition: Books and arts

Waugh's Country House: Through the Vita-glass Brightly
Posted on May 9, 2016 by Jeffrey Manley

A new book out this week is described as a social history of the interwar period. This is called The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939 by Adrian Tunniswood and is reviewed in the current issue of The Economist. According to portions of the book available on the internet, Evelyn Waugh is cited on elements of country house style and design. A discussion of country house modernization mentions an ad featuring a refurbished 15c. house near Chelmsford with a "Vita-glass sunroom" as well as a swimming pool. Tunniswood cites Waugh's use of this same glass in his fictional creation of Margot Beste-Chetwynde's replacement of her Tudor country house King's Thursday by modernist architect Otto Silenus. In this new structure, "the aluminium blinds shot up, and the sun poured in through the Vita-glass, filling the room with beneficent rays." (Decline and Fall, New York, 2012, p. 176). As explained by Tunniswood, Vita-glass was a British invention that was marketed as allowing into the house all the healthful ultra violet rays of the sun (promoting suntan, vitamin D and even killing germs) just as though one were outdoors, where one also had to cope with unheathful English cold and damp.

In another context, the book describes the transformation of socialite Sybil Colefax into an interior decorator, necessary due to diminution of her husband's income in the 1930s. The results of her work have not, according Tunniswood, withstood the test of time. Evelyn Waugh recommended her to his brother Alec to decorate his house at Edrington. Evelyn urged that "you will be saved the kind of mistakes that are made by decorators who are not used to dealing with persons of quality, and she's businesslike" (Alec Waugh, Best Wine Last, London, 1978, p. 57). Neither of these predictions turned out to be the case. According to Alec, Colefax was always late for appointments, filled the house with inappropriate furniture, and hung the drapery inside out.
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The Thirties in Colour (episode 1) / BBC

May 14, 2016, 6:32 pm
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A World Away
The Thirties in ColourEpisode 1 of 4

Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s, a decade which erupted into colour as polychromatic photographic technology came of age and three important processes - Dufaycolour, Technicolor and Kodachrome - were patented and brought to the market.

This opening part looks at the work of socialite and amateur film-maker, Rosie Newman, who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman criss-crossed the globe and shot some of the most important colour documentary footage of the period.

Some of her colour films have been seen before, but this programme features some of Newman's work that has never been broadcast and has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.




Unseen footage of the Queen as a young girl in new BBC documentary
Previously unseen footage of the Queen has been discovered showing her as a young girl playing with her sister.
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent 2:20AM BST 17 Jul 2008

The film was taken in the summer of 1936 and shows a young Princess Elizabeth with Princess Margaret in their parents' garden at 145 Piccadilly, London, near Hyde Park.
It was shot by Rosie Newman, a socialite and amateur film-maker, whose family lived next door to then Duke and Duchess of York.
That year, following the surprise abdication of King Edward VIII, they became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, known later as the Queen Mother.
The footage was part of The Thirties In Colour, a BBC4 documentary about a decade when colour film came of age, screened on Wednesday.
The opening episode of the four-part series examined the work of Miss Newman, the daughter of a wealth banker, who used her wealthy contacts to travel the world and document key moments of the period.
David Okuefuna, who research and produced the series, said: "The Thirties was an extraordinary important and pivotal phase in world history.
"Just weeks before the new decade began, the Wall Street Crash of November 1929 propelled the world into the great global Depression.
"And just weeks before the decade came to a close, the invasion of Poland catapulted the nations of Europe into what would become the bloodiest war in history."
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Stylish Tweed Run in London 2016

May 15, 2016, 7:29 am
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Portrait of Christian Berard

May 16, 2016, 1:43 pm
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 Born in Paris in 1902, Bérard studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly as a child. In 1920, he entered the Academie Ranson, where his style was influenced by Édouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis.

Bérard showed his first exhibition in 1925, at the Gallery Pierre. From the start of his career he had an interest in theatrical scenery and costume designs, and played an important role in the development of theatrical design in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early 1930s Bérard worked with Jean-Michel Frank, painting screens, wood-work and drawing projects for carpets. He also worked as a fashion illustrator for Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Nina Ricci. Bérard's most renowned achievement was probably his lustrous, magical designs for Jean Cocteau's film La Belle et la Bête (1946).

Bérard died suddenly from a heart attack on 11 February 1949, on the stage of the Théâtre Marigny. Francis Poulenc's Stabat Mater (1950) was composed in his memory, and Jean Cocteau dedicated his film Orphée (1950) to him.




 Théâtre de la Mode (Theatre of Fashion) was a 1945–1946 touring exhibit of fashion mannequins, approximately 1/3 the size of human scale, crafted by top Paris fashion designers. It was created to raise funds for war survivors and to help revive the French fashion industry in the aftermath of World War II. The original Théâtre de la Mode exhibit toured Europe and then the United States, and is now part of the permanent collections of the Maryhill Museum of Art in Washington State in the United States.

The French fashion industry was an important economic and cultural force in Paris when World War II began. There were 70 registered couture houses in Paris, and many other smaller designers. The war had a severe impact on the industry. Couturiers and buyers fled occupied France or closed their businesses. Clothing businesses that struggled to remain open had to deal with extreme shortages of cloth, thread, and other sewing supplies. The occupying Germans intended to displace Paris with Berlin as a centre of European fashion design. The Nazi regime planned to turn Berlin and Vienna into the centres of European couture, with head offices there and an official administration, introducing subsidies for German clothing makers, and demanding that important people in the French fashion industry be sent to Germany to establish a dressmaking school there. Couture's place in France's economy was key to this plan: an exported dress made by one of France's leading couturiers was said to be worth "ten tonnes of coal", and a litre of fine French perfume was worth "two tonnes of petrol".

French fashion was also not only important economically, it was a vital part of France's national cultural identity. French designers resisted the Nazi regime's plans; Lucien Lelong, president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, proclaimed, 'It is in Paris or it is nowhere'. A worker from Reboux, one of Paris's largest milliners, later said of the attitude of the fashion industry during the German occupation:

We wore large hats to raise our spirits. Felt gave out, so we made them out of chiffon. Chiffon was no more. All right, take straw. No more straw? Very well, braided paper.... Hats have been a sort of contest between French imagination and German regulation.... We wouldn't look shabby and worn out; after all, we were Parisiennes.

After Paris was liberated, the idea for a miniature theatre of fashion came from Robert Ricci, son of couturier Nina Ricci. All materials were in short supply at the end of World War II, and Ricci proposed using miniature mannequins, or fashion dolls, to address the need to conserve textiles, leather, fur, and so on. The mannequins were 27.5 inches (700 mm) tall, fabricated of wire. Some 60 Paris couturiers amongst them Nina Ricci, Balenciaga, Germaine Lecomte,Mad Carpentier, Martial & Armand, Hermès, Philippe & Gaston, Madeleine Vramant, Jeanne Lanvin, Bruyère, Pierre Balmain.

joined and volunteered their scrap materials and labour to create miniature clothes in new styles for the exhibit. Milliners created miniature hats, hairstylists gave the mannequins individual coiffures, and jewellers such as Van Cleef and Arpels and Cartier contributed small necklaces and accessories. Some seamstresses even crafted miniature undergarments to go under the couture designs. Seamstresses carried their sewing machines around with them to complete work on the Théâtre de la Mode during Paris's post-War electricity shortages.[9][10] Historian Lorraine McConaghy points out the level of detail in the clothing:

The meticulous attention to details is so striking ... The buttons really button. The zippers really zip. The handbags have little stuff – little wallets, little compacts – inside them.

Once work was completed on the Théâtre de la Mode, it became a touring exhibition of nearly 200 doll-size figurines in 15 elaborate artist-created sets. It opened at the Louvre in Paris on 28 March 1945, and was enormously popular, drawing 100,000 visitors and raising a million francs for war relief. With the success of the exhibit in Paris, the Théâtre de la Mode went on a tour of Europe, with shows in London, Leeds, Barcelona, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Vienna. To promote the exhibit abroad, a French government official wrote to the Ambassador of France in Britain: "France has little, alas to export, but she has her appreciation of beautiful things and the skill of her couture houses". After touring Europe in 1945, the mannequins were outfitted with new clothes designed for the 1946 season and the exhibition traveled to the United States, where it was displayed in New York City and San Francisco in 1946. After the final show, the mannequins were left behind in San Francisco, while the jewellery was returned to Paris.

Restoration
The Maryhill Museum of Art in the United States acquired the mannequins in 1952 through a donation by art patron Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. The original sets accompanying the dolls, which had been crafted by such artists as Christian Bérard, Jean Saint-Martin, Georges Wakhevitch and Jean Cocteau, were lost before the Maryhill acquired the exhibit. In 1988, Paris’s Musée de la Mode et du Textile undertook an extensive restoration of the mannequins and painstakingly recreated the sets. The Théâtre de la Mode still exhibits at the Maryhill Museum of Art by rotating selections from the complete series of mannequins and sets. Parts of the Théâtre de la Mode also tour art and fashion museums throughout the United States and worldwide.

In the late 1980s, the designer BillyBoy* organised a similar exhibition tour Le Nouveau Théâtre de la Mode (New Theatre of Fashion) sponsored by Mattel with Barbie dolls dressed by contemporary fashion designers.






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Le Petit hôtel de Bourrienne

May 18, 2016, 12:03 am
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L’hôtel de Bourrienne
58 rue d’Hauteville -
10e arrondissement

Habité par Mme Hamelin, une célèbre « merveilleuse », l’hôtel de Bourrienne conserve un ensemble unique de décors peints de style Directoire.

Commencé en 1787 pour le compte de Marie-Anne Ségard Préponnier de Bazin, ce petit hôtel est acquis en 1792 par M. Lormier-Lagrave. Sa fille, Fortunée Hamelin dite madame Hamelin (1776-1852), y habite et le fait décorer. Amie de Joséphine de Beauharnais, créole comme elle, cette femme d’esprit hors du commun lance les modes et incarne l’idéal de « la merveilleuse ». Pleine de malice, très entreprenante avec les hommes, elle est surnommée "le plus grand polisson de France". Par son intelligence, elle séduit les personnages les plus important de son temps : Talleyrand, Bonaparte, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo.

En 1801, l’hôtel est acheté par Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1769-1834). En 1785, Bourrienne s’est lié d’amitié avec le jeune Napoléon Bonaparte, son condisciple à l’école militaire de Brienne ; il lui restera fidèle jusqu’en 1814. Secrétaire et conseiller d’Etat de Bonaparte sous le Consulat, Bourienne devient ministre plénipotentiaire à Hambourg en 1805.

En 1886, Charles Tulen de Berny, directeur de fonderie de caractères d’imprimerie, fait l’acquisition de l’hôtel de Bourienne et installe ses ateliers dans le jardin. Ses descendants entretiennent aujourd’hui avec le plus grand soin cette demeure exceptionnelle.

L’hôtel est construit de 1789 à 1798 par Célestin-Joseph Happe. La façade sur le jardin est plus tardive : elle est réalisée en 1801 par l’architecte Etienne-Chérubin Leconte. A l’intérieur, les décors à l’antique illustrent magnifiquement le style Directoire puis le style Consulat. Ils sont quasiment uniques dans Paris.

Les peintures murales des salons sont inspirées de Pompei et Herculanum, redécouvertes au milieu du XVIIIe siècle. Les éléments du répertoire néo-classique se reconnaissent dans les décors : figures drapées à l’antique, candélabres, vases, palmettes. La pièce la plus singulière est la salle de bain avec son décor étrusque ; elle annonce le soucis de confort qui va caractériser le XIXe siècle.








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Remembering / An Anthology by Cecil Beaton opens at the V&A / 28 September 1971 / Beaton By Bailey

May 19, 2016, 10:15 pm
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Fashion archive: Cecil Beaton's testament of fashion
The Guardian, 28 September 1971: Fashion: An Anthology by Cecil Beaton opens at the V&A
Alison Adburgham
Monday 22 September 2014 12.50 BST

No one but Cecil Beaton could have cajoled so many beautiful dresses from so many fashionable women, and in doing so confer upon their owners a sort of immortality. That clothes one has worn should become a permanent acquisition of the Victoria and Albert Museum is an exceptional way of embalming the ego.

"Fashion: An Anthology by Cecil Beaton" is the title of an exhibition which opens at the V and A on October 13. It might be called Cecil Beaton's testament of fashion, for professionally and socially he has been involved with the beau monde and the haute chic for almost half a century; and his emotional involvement with fashion goes back still farther - to the time when as a small boy before the First World War his imagination was enslaved by his fashionable Aunt Jessie, with her trunk loads of frivolities from Paris. Recollections of Aunt Jessie have inspired some of his costume designs for stage and films, in particular for "My Fair Lady" and "Gigi."

As a portrait photographer Cecil Beaton has done wonders for women, bestowing mystery and magic upon fashionable faces, royal faces, theatrical faces; bestowing romantic beauty upon the asymmetrical eccentricities of the intelligentsia. One of his books, "The Glass of Fashion," contains the most wittily evocative descriptions of clothes as they were worn, and the women who wore them, ever written in the English language. And in the same book he refers to fashion as "'the triumph of the ephemeral." For this V and A exhibition he has caught past ephemera in his butterfly net, and catalogued it for all time.

As its title implies, the exhibition is his personal choice; but everything in it will become part of the museum's permanent collection. Sir John Pope-Hennessey, director of the V and A, stresses that it is a criterion of the museum that everything in it must be a work of art, and this criterion must apply to costume... "the museum shares Mr Beaton's belief that style in dress is an art form, worthy to be collected and displayed."

Stuck with it
And he is content that Mr Beaton's exacting taste should decide what clothes should be accepted. This shows great confidence in Mr Beaton as a connoisseur of clothes - once the museum accepts something they are stuck with it for ever. There is no legal way of getting rid of it. It does not need of course, to be on display, but clothes take up a lot of storage space.

Over the past 18 months Mr Beaton has followed clues from many countries, travelling as far as Argentina in pursuit of a desirable garment. He arrived in Chicago six weeks too late to acquire a collection of Worths; but an exciting journey to Leeds captured a Queen Mary toque. He has acquired a Dior dress from the Duchess of Windsor, a black dress so constructed in the Dior nineteen-fifties manner that it stands up on its own without the Duchess inside.

Diana Vreeland, editor of American "Vogue," has given a Chanel evening trouser suit of the nineteenth thirties, and Princess Radziwill a Courrèges dress, vintage 1965. He has come by a Balmain suit belonging to Gertrude Stein, of all people, and Sacheverell Sitwell has given him the medieval gown that Dame Edith wore for her seventy-fifth birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall and the golden toque she always wore when reciting. She bought it at Whiteleys.




 Yale University Press — Exhibiting Fashion: Before and After 1971
With the dramatic increase in popularity of fashion exhibitions over the past decade, we were commissioned by Yale University Press to design a book looking at the evolution of the practice. Centred around the seminal 1971 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition ‘Fashion: An Anthology by Cecil Beaton’. The book includes a detailed account of the exhibition, a comprehensive chronology of international fashion exhibitions since 1971, and 28 different perspectives discussing the working practices of exhibitions today.
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SUNDAY IMAGES / Heraldic Patina ...

May 21, 2016, 9:21 pm
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Norman Hartnell, British fashion designer / VÍDEO: THE QUEEN'S CORONATION ROBE - COLOUR - NO SOUND

May 22, 2016, 10:24 pm
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 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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Intermezzo / "Remains of the Day"

May 24, 2016, 3:01 am
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Never-before-seen private photos of King Edward VIII and his mistress Wallis Simpson on a controversial cruise that triggered the start of the his abdication crisis have been discovered.

May 25, 2016, 9:48 pm
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 Never-before-seen private photos of King Edward VIII and his mistress Wallis Simpson on a controversial cruise that triggered the start of the his abdication crisis have been discovered.

Telegraph Reporters
23 MAY 2016 • 12:02AM

The lost photo album of 200 holiday snaps has been locked in a safe for the last 80 years along with a treasure trove of gifts and mementos relating to the playboy monarch and his divorcee lover.
It has now been uncovered by the granddaughter of Herman Rogers, who along with his wife Katherine, was great friends of the couple and joined them on the cruise around the Adriatic Sea.

Against the advice of his government, Edward went on an extended summer holiday with American socialite Wallis in the first year of his reign in 1936.

Mr Rogers took the photos of the couple, whose illicit relationship at that stage was not known to the British public.

The black and white photos include ones of them swimming in the sea, enjoying picnics and of a bare-chested and scrawny-looking Edward posing in front of a Greek beauty spot.

When they returned to Britain the foursome continued the festivities at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and there are more photos showing the King amusingly dressed in a deer-stalking cloak with his cousin, Louis Mountbatten, stood next to him.

Weeks after the photos were taken Edward announced his intention to marry Wallis, sparking a constitutional crisis.

The news was met with widespread disapproval by the Church of England as Wallis was a divorcee and also caused a major public scandal.

By December of that year Edward chose to abdicate the throne so he could marry Wallis. His younger brother, George VI, then became King.

As well as the photo album, the newly-discovered archive includes a beautiful gold Cartier cigarette case Edward and Wallis gifted to Mr Rogers at their wedding in June 1937.

Mr Rogers gave Wallis away and on the inside lid of the case is an inscription that reads 'We will never forget a great friendship. Edward and Wallis.'

The dates beneath the wording - December 5, 1936 and June 3, 1937 - are for when Edward abdicated and their wedding.

The items have been locked away in a safe for generations at the Rogers' family home in Canada and have now been unearthed by his granddaughter.

They are now coming up for sale in London for a total estimate of £60,000.

Auctioneer Kerry Taylor said: "You think you have seen it all and there is nothing left to come out and then something fresh and quite exciting emerges for the first time after all these years.

"This archive hasn't been seen before. It has literally been in a safe in a basement of a house in Canada for the last 80 years.

"Herman Rogers' granddaughter didn't really know about it but luckily realised it was of great importance when it was found. She doesn't feel emotionally attached to the items and has decided to sell them.

"The photographs are quite remarkable.

"This was in August 1936 and at that stage the British public knew nothing of Edward's relationship with Wallis.

"He had only been King for a few months and decided to charter a yacht, The Nahlin, and go off on this cruise with Wallis. The Prime Minister advised against it but Edward pretty much said that he was King and he could do what he liked

"The Rogers joined them and were very savvy with a lot of foresight because they realised they in the middle of something very historic and took photographs and kept mementoes from this time.

"The photos clearly illustrate the romance and growing closeness between Edward and Wallis, who was still married at the time. They are lovely photos and show a happy couple who are quite carefree.

"The King is shown swimming and sunbathing bare-chested. This was Queen Victoria's grandson and for Edward to be seen in public bare-chested was quite extraordinary.

"Wallis is seen sporting rather unflattering rubber bathing hats and elasticated one piece swimsuits.

"In these pictures Wallis was thinking that she was going to be the next Queen of the United Kingdom, they didn't know of what was coming round the corner.

"After the cruise Edward didn't want the party to end and insisted they all go to Balmoral afterwards.

"It is astonishing to see any private Royal photographs but to find 200 of them in one album that chart the illicit romance of the king who gave away his Empire for the woman he loved is just remarkable."

The album is valued at £3,000.

The Cartier sapphire encrusted cigarette case Edward and Wallis gave to Mr Rogers is valued at £30,000 while a matching compact case gifted to Mrs Rogers is worth £20,000.

The guest book for the couple's villa in Cannes, south of France, that documents VIPs who visited them in the 1920s and '30s is also for sale.

Wallis, who was great friends with the Rogers before she met Edward, visited the villa regularly and signed her name according to who she was married to at the time.

In June 1923 she signed as Wallis Warfield Spencer, having married Earl Spencer in 1916 and then in 1929 she signed as Wallis Warfield Simpson, having married her second husband Ernest Simpson in 1928.

The guest book is valued at £5,000.

There is also Balmoral-headed stationery that still bears black edging to mark the mourning of the death of Edward's father, King George V.

The piece of paper is signed by Edward, Wallis and Louis Mountbatten. It is valued at £3,000.

Other gifts for sale nclude an 18th century engraved silver salver, given by Edward and Wallis when they were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after the abdication crisis. It is valued at £3,000.

And a 1823 silver-gilt snuff box given by them to the Rogers at Christmas 1948 and worth £3,000 makes up the archive.

The items will be sold at Kerry Taylor Auctions on June 14.



 ‘Passion for Fashion’ 14th June 2016

The gifts, mementoes and private photographs originally belonged to Katherine and Herman Rogers – lifelong friends of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. They were discovered by Herman Roger’s grand-daughter in a safe after the death of her grandmother. Herman Rogers was good-looking, athletic, well-educated and the son of the American millionaire railroad tycoon Archibald Rogers. He and Katherine explored the world, seeking out culture wherever they went.
The Rogerses had been friends with Wallis since the 1920s. In 1924 the couple offered her refuge at their home in Peking after the failure of her marriage to her first husband – Earl Winfield Spencer, a reputedly alcoholic and abusive US naval pilot from a rich and socially prominent Baltimore family. In June 1928 she stayed with them again in another of their beautiful homes near Cannes in the south of France – Villa Lou Viei, where she signed herself in the guest book (lot 204, estimate £3000-5000) ‘Wallis Warfield Spencer’ – taking her husband’s name despite their divorce in December the previous year. The guest book tellingly records other trips to Lou Viei

The collection also includes an intriguing album of over 200 photographs (many previously unseen) which clearly illustrates the romance and growing closeness between Edward and Wallis (lot 202, estimate £1500-2500).
On January 20th, 1936, everything was to change. King George V died and his eldest son Edward (or David as close friends and family referred to him) acceded to the throne. In August the same year, the un-crowned King made an ill-judged decision to go on an Adriatic cruise, taking with him Wallis (who was still married to Mr Simpson) and a small group of friends, including the Rogerses. The fact that Spain was in the throes of a civil war and there was unrest in the Balkans did not deter him, despite government advice to the contrary. The photographs taken by Herman Rogers record for posterity this notorious ‘Nahlin’ cruise.
The chartered Nahlin yacht was partially re-fitted for the cruise, with the on-board library being ripped out and converted into a large master bedroom for the couple. The King appears in the photographs swimming and sunbathing bare-chested (which caused much comment in the overseas press at the time). Wallis sports rather unflattering rubber bathing hats, elasticated one piece swimsuits or shelters under parasols (not for her the new-fangled sun-tan). Whilst Britain remained unaware of the royal romance (thanks to acquiescent press barons who quashed all mention), in the US and Continental Europe the affair was widely reported as Wallis’ aunt Bessie (who lived in the US) was to inform her upon her return to France at the end of the trip. Not all of the coverage was flattering.

As a memento of Rogers’ stay at the castle, the King and other guests signed a piece of Balmoral Castle stationery (lot 203, estimate £2000-3000).
Just three months after the highly publicised Nahlin cruise and Scottish holiday, the King finally decided to abdicate his throne, triggering a constitutional crisis. He had put his own desires and comfort above his Royal duty as King – being unable to rule without the woman he loved beside him. In consequence he was demoted in rank to HRH the Duke of Windsor. Wallis, after being hounded day and night by the press, again took refuge with Herman and Katherine Rogers at Lou Viei in France and recorded in her memoirs:
‘As the moment approached, everyone at Lou Viei, including the domestic staff, gathered around the radio in the sitting room. David’s (the informal given name for Edward) voice came out of the loudspeaker calmly, movingly. I was lying on the sofa with my hands over my eyes, trying to hide my tears. After he finished, the others quietly went away and left me alone. I lay there a long time before I could control myself enough to walk through the house and go upstairs to my room’.
It was to Katherine and Herman that Wallis turned to for help with the impending wedding which was to take place on June 3rd, 1937. They had been loaned the Chateau de Candé in the Loire by the American businessman Charles Bedaux. The Rogerses took with them the Lou Viei guest book and recorded the wedding guests and their dates of arrival. There were only 28 names listed including the married couple – others were the society florist Constance Spry (who arranged the flowers), and R. Anderson Jardine (the rebel vicar who officiated at the ceremony without the consent of the Church of England, which was to cost him his job). Cecil Beaton’s photographs of the event show the couple looking rather strained, with forced smiles.

The wedding was a relatively low-key, muted affair. Edward was used to the pomp and ceremony of large Royal occasions, with crowds of flag-waving patriots lining the streets. Most British aristocracy and establishment now shunned the couple and disapproved of the marriage. Poignantly, not one member of the Royal Family attended despite the Duke’s heartfelt pleas. Edward VIII had chosen to follow his own personal desires rather than putting duty and his country first – something that was not to be forgotten or forgiven by the British establishment.
On the wedding day, Herman was given the important role of walking Wallis down the aisle and giving her hand in matrimony. As a token of their gratitude he was presented with a beautiful

Other gifts to them include lot 207, the 18th century engraved silver salver, given by the Duke & Duchess of Windsor to Herman when he remarried in 1950, estimate £2000-3000 and lot 201, a 1823 silver-gilt snuff box given by the Duke & Duchess of Windsor as a gift to Katherine and Herman Rogers, Christmas 1948, estimate £2000-3000.
The collection will be sold as part of our ‘Passion or Fashion’ auction, Tuesday June 14th 2016



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TWEED ... More ... TWEED 2

May 27, 2016, 7:50 am
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Charlotte Perriand / VÍDEO: Charlotte Perriand - COLLECTING DESIGN

May 29, 2016, 2:35 pm
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Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L’Art de Vivre" from 1981 she states "The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living—living in harmony with man’s deepest drives and with his adopted or fabricated environment."

Perriand was born in Paris, France to a tailor and a seamstress. In 1920, she enrolled in the Ecole de L'Union Centrale de Arts Decoratifs ("School of the Central Union of Decorative Arts") to study furniture design from 1920 until 1925. One of her noted teachers during this period was Art Deco interior designer Henri Rapin.



After applying to work at Le Corbusier's studio in 1927 and being famously rejected with the reply "We don’t embroider cushions here", Perriand renovated her apartment into a room with a large bar made of aluminum glass and chrome. She recreated this for the Salon d’Automne, gaining notice from Le Corbusier's partner, Pierre Jeanneret, convincing Corbusier to offer her a job in furniture design. There, she was in charge of their interiors work and promoting their designs through a series of exhibitions.

In 1928 she designed three chairs from Corbusier's principles. Each chair had a chromium-plated tubular steel base. At Corbuiser's request a chair was made for conversation: the B301 sling back chair, another for relaxation: the LC2 Grand Comfort chair, and the last for sleeping: the B306 chaise longue.





Perriand was familiar with Thonet's bentwood chairs and used them often not only for inspiration but also in her designs. Their chaise longue, for this reason, bears some similarity to Thonet's bentwood rocker although it doesn't rock. The chair has double tubing at the sides and a lacquered sheet metal base. The legs unintentionally resemble horse hooves. Perriand took this and ran with it, finding pony skin from Parisian furriers to cover the chaise. Perriand wrote in a memoir, "While our chair designs were directly related to the position of the human body...they were also determined by the requirements of architecture, setting, and prestige". With a chair that reflects the human body (thin frame, cushion/head) and has decorative qualities (fabrication, structural qualities) they accomplished this goal. It wasn't instantly popular due to its formal simplicity but as modernism rose, so did the chair's popularity.





In 1940 Perriand traveled to Japan as an official advisor for industrial design to the Ministry for Trade and Industry. While in Japan she advised the government on raising the standards of design in Japanese industry to develop products for the West. On her way back to Europe she was detained and forced into Vietnamese exile because of the war. Throughout her exile she studied woodwork and weaving and also gained much influence from Eastern design. The Book of Tea which she read at this time also had a major impact on her work and she referenced it throughout the rest of her career.

In the period after World War II (1939–45) there was increased interest in using new methods and materials for mass production of furniture. Manufacturers of materials such as formica, plywood, aluminum, and steel sponsored the salons of the Société des artistes décorateurs. Designers who exhibited their experimental work at the salons in this period included Perriand, Pierre Guariche, René-Jean Caillette, Jean Prouvé, Joseph-André Motte, Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq. Charlotte Perriand took part in the design of the ski resorts of Les Arcs in Savoie. In the 1950s she designed for various corporate service spaces. Perriand's main goal as a designer was to develop affordable, functional, and appealing furniture for the masses.

Some of her work includes:

Meribel ski resort
The League of Nations building in Geneva
the remodeling of Air France's offices in London, Paris, and Tokyo
Charlotte Perriand collaborated with Jean Prouvé through the rest of her career.


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Blue Blooded: Denim Hunters and Jeans Culture

May 31, 2016, 9:04 am
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Blue Blooded: Denim Hunters and Jeans Culture Hardcover – July 25, 2016
by Thomas Stege Bojer (Editor), Josh Sims (Editor), Gestalten (Editor)

Jeans are equal parts subculture and establishment. Worn as both work clothes and luxury fashion, they are practically universal. This book contains everything you need―and want―to know about jeans.

Denim embodies authenticity, rebellion, workwear, and the old west. Denim hunters tirelessly search ghost towns for vintage jeans. Families weave heritage cloth for generations. Craftsman on foreign shores preserve the old ways while designers back home redefine the iconic five-pocket look. And all of us trade stories of how we got that perfect fade.

Blue Blooded is the story of denim and denim culture: The secrets of selvedge. The true origins of the Osaka Five. The immigrants and inventors in the Wild West who created jeans. Exclusive profiles of the independent designers and makers invigorating the denim scene, like 3sixteen and Iron Heart, along with forces like Levi’s that shaped the industry. No other garment has the iconic status of jeans. Jeans are never out of fashion, and they will continue to outlive other sartorial trends for the foreseeable future.

A contemporary overview of our favorite article of clothing, Blue Blooded introduces traditional brands as well as designers who are stirring up the industry. The book covers the topic of jeans in its entirety―from their rivets to their various washes and from their cultural history to a recommended selection of stores where they can be bought. And, of course, the things every denimhead needs to know: How to wash―or not wash―your jeans. How denim is made. And how denim makes us who we are.
















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