Secrets of the Queen’s corsetière
Bethan Holt is struck by the discreet charm of June Kenton, corsetière to the royals
Within moments of meeting June Kenton, it becomes apparent why she is entrusted with the royal warrant as corsetière to the Queen. With her conspiratorial giggle, impeccable standards (“This is not leaf tea,” she murmurs as a waiter sets down refreshments for us) and rare combination of no-nonsense practicality with warm charm, it’s little wonder that everyone from the Royal family to Joan Collins, Dawn French as well as countless women from across the world – and even in-the-know transvestites – have entrusted Kenton with their lingerie for decades.
“Well, everybody is normal,” laughs Kenton, whose entertaining autobiography Storm in a D-Cup is released this week. It’s a phrase that one imagines she has used over and over to reassure the women who have come into her fitting rooms over the years. “We’re like doctors or therapists, it’s such a personal thing,” she says, explaining that for women who have just given birth, are going through the menopause or have undergone a mastectomy (as she did herself after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007), a bra fitting is where they can finally talk openly about coming to terms with the changes in their bodies.
Kenton and her husband, Harold, first ran a clothes stall at Brixton market, before opening their first lingerie store (called Contour) at the Whitgift Shopping Centre, Croydon, in May 1970. There, she developed a radical new method of measuring busts that did away with the tape measure and instead relied on the expert eye of the fitter.
In 1977, they bought The Corset Boutique, near Harrods, and transformed it into one of Britain’s most famous lingerie shops with their genius blend of brilliant service and witty PR stunts. These included lunchtime fashion shows in the street and sending a negligée set to Lady Diana Spencer when her engagement to the Prince of Wales was announced.
The royal warrant came in 1982 when Tessa Seidon, who had been the grantee since 1960, as the head of bespoke lingerie company Rigby and Peller, approached the Kentons and asked if they would like to buy the business. But first, Kenton had to be approved by Her Majesty. “There are no words to describe the terror I felt,” she says of their first meeting. Of course, she is honourably tightlipped on the details of a relationship, which continues to this day, only to say that there is “no dilly-dallying” and that the Queen is “gorgeous”.
Kenton has also served other members of the Royal family. In the book, she tells of her fondness for the Queen Mother. In one episode, Princess Margaret tells her Mother which hats to order from their milliner. “I pretend to listen to Margaret, and then, once she’s gone, I order exactly what I want,” Kenton quotes her as saying.
Her closest royal friendship was with Princess Diana, whom she met at their gym, Bimal (Kenton has always enjoyed keeping fit and still sees a personal trainer every week, aged 81). She was behind all the swimwear that Diana was seen in as she holidayed with Dodi Fayed in the summer of 1997, including a bright turquoise one-piece the Princess wore as she dangled her legs from the diving board of the Jonikal yacht when it was moored in Portofino.
“Gottex do the most gorgeous swimwear, so I said to Diana, ‘Why don’t I take you to them and you choose what you want?’ ” Kenton recalls. “When Mrs Gottlieb [Gottex’s Israeli owner] heard that Diana was coming, she said that was the best day of her life. They made it all for her; they made everything with cover-ups and matching beach bags.”
Kenton is still emphatic over encouraging women of all sizes to go for regular fittings and has found that husbands, far from only wanting bedroom-worthy pieces, have been integral in encouraging their wives. “Most women find it very difficult to pluck up the courage to buy a bra,” she observes, adding that through vanity many women will go up a back size rather than a cup size, meaning we all end up with bras that are too loose and consequently uncomfortable and unsupportive. She maintains that 85 per cent of women are wearing the wrong size bra.
“You should put your bra on in the morning, take it off at night and that’s the only time you should think about it. If you’re thinking about it all the time or if you don’t like running for a bus because they’re jumping up and down, then it shouldn’t have to be like that.”
‘85 per cent of women are wearing the wrong size bra’