Exhibition will commemorate Queen’s top dress designer
AN exhibition is coming to Plymouth to honour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s personal fashion designer, Sir Norman Hartnell.
The prestigious designer will be remembered at 3 Elliot Terrace, on Plymouth Hoe, next month. All proceeds from the event, taking place on December 5 to December 8, will go to SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.
The exhibition, ‘By Royal Appointment’, is a one-off chance to view gowns from a private collection, designed for both royalty and Hartnell’s own family members.
Claire Williams, Hartnell’s goddaughter, will give two insightful talks in Plymouth during the event about the designer and his fame at the Drake Room, the Guildhall.
Hartnell was the late Queen’s favourite couturier. Born in London in 1901, he realised he wanted to be a fashion designer when he was at Cambridge University, designing costumes for the famous Footlights drama society. Tapping into his exclusive network of wealthy friends in the roaring ’20s, he began to make a name for himself designing and producing gowns for London debutantes.
Hartnell believed in flamboyance with style, saying “I despise simplicity; it is the negation of all that is beautiful”. His creations soon caught the eye of not just Vivien Leigh and Marlene Dietrich, but also the Royal family.
After attending a wedding where the bride was wearing a Hartnell dress, the Queen was so taken with his style that she commissioned him to produce her whole 1939 North America and Canadian tour wardrobe. This started the royal relationship, which lasted throughout Hartnell’s professional career. Designing Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding dress was an honour which was only to be beaten by his being asked to design her coronation dress a few years later.
In 1977, the Queen Mother made Hartnell the first fashion designer ever to be named a Knight of the Royal Victorian Order. More recently, Princess Beatrice was married in one of the late Queen’s evening dresses, designed by Hartnell.
Hartnell was more famous in his day than any designer we could mention in the contemporary era. His dresses are considered masterpieces. At the forthcoming exhibition, visitors will be able to see the original works, close up, and hear from Hartnell’s goddaughter about the man, his royal connections, and how he remembered the monarch every year by creating her a dress. The mixture of intimacy and high fashion is irresistible. The talks start at 6.30pm on December 5 and 7.
Hartnell’s connection to SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, is timehonoured. In 1943, he organised an Anglo-Latin American Exhibition, to acknowledge and promote Latin American countries’ assistance to Britain during the war. The exhibition then travelled around the countries between 1943 to 1945 and raised £10,000 for SSAFA, which is nearly £2 million in today’s money.
Claire Williams, SSAFA Devon branch secretary, said: “We are very much looking forward to presenting this magnificent exhibition. The Queen was the patron of SSAFA for many years and to have an insight into her designer’s bespoke clothes feels really very special.
“Thank you to all that are coming to see the exhibition. Your attendance and donations mean a lot to SSAFA, who are here to support the Armed Forces in many ways.”