Norman Hartnell

Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell (12 June 1901 – 8 June 1979) was a leading British fashion designer, best known for his work for the ladies of the royal family.

The first-floor salon was the height of modernity, a glass and mirror-lined Art Moderne space designed by the innovative young architect Gerald Lacoste (1909–1983), and proved the perfect background for each new season of Hartnell designs.

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.

In 1923, Hartnell opened his own business at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair, with the financial help of his father and first business colleague, his sister Phyllis.

The Doctor Who actor William Hartnell was his second cousin.

Thanks to his Cambridge connections, Hartnell acquired a clientele of débutantes and their mothers, who desired fashionable and original designs for a busy social life centred on the London Season.

Hartnell was considered by some to be a good London alternative to Parisian or older London dress houses, and 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 said to be impressed by Hartnell's designs.

Alarmed by a lack of sales, Phyllis insisted that Norman cease his pre-occupation eveningwear and instead focus on creating practical day clothes.

The Duchess of York, then a client of Elizabeth 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 Duchess of Gloucester's wedding and her trousseau achieved worldwide publicity, the death of the bride's father and consequent period of mourning before the wedding led to what had been planned as a large state wedding, taking place at Westminster Abbey, instead being held privately in the chapel of Buckingham Palace.

Hartnell regretted that his work on the designs for the occasion had been denied worldwide publicity; however, vast crowds did see the newest member of the royal family drive off from Buckingham Palace wearing a Hartnell ensemble for her honeymoon, and the seal of royal approval led to increased business for Hartnell.

Hartnell utilised British woollen fabrics to subtle and ingenious effect; though previously sidelined by London dressmaking, the use of wool fabrics in ladies' day clothing had already successfully demonstrated in Paris by Coco Chanel, who showed a keen interest in his 1927 and 1929 collections.

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, which he also utilised to prevent exact ready-to-wear copies being made of his clothing.

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.

In 1935, Hartnell received the first of what was to be numerous commissions from the British royal family, in designing the wedding dress and bridesmaid's dresses for the marriage of Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.

The two bridesmaids were Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

Both King George V and Queen Mary approved the designs, the latter also becoming a client.

For the 1937 Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen 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 designs with a slimmed-down fit 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 with fur trimmings or some detail around the neck.

His designs for the Queen's evening wear varied from unembellished slim dresses to evening wear 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.

Hartnell gained the Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) in 1940, and Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

The Hartnell in-house embroidery workroom was the largest in London couture, and continued until his death in 1979, also producing the embroidered Christmas cards for clients and press during quiet August days, a practical form of publicity at which Hartnell was adept.

The interiors of the large late 18th-century town house are now preserved as one of the finest examples of art-moderne pre-war commercial design in the UK.

At the same time Hartnell moved into the new building, he acquired a weekend retreat, Lovel Dene, a Queen Anne cottage in Windsor Forest, Berkshire.

The cottage was extensively re-modelled for him by Lacoste.

Hartnell's London residence, The Tower House, Park Village in West Regent's Park, was also remodelled and furnished with a fashionable mixture of Regency and modern furniture.

Princess Beatrice also wore a dress designed for Queen Elizabeth II by Hartnell for her wedding in 2020.

Hartnell was born in Streatham, southwest London.

His parents were then publicans and owners of the Crown & Sceptre, at the top of Streatham Hill.

Educated at Mill Hill School, Hartnell became an undergraduate at Magdalene College, Cambridge and read Modern Languages.

Hartnell's main interests were in performing in, and designing for, productions at Cambridge University, and first came to fashion after designing for the university's Footlights performances whilst an undergraduate, a production which transferred to Daly's Theatre, London.

He then worked unsuccessfully for two London designers, including Lucile, whom he sued for damages when several of his drawings appeared unattributed in her weekly fashion column in the London Daily Sketch.