Horrockses, iconic label of the 1950s, is back in vogue

Frock on, Beverley! A dedicated Horrockses collector shows off some of her collection at the 2011 Festival of Britain

I’ll let you into a little secret. Later this week, I’m going to tell you about a fabulous shop I have found that’s just bursting with the most beautiful Horrockses dresses from the 1950s.  But first a few words about the iconic British label, which is currently enjoying a huge revival.

Horrockses Fashions was established in 1946, just a few months before Christian Dior introduced his famous ‘New Look’. His first collection for spring and summer 1947 featured a full, below-mid-calf length skirt, large bust (which had been out of fashion since Edwardian days) and small waist. In defiance of the post-war restrictions on buying fabric (when clothing and cloth were rationed and could only be bought with government-issued coupons until 1949), Dior used some 20 yards of sumptuous fabric in each outfit. The full skirt and nipped-in waist continued into the 1950s, when Horrockses Fashions adapted the look with its huge dirndl skirts, often lifted by layers of petticoats, and what were known at the time as ‘gay’ floral prints or over-sized checks, all beautifully made in the crispest, freshest cotton.

The label peaked in popularity in the Fifties, when it was worn by everyone from the Queen and Ambassadors’ wives to the general public, including my mum – though, typically, a dress would cost around 21 guineas (£22 and a shilling), a sum large enough that a girl might have to save for some weeks or months to be able to afford her dream outfit.

But fashion is cyclical, and Horrockses is enjoying a huge revival at the moment. Six original dress designs of the 1940s and 1950s have been adapted to produce a range of bed linen in floral prints on white backgrounds.

‘Claudette’ features large yellow stem roses, ’Alice’ is a ditsy floral print in green, purple and yellow, and ‘Martha’ has posies of flowers and butterflies in pink, red, yellow, blue, mauve and green on a white background. ‘Eletta’, in raspberry pink and white, has a duvet cover with cherries and a paisley border on one side and flowers on the reverse. ‘Sophia’ is a Rococo design in pale lemon, grey and white, while ‘Betty’ is a cheerful profusion of red, pink, purple and blue pansies on white, with jolly red ric-rac braid edging the pillows.

Also available are rectangular and 40cms square silk cushions, which include a beautiful blue map of the British Isles (with lines from John of Gaunt’s ‘scepter’d isle’ speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II) and several designs adapted from original Horrockses advertising images from the Harris Museum archive.

The Horrockses bedding range and cushions are available from House of Fraser stores and other stockists nationwide and in Ireland. I don’t want to mention prices, as there are several special offers running at various times. All I will say is that they are genuinely very reasonable and affordable, so you won’t have to save for months for anything!

The range was launched last summer at the Festival of Britain 2011 at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank. The event celebrated the original Festival of Britain of 1951, a time when Horrockses had been at its height. The launch featured a pop-up Horrockses shop at the the venue, with an exterior decorated with the pansies on a white ground from the ‘Betty’ design.

And to answer the demand for those big-skirted 1950s dresses, Horrockses’ website even includes a pattern to make your own sundress.

http://www.horrocksesfashions.co.uk

Wallis, Diana and Kate – a right royal passion for fashion

She caused an international scandal, a constitutional crisis and a King to abdicate. But this powerful woman said of herself: “My husband gave up everything for me. I’m not a beautiful woman. I’m nothing to look at, so the only thing I can do is dress better than anyone else. If everyone looks at me when I enter a room, my husband can feel proud of me. That’s my chief responsibility.”

And dress to the nines is what Mrs Wallis Simpson did. Her tiny frame — just 31½ -23-30 and with size 4 feet — was always attired in the most elegant garments. In the 1930s, when she first met Edward, she was noted for her gowns and suits, cut in the quintessentially 1930s style on the bias, which gave her petite form the most sensuous curves. She changed her clothes several times daily. Her hairdresser came every day. And when she got up in the morning, the sheets were taken off her bed, ironed and replaced in time for her afternoon nap. Everything had to be just perfect.

Now her wardrobe is to be seen in all its finery on the silver screen. Madonna’s latest film, W. E., compares and contrasts the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and a contemporary relationship between a married woman and a Russian security guard. It opens in the US today (9 December) and in UK cinemas on 12 January.

Andrea Riseborough stars as the American twice-divorced Wallis Simpson and James Fox as King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in order to marry the woman he loved. The scandal rocked Britain in 1936 and led to the couple – henceforth styled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – becoming ostracised from the royal family and British society, virtual exiles living out the ensuing years in the West Indies and Paris.

Earlier this year, the sale of many of the Duchess’s clothes and household possessions caused a stir in London when they were auctioned for charity. The Passion For Fashion and Fine Textiles – It’s a Right Royal Affair! sale took place in March at La Galleria in Pall Mall.

Included among the 35 lots were a vampish scarlet chiffon nightdress, capelet and full-length cape from the late 1940s or early 1950s (which were estimated to sell for up to £1,000 but in fact went for £5,500), a Christian Dior black crocodile handbag from 1964 (sold for £9,500) and a Louis Vuitton vanity case (estimated at £6,000-£10,000, which realised £40,000). Also coming under the hammer were alligator handbags and Anglisano crocodile shoes, an ocelot fur sweater, lace boudoir jackets, an ivory crepe de Chine nightdress and a Marc Bohan for Christian Dior glass droplet beaded evening bolero.

It was a fitting time for the sale of the Duchess of Windsor’s effects, coming just as Britain was gearing up for the Royal wedding of future heir to the throne Prince William and Kate Middleton at the end of April, and the British film The King’s Speech having just won four Oscars – a film which reminded us that without Edward VIII’s abdication, his stuttering brother would never have become George VI.

But what else would you expect of sales-savvy former retail tycoon Mohammed Al Fayed, who last year sold his Knightsbridge department store Harrods to the Qatari royal family for a reported £1.5bn. Never one to miss an opportunity, when the Duchess died in 1986 he acquired the lease on the Windsors’ Paris mansion and bought all its contents for £3 million. So he was quick to cash in on this year’s interest in Royalty and its heirs by selling the Windsor collection in aid of the Dodi International Charitable Foundation, the fund he set up in memory of his son, Dodi, killed in Paris alongside Princess Diana in 1997, which helps children in need of medical care.

Also included in the sale were the see-through knitted lace dress designed by Charlotte Todd which Kate Middleton modelled at the St Andrew’s charity fashion show in 2002 where she first caught Prince William’s eye, and two dresses worn by HRH the Princess of Wales for state visits to France and Japan in the mid-1980s – a Catherine Walker formal white lace evening gown (sold for £30,000) and a Zandra Rhodes pink chiffon dinner gown (£25,000). You could buy four terraced houses in Burnley for the same sum as those two frocks.

Wallis Simpson’s fashion influence has even permeated down through the decades to Kate Middleton. The blue wrap dress she wore for the announcement of her engagement to Prince William is based on the design of one worn by the Duchess in the 1930s by American couturier Mainbocher.

Kate’s dress was designed by Daniella Helayel of Issa. Helayel also designed the costumes for the new film, W. E.

For more information, see

http://www.we-movie.com

http://www.kerrytaylorauctions.com