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The Condition of London’s Couture Industry: Couture Wardrobes, the Social Season, and British Royal Dressing, 1946-1957, Dr. Jane Hattrick, University of Brighton. This paper will discuss the creative output and organization of the London couture houses in the immediate postwar period within a socio-cultural and economic context. It will focus on the importance of producing couture clothes for British royalty and the impact of this on both the London seasonal collections, the British client and her social life, and the dissemination of London couture styles overseas.  During World War II the London couture houses had continued steadily on, producing small collections, dressing their regular titled and wealthy clientele. The sales ledger pertaining to the House of Lachasse, Berkley Square, Mayfair dating from between 1939 and 1951 lists the sales of each model from every seasonal collection, the name of the ensemble, the cost and the client’s name. These lists reveal what made up the average British client’s couture wardrobe, which included overcoats, skirt suits and blouses, evening gowns and occasional court wear in the various fabrics appropriate for the season. Throughout the war, royal dressmaker Norman Hartnell had continued to dress his regular clientele, designing small collections that provided his customers with tailored and soft tailored daywear, dinner dresses, evening gowns and also their service uniforms.After the war the Houses of Lachasse and Hartnell (for example) continued to design two collections a year, plus individual ensembles for regular clients. British ready-to-wear fashions were set by the London couture houses and their styles for British royal clientele were followed by the fashion press. Dior’s New Look, filtered slowly into London couture collections. This was fashion from ‘the top’, with the ‘trickle down’ of styles from the established couture with their royal warrants, their court connections and their role dressing the women of the upper echelons of Society. Austerity regulations were lifted for the couture after the war, although clothing was rationed until 1949. Utility clothing was phased out between 1949 and ended finally in 1952. British textiles were prioritized for the export market and luxury fabrics were in short supply for home use.The postwar period in Britain saw the decline of the British aristocracy, with the Labour government achieving power between 1945-1951. Country house life was over for the ‘traditional titled and territorial elite as World War II ended…they had no place in the new world that lay beyond’.[1] After the war there was no servant class to keep up this life style. David Canadine writes that the end of the war ‘had left more surviving landowners in circumstances more reduced and distressed than they had ever known; and in the austere and egalitarian world of Welfare State socialism that followed, there was a distinct feeling that their remaining economic privileges, political influences and social status were no longer acceptable’. [2]During the war presentations at British royal court for young debutantes and their mothers had ended. Some semblance of court life resumed after the war and an extract from the Canadian newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, 26 May 1947 explains that:‘London is reviving some of the traditional court events that gave so much colour to pre-war social life. The first of the presentation garden parties in place of the courts, which have not been held since 1940, will be held May 28th. A second will follow June 10 and others are planned for July. Debutantes attending these parties will be regarded as having been presented at court, although they will not make a formal curtsey to the King and Queen. Women have a choice of wearing long or short dresses but must wear hat and gloves. Men have the choice of morning dress, lounge suit or officer’s dress uniform. Almost without exception women have for practical reasons chosen short afternoon dresses…’Once the court presentations were re-established in 1947, the numbers of those that applied to be presented had grown to 20,000, so garden parties were introduced as an alternative to pre-war evening courts.[3] Day-dresses with hats were the new regulatory wear, as opposed to the full-length white gown, train and three feathers of the pre-war period. Evening gowns were still needed for balls and parties during the season. The South African newspaper Natal Witness, Pietermarizburg, South Africa, reported on 24th January 1948 that Princess Margaret was soon to be ‘making her debut’ (aged 18) and that both Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret will, ‘to a large extent, influence the trend of fashion for young women in the coming season.’ The last debutantes were ‘presented’ in 1958.King George VI and his Queen Consort, Elizabeth toured South Africa in 1947 with their daughters Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and extensive couture wardrobes were provided by Norman Hartnell and Molyneux for the royal women. In 1948, Princess Elizabeth visited Paris wearing what the press described as ‘The Princess Look’, directly influenced by Dior’s New Look. The Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 was a key moment for the London couturiers, who provided their titled clientele with the appropriate etiquette coded clothes to wear whilst attending the ceremony and for all the associated events. Throughout the early 1950s the new Queen, Elizabeth II, toured the Commonwealth wearing British couture, disseminating the royal fashions to a global audience. The success of the London couture in the postwar period was directly linked to royal events and court life.The London Top Ten/eleven couturiers in 1946/47 included Norman Hartnell, Charles Creed, Digby Morton, Hardy Amies, Peter Russell, Bianca Mosca, Victor Stiebel (opened own house in 1932, became Director of Couture at Jacqmar in 1945), Molyneux and Angele Delanghe. Elsbeth Champcommunal was creative director at Worth and Joe Mattli, who had come to London in 1934. This had become a different ‘top twelve’ by July 1955, with the total absence of women designers. Ronald Paterson opened in 1947, Michael Sherard (apprentice to Peter Russell), Michael (Michael at Lachasse in 1950), set up on his own in 1953, John Cavanagh (worked with Molyneux in Paris) set up on his own in 1952, Owen at Lachasse (followed Hardy Amies, Digby Morton and Michael who all began their careers at this House). These couturiers were members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (INCSOC). In London the ‘top ten’ (twelve) couturiers enjoyed their last glorious days as those that set the fashions that the rest of British women wore, via ready-to-wear and the ‘trickle down’ of styles set by their twice yearly seasonal fashion collections. In the post-war couture in Paris, Dior and Balenciaga, Balmain, Fath and Givenchy, created new lines, re-establishing Paris as the centre of style and taste as it had been uncontested since the seventeenth century. In London, the couture modeled itself on Paris, but had a different ‘job’ to do in terms of dressing their core clientele. An article in British Vogue from 1950 entitled ‘The London Way’ noted that:‘The London way is a way of its own parallel with Paris, abreast of New York, but a gentler, more sympathetic and personal way than either. The London designers make clothes for real women; for women who live in the country, drive cars, go shopping, lunch out, sit on committees, drop in for drinks, go to Ascot, give parties. Every model they design is meant to be worn on some typical occasion – not merely to demonstrate a fashion point, as so often in Paris. In London the fashion point is woven into a wearable design, is life-size from the start, and speaks in quiet, conversational tone.’[4]          As further illustration of how London couture differentiated itself from Paris in the post war period, in a lecture he gave at the London School of Economics in 1957, the London designer Hardy Amies wrote:  ‘I allow myself but a minimum of nonsense in a collection…Paris makes a wonderful spectacle; whereas every model in my collection has to do a job, the job of taking orders’.La renaissance de Vogue français au service de la haute couture et de Paris, 1945-1956, Dr. Sophie Kurkdjian, Université Paris I/ Chercheur associée à l’IHTPEn 1945, après quatre d’interruption, le magazine Vogue français est attendu pour sa reparution. Son rédacteur en chef, Michel de Brunhoff ainsi que Lucien Vogel, éditeur parisien qui a contribué au lancement de Vogue français en 1920, s’attellent dès l’automne 1944 à la republication du magazine, non sans rencontrer de nombreuses difficultés matérielles. Pendant deux ans, le magazine reparaît sous la forme d’Album – Vogue Libération, avant de retrouver une publication régulière en 1947.Le retour de Vogue français dans le marché français de la presse revêt une valeur à la fois économique, mais aussi symbolique. Pour l’équipe française, en reprenant Vogue français, il s’agit non seulement de montrer que la haute couture parisienne est toujours autant créative et que la guerre n’a pas  fait disparaître son dynamisme, mais aussi que le magazine, après quatre ans d’interruption, est toujours le principal relais de la haute couture et de l’élégance à la française.Après avoir décrit les conditions de reparution de Vogue français en 1944 et 1947, cette communication présentera le nouveau Vogue français tel que l’a souhaité Michel de Brunhoff, c'est-à-dire un magazine « très parisien », promouvant prioritairement la haute couture parisienne, et où plusieurs pages culturelles (qui n’existaient pas de manière aussi importante avant la guerre) seraient élaborées pour mettre en valeur le dynamisme culturel et artistique de Paris (théâtre, littérature, exposition…), au-delà de sa place de capitale de la mode. Enfin, nous montrerons comment le magazine, après avoir refusé de se plier à cette évolution, s’ouvre  lentement au prêt-à-porter à partir de 1952.  British Ready-to-Wear and French Couture in the pages of British Vogue in 1950, Dr Marie McLoughlinThis paper will examine how French couture fashion was viewed in Britain in the post-war period through the pages of British Vogue in 1950. This date was chosen as clothes rationing had finally ended in Britain 1949 and the ’New Look’ of 1947 was no longer news. However post-war recovery was far from complete, and the British economy was still fragile, as evidenced by a restricted travel allowance for British nationals.This paper was prompted by a remark by Sophie Kurkdjian that French Vogue, in the immediate post-war period, including 1950, featured only couture fashions. By contrast British Vogue featured high end ready-to wear prominently, alongside reports of French and London couture collections. Ready-to-wear appeared on both editorial and advertising pages. Full page advertisements were dominated by major textile producers and department stores, the latter displaying ready-to-wear fashions by the designers of the London Model Group. The London couture collections were covered in some detail, often with colour photographs. In comparison reports of the French couture collections were almost clinical; mainly in black and white, they concentrated on the key looks for the season rather than individual designers.British Vogue in 1950 was a reflection of its times. Wartime Utility and Austerity controls had led to much improved ready-to-wear production and the British textile industry was a key player in the post-war export drive. Buying Paris couture fashion was almost impossible, even for the very rich, because of stringent currency regulations which limited the amount of sterling an individual could exchange. The closest approximation that the British Vogue reader could get to owning Paris fashions were the copies of French couture garments made under licence by some of the London Model Group. Or by using Vogue patterns by French couturiers-- which the magazine made up and photographed on celebrity models-- made using the British textiles the advertisements claimed were supplied to Paris. But both of these, the copies and the Vogue patterns, would be unlikely to be the very latest Paris styles, hence the level of forensic detail in the reports of the French collections. These were intelligence reports for the discerning reader who wanted to know the upcoming trends even if she could not buy them directly. If she wanted couture quality, rather than French elan, she had to rely on the London couture and a level of design that sadly rarely equalled that of Paris.Developments in the French fashion press- ELLE and Hélène Lazareff 1945-1957/Le magazine ELLE d'Hélène Lazareff, 1945-1957,  Karine Taveaux-Grandpierre, LabSIC, Université Paris 13 « Faire descendre la mode dans la rue » tel est le mot d’ordre d’Hélène Gordon-Lazareff lorsqu’elle crée le magazine féminin ELLE en 1945. Il s’agit ici de comprendre les stratégies développées par la fondatrice du magazine pour promouvoir la mode et la rendre accessible à ses lectrices dès la période charnière de l’après-guerre. A cette fin, nous cernerons dans un premier temps la personnalité d’Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, notamment ses liens multiples et internationaux avec le monde de la mode. Puis nous étudierons les innovations au sein du magazine afin que ses lectrices puissent suivre les nouvelles tendances. Dans un troisième temps, sera analysé le rôle du magazine dans la reconnaissance des créateurs de la Haute Couture (Dior, Givenchy, Chanel). Enfin nous démontrerons son influence sur le succès du prêt-à-porter en France, de son implication auprès des industries de la mode comme auprès des nouveaux créateurs.“Bravo la confection française!” Researching French Ready-to-Wear, 1947-1957: Industry, Modernity, and the Image of Women, Alexis Romano, PhD candidate, Courtauld Institute of Art This paper explores the French ready-made clothing industry during the Fourth Republic, which developed against the backdrop of heightened modernisation in terms of industrialisation, women’s lives, and France’s physical landscape, characterised by large-scale urbanisation. It first poses several questions and problems for researchers today. It asks what narratives can be constructed from available resources, which include surviving dress, industrial writings, and text and imagery in the fashion press. How do the narratives relate to or contradict one another? This paper then uses ready-to-wear to tie together several strands.It asks how the industry and government worked together to employ prêt-à-porter to renegotiate and reinvent the industry and the country’s postwar identity and cultural hegemony, previously build around the—then declining—haute couture production. Through textual analysis of trade publications, notably the Cahiers de l’industrie du vêtement féminin, I examine factors underlying the industry’s discussion of modernisation, such as technological shortcoming and insufficient productivity. Using imagery and text in the fashion press that related to clothing sold in department stores and made by the Maisons de Couture en Gros, I then consider magazines’ new construction of fashion and femininity, which negotiated components of industrial modernity and disseminated them in relation to prêt-à-porter and the image of women. I show how the press sought to both sanction prêt-à-porter and ease readers’ fears of modernity.This paper suggests that the study of the ready-made clothing industry can shed light on an ambiguous moment in French history, characterised by tensions and contradictions, between limitations and possibility, change and tradition, flux and stasis, structure and women’s agency. I hope that, through the colloquium’s transatlantic discussion of wider themes of fashion and history in the period 1947-1957, we can begin to reframe the study of French ready-to-wear prior to the 1960s. Design, fashion and the London 'Model House Group' 1947-57, Liz Tregenza, MA History of Design, Royal College of Art, London In 1946 a group of 10 London ‘model houses’ joined together to form the Model House Group. These firms represented the elite of London ready-to-wear. Their aims were to improve the general standard of wholesale models and, as the groups chairman Frederick Starke suggested, to focus the attention of overseas buyers to London.This paper will investigate the reasons behind the formation of this co-operative group of wholesalers and what a ‘model house’ actually constituted in the period. It will also consider how such firms copied and adapted designs originally intended for consumption by a Parisian elite and transferred these looks into ready-to-wear for the middle classes. It will also unpack how, despite copying Paris, such firms were able to add their own unique handwriting to the garments they produced. Finally the paper will reflect upon the somewhat antagonistic relationship between the Model House Group and London couturiers during the late 1940s and 1950s. Horrockses Fashions and ready-to-wear 1947 -1957, Dr Christine Boydell.  De Montfort University, Leicester The subject of this paper is the manufacturer Horrockses Fashions Limited, one of the most respected British ready-to-wear labels of the late 1940s and 1950s. The company was founded in 1946 as the London-based subsidiary of the Preston textile firm Horrockses Crewdson Ltd, as part of an initiative to produce high-class specialities and branded products. They concentrated on the production of quality women’s wear, beach clothes and housecoats (and children’s wear from the early 1950s) made from the parent company’s own high quality cotton cloth, using fashionable styling and custom-designed fabrics.  Although produced in considerable quantities from the start, the firm maintained an air of exclusivity for the brand, with an emphasis on good quality fabrics, especially cotton.The paper will focus on three key questions:• What were the circumstances and motivations behind the decision to launch a range of ready-to-wear clothing directly after the war?• What were the processes and strategies undertaken by Horrockses in order to produce a successful product?• What impact did branding have on the production, design, promotion, retail and consumption of ready-to-wear fashion?A key area of interest is the relationship between all phases involved in the production of a ready-to-wear brand: including design, manufacture, marketing, distribution, retail and consumption. The paper will examine, in particular, the various methods Horrockses used to communicate with potential customers, as well as the responses and reactions to their products by consumers. Crucial to the success of the venture was a promotional campaign that played down the true mass produced nature of their products, emphasising instead, exclusivity, fabric design and quality cloth.The research for this paper is based on a rich array of primary source material, including Horrockses Fashions’ business records; design archives; interviews with Horrockses Fashions’ employees and with consumers; surviving objects in museums and private collections and magazines and trade publications.Developments in the Mass Teenage Market for Fashion For Young Women in Britain 1947-57, Cheryl Roberts, PhD University of Brighton and Senior Lecturer in Fashion History, University of Middlesex.Nostalgic accounts recall late 1940s Britain as ‘the golden age of childhood’. The clothing choices of girls under 17 years were dictated by their mothers. Up until the age of 13 they would wear dresses in styles they had worn since infancy. Young women, post 14 years, were expected to wear child-like versions of clothes that reflected the dress sense of their mothers. The 1950s, however, were noted for the ‘birth of the teenager’. This is argued by historian David Fowler, as he believes the term was spawned in the interwar years, yet it is apparent that the rapid growth of the term 'teenager' as a marketing tool, was encouraged by  developments in manufacturing and consumption practices of the 1950s.As Britain began to recover from the aftermath of World War Two, unemployment was at an all time low, mass manufacture boomed and disposable income was a possibility for many. By the mid to late 1950s young women were empowered in terms of their own spending choices due to their greater, if limited, personal incomes. They began to step away from the conventional infanticised dress expectations of the earlier generation and form their own feminine subculture of ‘the teenager’. Influenced by the images of American and British popular culture observed on television, in the movies, in new teen magazines, and by following the styles worn by their music idols such as Alma Cogan, Petula Clark and Ruby Murray, the clothing of young teenage women saw radical changes.The growing mass production of teenage fashions together with a growing market in cheap mass produced garments allowed young women a greater choice. Developments in textiles saw the emergence of the first truly synthetic fabrics of nylon and polyester. These newly developed textiles responded well to dyes, with colour and printed patterns appearing limitless. Ready-to-wear stores were quick to respond and opened dedicated areas for teenage clothing. This interdisciplinary paper will follow the development of young dress styles as the phenomenon of the ‘teenager’ grew, along with the accessibility and affordability of these garments to the emerging conventional working-class British female teenager in the period 1947-1957.[1] David Canadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990): 635,[2] David Canadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990): 636-637.[3] Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies: The Days of the Debutante. (London: Orbis Publishing, 1977) 67.[4] “The London Way”, Vogue, (Month?) 1950: pp 76-95.