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“I simply refuse to make the very short skirt”: from the Romantic robe de style to the Victorian revival, the fashion design work of the London couturier Norman Hartnell, 1921-1939”by Jane Hattrick- PhD research, University of Brighton &#160;The British couturier, Norman Hartnell, opened his fashion House in London’s Mayfair district in 1924 at the age of just twenty-three.Hartnell had three key ensembles that he designed for his British aristocratic clientele, actresses as clients and for the British royal women between 1937 and 1979. These were his soft-tailored dress and coat ensembles, full length, slim line evening gowns and tea-gowns and the full length full skirted crinoline gowns, famously worn by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. This paper will show that these were key Hartnell styles during the interwar period, and that despite his rise to the status of wealthy, celebrity couturier by 1934, Hartnell’s clothes were designed to be attractive to the more conservative, British clientele in terms of skirt length. Hartnell also preferred to see a length of luxury fabric, trimmed with fur and embellished with embroidery on the bodies of his clients rather than to exposed flesh.When he opened his salon in 1924, British couture clients expected to be able to purchase Paris models in London.Despite the economic slump of 1930 and subsequent financial crash, Hartnell’s business had expanded to the extent that in 1934 the House of Hartnell had moved to a larger premises. In the mid-1930s, Hartnell designed slim fitting, full-length evening gowns and tea gowns in silk satin and velvet in plain colours, and collection photographs in the archive and garments studied demonstrate the complex cutting and high levels of skill in his workrooms at that time.Hartnell had created his first crinoline gowns for the Queen in 1937 based upon Worth’s gowns represented in Winterhalter’s royal portraits at Buckingham Palace, and In 1938 Hartnell designed an entire wardrobe for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s first state visit to Paris – the now famous ‘white wardrobe’. Hartnell dressed the Queen in full-length dresses of cream lace accessorized with parasols and picture hats for day wear and for the evening, white silk satin and lace crinolines worn over a hooped under skirt, decorated with artificial camellias and crystals. As Amy de la Haye and Valerie Mendes have noted: ‘Hartnell was a key figure in the new-Victorian movement,’ which had become popular in Paris and London from the mid-1930s, reflecting his flair for designing fancy dress and theatrical costume. The following year, in 1939, Hartnell was the Queen’s choice of designer to create her entire wardrobe for the royal tour of North America and Canada. Full-length day dresses were again worn by the Queen in pastel coloured lace, along with crinolines in tulle net embroidered with jewels. On the eve of the Second World War the Queen was photographed by Cecil Beaton in several of these Hartnell ensembles, in a propaganda exercise to promote the image of the Queen as the face of British royalty and encourage public support and cohesion on the eve of war.Hartnell is best remembered for his frou-frou eveningwear and beaded crinoline gowns, underlined by the presence of three of his royal crinolines in the current exhibitions at the V&#38;A Museum in London. This paper will demonstrate that despite his ability to dress women for every occasion, this style of dressing was established by the mid-1920s, reflective of his personal taste in fabrics, colour and embellishment and his preference for clothes in conservative, normative, feminine styles throughout the interwar period.&#160;Primary Research SourceThe personal and business archive pertaining to the London couturier, Sir Norman Hartnell, currently in private hands, including bound volumes of press cuttings, original sketched designs, and photographs.Indicative Bibliography Adburgham, Alison, A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841 to 1940. London: Hutchinson, 1961. Print.de la Haye, Amy and Valerie Mendes. 20th Century Fashion. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999. Print.Taylor, Lou. “Romantic”, in Amy de la Haye. Ed. The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion 1947-1997. London: V&#38;A Publications, 1997. Print.