Elizabeth Handley-Seymour
Elizabeth Handley-Seymour | |
---|---|
Born | Elizabeth Fielding 1867 Blackpool, England |
Died | 1948 |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | fashion designer and court-dressmaker |
Known for | created Queen Elizabeth's coronation gown in 1937 |
Spouse |
James Burke Handley-Seymour
(m. 1901) |
Elizabeth Handley-Seymour (1867–1948) was a London-based fashion designer and court-dressmaker operating as Madame Handley-Seymour between 1910 and 1940. She is best known for creating the wedding dress worn by Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, for her marriage to the Duke of York, the future King George VI, in 1923; and later, Queen Elizabeth's coronation gown in 1937.[1]
Early life
[edit]Born Elizabeth Fielding in Blackpool in 1867, she moved to London in the 1890s and set herself up as a court-dressmaker.[1][2] In 1901 she married Major James Burke Handley-Seymour.[1] The Major was described as having been a lifelong art critic in 1938.[3]
Business
[edit]According to a 1938 newspaper article, Handley-Seymour launched her business in 1908–09 with a staff of four.[3] By 1912 Handley-Seymour was based on Bond Street, and had received her first Court commissions.[4] She was still located at Bond Street in 1938, with a staff of 200 making up her designs, while her husband handled the administrative side of the business.[3]
From the beginning Handley-Seymour offered copies of Paris dresses for her clients, a practice that was very common among high end dressmakers in London at the time.[1] A 1914 advertisement published in The Times listed a number of couturiers with whom Handley-Seymour had agreements to allow her to reproduce their models for her clientele, including Paul Poiret and the Callot Soeurs.[5] Poiret was at that time considered one of the most avant-garde and daring couturiers, meaning that Handley-Seymour was catering to a clientele who expected to be offered the smartest, most fashionable Paris modes.[1]
Many of the gowns provided by Madame Handley-Seymour were co-designed and created by Avis Ford, who started out as an apprentice in the 1910s and eventually became chief designer and fitter. Following the retirement of Handley-Seymour and at the request of Queen Mary, Ford opened her own couture establishment in the early 1940s on Albemarle Street, and continued to provide clothing to the Royal Family.[6] While it was reported that Handley-Seymour retired before the end of World War II which broke out in September 1939,[6] she was still offering designs to the Duchess of Devonshire and Queen Mary in early 1940.[7][8] However Handley-Seymour Ltd. was not formally wound up until 1950,[9] following the deaths of Madame Handley-Seymour in 1948 and her husband's death in Buckinghamshire on 12 August 1949.[1][10]
Theatre design
[edit]One of Handley-Seymour's first high-profile clients was the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who commissioned Handley-Seymour to create gowns for her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 1914 premiere of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion.[4] Campbell exploited the dramatic potential of her clothing to draw attention, depending on Handley-Seymour to produce garments that would "transcend mere modishness."[4] To reflect Eliza's development from poor flower-seller to refined society lady, a dress worn midway through, in Act III, combined a fashionable cut with a gaudy yellow taffeta fabric with a brash "Futurist" print of scarlet roses.[4] The final costume worn in the play, a pale grey dress and jacket with a boldly patterned black lining, presented Eliza as having achieved both fashionable refinement and freedom of thought, and was acclaimed by both the fashion press and the theatre critics.[4] This final costume was adapted from a Paul Poiret ensemble.[1]
Shaw later criticised Handley-Seymour's costumes, declaring the print dress "horrible" and the Poiret-inspired ensemble "dramatically nonsensical," although Kaplan and Stowell suggest that Campbell was taking inspiration from the Edwardian feminist who used refined and elegant attire to counteract accusations of being a "hammer-wielding suffragette."[4] Through rewrites and revisions, Shaw would later attempt to diminish Campbell's contributions to his play and downplay the success of her Eliza dressed by Handley-Seymour.[4] Alongside Campbell, other actresses costumed by Handley-Seymour between 1913 and 1938 included Irene Vanbrugh and Diana Wynyard.[11]
Royal designs
[edit]In 1923 Handley-Seymour, at that time dressmaker to Queen Mary,[12] was commissioned to make the bridal gown of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon for her 26 April wedding to the Duke of York. The ivory chiffon moire dress was embroidered with pearls and silver thread, with a train of Flanders lace, and a girdle of silver leaves and green tulle fastened with silver roses and thistles.[13][14] Handley-Seymour also made a number of outfits for the Duchess's trousseau, which were exhibited to the press on 20 April and were noted for their modestly neutral colours, such as a grey-beige going-away costume.[15]
For the next 12 years Handley-Seymour remained the Duchess of York's favourite dressmaker, although by 1937 the Duchess – now queen consort following the abdication of Edward VIII – was transferring her patronage to Norman Hartnell.[16] Despite this, Elizabeth commissioned Handley-Seymour to create her gown for the coronation (although Hartnell dressed the maids of honour).[16] William Shawcross notes that, according to Elizabeth Longford, the Queen was aware that if Handley-Seymour had not been given the opportunity to make the coronation gown it would have upset her greatly.[17] The transfer to Hartnell was not total, as he and Handley-Seymour both supplied clothes for Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe for the 1939 royal tour of Canada.[18]
Legacy
[edit]In 1958 the Handley-Seymours' daughter Joyce donated a number of Handley-Seymour design books ranging from 1910 to early 1940 to the Victoria and Albert Museum.[1] The breadth and scope of the collection of 51 volumes of designs is seen as an "unrivalled" record of a court-dressmaker's work. [19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h Milford-Cottam, Daniel. "Costume design for Mrs Patrick Campbell in Pygmalion". Search the Collections. Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer (5 March 2013). "2012–2013 Ladies to Dine Evening". Rotary Club of St. Anne on the Sea. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
John's Great Aunt Lizzie was properly known as Madame Elizabeth Handley-Seymour, born in Blackpool
- ^ a b c Ashley, Elvire (26 November 1938). "The Dictators of Dress". The Winnipeg Tribune. Retrieved 8 April 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kaplan, Joel H.; Stowell, Sheila (1995). Theatre and fashion : Oscar Wilde to the suffragettes (1st pbk. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–80. ISBN 9780521499507.
- ^ "Advertisement for Handley-Seymour". The Times. 4 September 1914. Retrieved 9 April 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Foster, Elene (13 February 1949). "The Mysterious Miss Ford". The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW). Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer. "Maroon coat and dress ensemble designed for Evelyn Cavendish, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. First quarter 1940". Search the Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer. "Design for a day outfit for HM Queen Mary. First quarter 1940". Search the Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer (12 December 1950). "Handley Seymour Limited (Members' Voluntary Winding-up)". The London Gazette. No. 39090. p. 6233. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer (27 May 1952). "Notices Under the Trustee Act, 1925 & 1927". The London Gazette. No. 39552. p. 2924. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
- ^ Staff writer (1964). Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings: Accessions 1957–1958. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- ^ "The Duchess of York's Wedding Dress". Fashion Era. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
- ^ Bousfield, Arthur; Toffoli, Garry (26 September 2002). Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, 1900–2002: The Queen Mother and Her Century. Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-55002-391-6.
- ^ Bronner, Milton (24 April 1923). "Medieval gown for Lady Betty". The Toledo News-Bee. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
- ^ Shawcross, William (2009). Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother : the official biography (1. publ. ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 170. ISBN 9781405048590.
- ^ a b Vickers, Hugo (2013). Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. Random House. pp. 63, 178. ISBN 9781448150724.
- ^ Shawcross, William (2009). Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother : the official biography (1. publ. ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 398. ISBN 9781405048590.
- ^ Staff writer (25 February 1939). "Queen Bringing 50 Dresses for Canadian Tour". The Ottawa Journal. Retrieved 9 April 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Ehrman, Edwina; de la Haye, Amy, eds. (2015). London Couture 1923-1975: British Luxury. London: V & A Publishing. p. 17. ISBN 9781851778508.