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Lot Essay
A ROYAL BRIDESMAID’S DRESS BY NORMAN HARTNELL, 1947
From the Wedding of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh
The 1947 Royal Wedding – An Appreciation
By Jasper Conran OBE
Postwar Britain, though victorious after the war, was in fact a grim place to be. Bombed out, grey and poor, rationing continued and austerity was rife. It was against this background that it was announced from Buckingham Palace that the Princess Elizabeth would be marrying the devastatingly handsome and devilishly sexy Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey on 20th November 1947. This posed a problem for the government of the day; what sort of wedding should it be? How could they possibly put on a truly grand event when the people of Britain were still deprived of even the most basic of needs? The new Labour government were perplexed and concerned as to what to do however, in the end sanity prevailed and it was decided that there should be a wedding fit for a Princess; the full fig; no holds barred, "A flash of colour on the hard road that we have to travel" said Winston Churchill.
There was much debate as to how the Princess would manage to have enough clothing coupons for her wedding dress and women everywhere donated theirs. By some miracle however the government managed to avert their eyes to the issue, the coupons were sent back and the Princess and her retinue of eight carefully chosen, willowy peer’s daughters made their way to Norman Hartnell's salon in Bruton Street in Mayfair.
It has to be said that when it comes to putting on a 'show' the British really know what they are about and so it was that on a freezing winter's morning amidst marching bands, foreign dignitaries and deafening cheers that an explosion of beauty, embroidery, silk, tulle, sequins and diamonds was unleashed on an enraptured British public AND the world. The unmistakable message was 'down perhaps but not out'.
One of the aforementioned daughters was the Lady Elizabeth Lambart (known, for reasons unknown, by her family as 'Smith') who happened to be a neighbour of mine when I lived in Wiltshire. In fact I lived in the (former) school where she had sent some of her decidedly (then) errant daughters. I was invited to tea one day to meet Lady Elizabeth and to see the bridesmaid's dress that she had worn to the Princess's wedding. A long archival box was produced, the lid came off and there, wrapped in tissue, lay history.
To be able to see the dress so closely and to inspect the way it was made and the stuff it was made of was a rare treat. This was compounded when Lady Elizabeth also produced ravishingly beautiful albeit rather larger items of intimate clothing that had once belonged to Queen Victoria, which had found their way to Lady Elizabeth, via her Godmother, the magnificent Queen Mary.
That was certainly a tea to remember.
SIR NORMAN HARTNELL (1901-1979)
Sir Norman Hartnell’s designs in the inter-war period have come to epitomise the glamour and taste of aristocratic taste at that time. He began dressing débutantes and their mothers in the early 1920s, eventually opening large premises on Bruton Street, Mayfair, where he continued to work and live until 1979. Rapidly becoming the couturier of choice for the Royal family, Hartnell
was commanded by H.M. Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother) to create the wedding dress and eight bridesmaid dresses for the Royal Wedding of 1947. This undoubtedly became his most important commission until the celebrated Coronation of 1953. These dresses with their floral motifs were designed to be symbolic of post-war British rebirth and growth and were inspired, not only by Botticelli’s Primavera, now in the Uffizi, but also by the vivid fashions of high-Victorian Britain, the depictions of which Hartnell glimpsed whilst waiting for his first meeting to discuss the commission at Buckingham Palace shown in the portraits of members of the extended Royal Family by Winterhalter and Hayter.
"Meeting Lady Elizabeth and wearing her dress, that had such a wonderful heritage, was a magical moment for me. I felt like I was wearing a piece of history.” - Kate Moss
From the Wedding of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh
The 1947 Royal Wedding – An Appreciation
By Jasper Conran OBE
Postwar Britain, though victorious after the war, was in fact a grim place to be. Bombed out, grey and poor, rationing continued and austerity was rife. It was against this background that it was announced from Buckingham Palace that the Princess Elizabeth would be marrying the devastatingly handsome and devilishly sexy Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey on 20th November 1947. This posed a problem for the government of the day; what sort of wedding should it be? How could they possibly put on a truly grand event when the people of Britain were still deprived of even the most basic of needs? The new Labour government were perplexed and concerned as to what to do however, in the end sanity prevailed and it was decided that there should be a wedding fit for a Princess; the full fig; no holds barred, "A flash of colour on the hard road that we have to travel" said Winston Churchill.
There was much debate as to how the Princess would manage to have enough clothing coupons for her wedding dress and women everywhere donated theirs. By some miracle however the government managed to avert their eyes to the issue, the coupons were sent back and the Princess and her retinue of eight carefully chosen, willowy peer’s daughters made their way to Norman Hartnell's salon in Bruton Street in Mayfair.
It has to be said that when it comes to putting on a 'show' the British really know what they are about and so it was that on a freezing winter's morning amidst marching bands, foreign dignitaries and deafening cheers that an explosion of beauty, embroidery, silk, tulle, sequins and diamonds was unleashed on an enraptured British public AND the world. The unmistakable message was 'down perhaps but not out'.
One of the aforementioned daughters was the Lady Elizabeth Lambart (known, for reasons unknown, by her family as 'Smith') who happened to be a neighbour of mine when I lived in Wiltshire. In fact I lived in the (former) school where she had sent some of her decidedly (then) errant daughters. I was invited to tea one day to meet Lady Elizabeth and to see the bridesmaid's dress that she had worn to the Princess's wedding. A long archival box was produced, the lid came off and there, wrapped in tissue, lay history.
To be able to see the dress so closely and to inspect the way it was made and the stuff it was made of was a rare treat. This was compounded when Lady Elizabeth also produced ravishingly beautiful albeit rather larger items of intimate clothing that had once belonged to Queen Victoria, which had found their way to Lady Elizabeth, via her Godmother, the magnificent Queen Mary.
That was certainly a tea to remember.
SIR NORMAN HARTNELL (1901-1979)
Sir Norman Hartnell’s designs in the inter-war period have come to epitomise the glamour and taste of aristocratic taste at that time. He began dressing débutantes and their mothers in the early 1920s, eventually opening large premises on Bruton Street, Mayfair, where he continued to work and live until 1979. Rapidly becoming the couturier of choice for the Royal family, Hartnell
was commanded by H.M. Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother) to create the wedding dress and eight bridesmaid dresses for the Royal Wedding of 1947. This undoubtedly became his most important commission until the celebrated Coronation of 1953. These dresses with their floral motifs were designed to be symbolic of post-war British rebirth and growth and were inspired, not only by Botticelli’s Primavera, now in the Uffizi, but also by the vivid fashions of high-Victorian Britain, the depictions of which Hartnell glimpsed whilst waiting for his first meeting to discuss the commission at Buckingham Palace shown in the portraits of members of the extended Royal Family by Winterhalter and Hayter.
"Meeting Lady Elizabeth and wearing her dress, that had such a wonderful heritage, was a magical moment for me. I felt like I was wearing a piece of history.” - Kate Moss