MilliOnAir | World of Books
And it wasn’t just a phrase, but his official title; Hartnell was awarded a Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) in 1940; and Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.
Inspired by Charles Frederick Worth, the English founder of modern French haute couture, Hartnell set out in 1923 to emulate his success in his own way, even opening a Paris House. But whilst accepted by the world as a boundless genius whose designs adorned the figures of dazzling and influential women on both sides of the Atlantic, behind his closed doors Hartnell revelled in his escapism through homosexuality – illegal for most of his long career.
For the first time, his full story is now being told in ‘Normal Hartnell: The Biography’ by British design historian, Michael Pick. It’s the culmination of decades of research using the subject’s own forgotten archive. The result is a fascinating portrait of a ceaselessly creative designer whose work captured the world’s hearts.
About the Author
Michael Pick, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts is the author of eight books on design and the decorative arts. A founding committee member of the official British preservation group The Twentieth Century Society, he has lectured internationally and contributed to numerous publications, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Apollo, The Connoisseur, Tatler, Harpers & Queen and Vogue.
A Mayfair antique and fine art dealer for over forty years as a director of Stair & Company Ltd and then Partridge Fine Art plc, Michael first met and wrote about Hartnell in 1977 for The London Collections magazine run by famed fashion PR Percy Savage and was responsible for the entire renovation of the famous Mayfair Norman Hartnell listed building with its unique art moderne glass salon. He was the instigator of the Blue Plaque now on the building at 26 Bruton Street, W1.
He has lectured extensively about Norman Hartnell world-wide, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Queen Sirikit Textile Museum Bangkok; also aboard the Queen Mary, as well at the Chichester and Oxford Literary Festivals and at the Fashion and Textile Museum London and Tullie House Carlisle , at both of which he has guest-curated exhibitions including items from his extensive collection of several hundred labelled items of C20th London Couture.
Copies can be pre-ordered from Amazon
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o-one encapsulates the story of pre-war London fashion better than Sir Norman Hartnell, known to the world most as the man who “dressed the ladies of the Royal Family”.
Edited by Marcella Martinelli