Elizabeth Handley-Seymour

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]

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]

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]