1909-2003
Website: www.hardyamies.com
Hardy Amies was born in Maida Vale, West London in 1909. He studied at the Brentwood School, in Essex, England until 1927. His mother was a dressmaker for the London houses of Madame Durant and Madame Gray. He initially studied journalism. After leaving school he moved to France and Germany to learn the French and German languages, and while he was there, he worked as a teacher and a tutor.
In 1930 he returned to London and began work as a salesman for weighing machines. He was attending a party, in 1933, when he admired the dress of a Mrs Singleton who had taken over the House of Madame Gray. Their designer had just quit and she offered Hardy the post. So in 1934 Hardy Amies became Manager and Designer of Lachasse, the Sports Division located in the garage of the Couture house. Amies started his lifelong career of Designing classic clothes.
1937 Amies created a suit called "panic" which attracted a lot of attention because of it's fine tailoring and fit.
1939 When World War II started, Hardy Amies contributed to the Utility Scheme operated by the British Board of Trade. During the War years, he served in the Intelligence Corps., but spent his leaves and spare moments designing for a big store in London called Bourne and Hollingsworth. He also had a small corner at the House of WORTH, where his own designs were sold. He was a founding member of the Incorporated Council Of British Fashion Designers.
In 1946 Hardy opened his own house in London at 14, Savile Row, the famous Tailor's Street and showed his first collection of classically tailored tweed and wool suits and dresses. Some of his designs were similar to those of Dior's New Look of 1947, with rounded shoulders and full skirts. One design from 1947, shown here on the right, was published in Vogue.
1950 Amies opened a Boutique selling accessories and ready to wear clothes, which became very successful. His designs came to the attention of Princess Elizabeth the daughter of King George VI and he began providing dresses for her. His first designs for Her Royal Highness were for her 1951 Canadian tour and thereafter he made many of her dress-and-coat outfits as well as some of her evening gowns.
1951 Ken Fleetwood joined him as Assistant Designer and thereafter took quite a load of the design work.
1955 Hardy Amies was awarded a Royal Warrant and continued designing clothes for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
1959 He started a succession of country-by-country licensing arrangements for home furnishings, leather goods and lingerie.
1962 Hardy Amies was one of the first women's couturiers to design clothes for men.
1968 He designed the costumes for the Science Fiction Film "200l : A Space Odyssey."
In 1968 the Queen wore a yellow gown embroidered with sequins, beads and diamante, when she visited the Saville Theatre in London, to see a production of "The Mikado." This gown was made by Hardy Amies.
1974 Hardy Amies appointed Ken Fleetwood, as Design director.
The Hardy Amies Style.
He is known for his puff-sleeved evening dresses, his lavish ball gowns, and the tweed suits which English women find so essential. These are made so well they last for years and years without going out of style.
Lady Dalmeny ordered her wedding dress from Hardy Amies and said "I wanted a classic 50's wedding dress with a very long train and embroidered primroses which are the family motif and it was made so beautifully I burst into tears. I have carried on buying my clothes from them even after the wedding."
Among the many royal and aristocratic ladies, his clientele also includes the actresses Vivien Leigh and Deborah Kerr.
Although Hardy Amies was over 90 years old, his house was still showing two collections every year, and he himself supervised the garments shown very carefully. He had a lot to say about the details and was usually right.
In 1989 he was knighted by the Queen and became Sir Hardy Amies. On his 80th birthday, in the same year, Sir Hardy handed over the reins to Ken Fleetwood, who had been assisting him for many years. However, Ken died in 1996, after only seven years. Melissa Price, daughter of Charles Price, the former U.S. Ambassador to London, was appointed designer to run the House and look after all the details. Jon Moore was also briefly designer. However Hardy Amies himself was still around to make sure everything goes out just as it always has, with impeccable taste.
The dress on the right is from 1996. Sir Hardy was very much "hands on" and in fact buttoned up one model whose decolletage was rather more than he felt necesssary.
In 2000 Hardy sold his house to the Luxury Brands Group who installed a high-powered team who started revamping the house of Hardy Amies, under the creative directorship of Paolo Gabrielli. The new womenswear collection was to be designed by Amanda Wakeley's former assistant Huguette Hubbard. Menswear was in the hands of Mathew Wood, who trained at the Royal College of Art. The very experienced Jacques Azagury was to continue designing couture at the Savile Row headquarters. In addition a new London store was planned. However after about six months, disagreements appeared and the team left.
Ian Garlant
The Autumn/Winter 2003 collection was designed by Ian Garlant, shown here on the left, advised by Hardy Amies.
Garlant was Hardy Amies' personal choice for designer for the house. Hardy Amies kept working, playing tennis and sailing up to till the end, only really retiring in late 2002.
In March 2003, he died at his home in the country, at the age of 93.
Spring/Summer 2004
Ian Garlant's first Couture collection for the house of Amies, after the death of Hardy Amies, was shown in London in February 2004. Lace minis, ultra curvy empire-line belted dresses and flesh-baring slashes on goddess gowns seemed at odds with the style of the house in earlier years. However Garlant was sure that Sir Hardy would have approved of this collection because the show was all about underlining the tailoring skills for which the house has always been known. Garlant said that Sir Hardy as a person was very much about sexy clothes.
Autumn/Winter 2004
In July 2004, at the Savile Row atelier, Ian Garlant showed his Fall collection. It was a powerful show with gold killer-heel boots, buckled up to the thigh, models like Roman warriors with tight leather bodices. Some more feminine clothes appeared like peasant-style chiffon minidresses or red floorlength gowns with trains. Stunning tweed skirts, some with lace underskirts were also shown. They were clothes for very modern independent women.
click below:
Still here : An Autobiography by Hardy Amies
The Tie: Trends and Traditions by Hardy Amies
2004