Hardy Amies (fashion house)

On 12 November 1945, Virginia, the Countess of Jersey (erstwhile Hollywood film star and the first Mrs. Cary Grant), who had been a former client during Hardy's days at Laschasse, financed Hardy Amies move to Savile Row. The following January, Amies established his own couture fashion house business: Hardy Amies Ltd. Although Savile Row is the home of English bespoke tailoring, the Hardy Amies brand developed to become known for its classic and beautifully tailored clothes for both men and women. Hardy's business quickly took off in the postwar years when customers, who had been deprived of couture for the preceding years, snapped up his elegant, traditional designs. Hardy was quoted at the time as saying, "A woman's day clothes must look equally good at Salisbury Station as the Ritz bar". Amies was vice-chairman of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers from 1954 to 56 and chairman from 1959 to 60.

Hardy Amies was located at 14 Savile Row from 1946,[4] until early 2019 when the store closed permanently.

Amies was successful in business by being able to commercially extract value from his designs while not replicating his brand to the point of exploitation. Amies was one of the first European designers to venture into the ready-to-wear market when he teamed up with Hepworths in 1959 to design a range of menswear. In 1961, Amies made fashion history by staging the first men's ready-to-wear catwalk shows at the Savoy Hotel in London.[5] The runway show was a first on many levels as it was both the first-time music was played and for the designer to accompany models on the catwalk.

Amies also undertook design for work wear, which developed from designing special clothes for England's 1966 World Cup team, the 1972 British Olympic squad;[6] and groups such as the Oxford University Boat Club and London Stock Exchange. During the mid-1970s, he ventured into interior design, including designs for Crown Wallpaper. In 1974, Amies was entered into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.[7]

In 1967, Amies was commissioned by director Stanley Kubrick to design the costumes for his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[8] The collection allowed Amies to design totally futuristic fashions. In 2001, the standard attire was a business-as-usual approach to corporate fashion. There were no neck-ties as they were in zero gravity. The Russian women scientists wore dark conservative clothing, reflecting their own conservative values. Although Kubrick's 2001 wardrobe was practical, it still reflected the mid-1960s slender look. The military and spacecraft uniforms were as common as they are now, with no dramatic changes. American women in 2001 retained roles they held in the 1960s as Hotel receptionists and air stewardesses. The women wore space-age travelling hats while carrying handbags. According to 'Setting the Scene' by Robert S. Sennett (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1994), many design elements of the film seem to reflect swinging London c. 1968 rather than the imagined future. The stewardesses' uniforms, designed by Hardy Amies, look like the uncomfortable unisex pant suits that were being promoted in the late 1960s. An epic science fiction film, it demonstrated the immense range of Amies' design ability and was nominated for four Academy Awards – receiving one for visual effects. The film was an inductee of the 1991 National Film Registry list.[9]

Amies' work was seen in a handful of other films of the 1960s: he dressed Albert Finney in Two for the Road, Tony Randall in The Alphabet Murders, Joan Greenwood in The Amorous Prawn and Deborah Kerr in The Grass is Greener.

Amies is best known to the British public for his work for Queen Elizabeth II.[10] The association began in 1950 when Amies made several outfits for then Princess Elizabeth's royal tour to Canada. Although the couture side of the Hardy Amies business was traditionally less financially successful, the award of a Royal Warrant as an official dressmaker in 1955 gave his house respectability and publicity. One of his best-known creations is the gown he designed in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee portrait, which he said was "immortalised on a thousand biscuit tins." An estimated 500 million people watched the day of events on television. Knighted in 1989, Amies held the Warrant until his death in 2003. He gave up visiting The Queen himself in 1990 so that his Design Director, Ken Fleetwood, could create for the Queen until 1996. The House of Hardy Amies was still designing for her under Design Director Jon Moore until 2002.[11]

Having written a regular column for Esquire magazine on men's fashion, in 1964, Amies published the book ABC of Men's Fashion. Amies's strict male dress code – with commandments on everything from socks to the summer wardrobe – made compelling reading:[12] When in July 2009, the Hardy Amies designer archive was opened on Savile Row, the Victoria & Albert Museum reissued the book.[12][10]

A man should look as if he has bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care and then forgotten all about them.