Take a royal bride who refused to follow rules and an ambitious young designer waiting for the ultimate big break. Put them together and it should have been a style sensation. Instead, a personal tragedy meant that what was meant to be a royal wedding gown to set London alight ended up one of fashion’s best kept secrets.
It was never meant to be that way. Norman Hartnell was already the toast of London’s high society for his wedding gowns when, in 1935, the fiancée of George V’s third son approached him for her own bridal ensemble.
Hartnell was famous for his showstopping creations and many a society bride had walked down the aisle in one of his creations. However, this was a royal wedding. The designer to create a gown suitable for a bride set to walk into Westminster Abbey as a commoner and leave as an HRH. Hartnell was more than ready for his close up and the job was given extra zing by the determination of his new client to do things her own way.
(Royal Collection Trust)
Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, newly engaged to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, asked Hartnell to come up with something rather unexpected. She wanted modest, she wanted discreet, she wanted echoes of Edwardian. But Alice was dialling down the glitz for a reason. For over a century, royal brides had chosen white for their weddings. At a push, they might stretch to a very light cream or perhaps palest ivory. But Alice intended to do things differently. This royal bride had her heart set on wearing pink.
The exact reason why wasn’t clear. She was 34 when she married, which at the time was above the average age for a royal bride. Whether her passage into pastels was motivated by that isn’t known. She may just have liked pink. For Alice was already known for her pragmatism. She had vowed to make the most of every moment she had after narrowly avoiding drowning in an accident when she was 14 years old. Despite ticking some of the usual society lady boxes, including being presented as a debutante, Alice had then got on with doing what she thought best. This royal bride had her own ideas and if that meant going Barbie decades before the doll was even devised, that was what was going to happen.
(Royal Collection Trust)
And it did. Hartnell sculpted the pale blush fabric his latest client chose into a sleek design with a huge train, designed to light up the centre of Westminster Abbey where the marriage was set to take place. It was to be a spectacular setting for a spectacular dress. The grey stone of the Abbey walls would highlight the rosy hue of the gown while the candlelight needed on the November wedding day would add a glow that would literally allow his first royal design to shine.
However, the death of Alice’s father less than three weeks before her wedding meant the ceremony took place inside the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace without the huge audience Hartnell had in mind. Lady Alice managed to smile through her big day, despite her personal heartache. The huge crowds that had gathered for the royal wedding got a glimpse of the gown as she made her way to the Palace but its full glory wasn’t seen until after the ceremony, when the new Duchess of Gloucester stepped on to the famous balcony to cheers.
Hartnell, meanwhile, was licking his wounds. He was more than disappointed that his royal debut had been scuppered. His name was still in all the papers but the photos showed the top only of his royal design. However, there was to be a very happy ending that he hadn’t forseen.
Lady Alice had done what all sensible brides do and kept everyone happy by choosing young relations and relations to be as her bridesmaids. Enter her new husband’s two nieces, Elizabeth and Margaret. They were taken to their dress fittings by their mother, Elizabeth, then Duchess of York. And as she sat in the designer’s salon, his many creations caught her eye. She, too, put Hartnell on her list of preferred designers. It was the start of a regal relationship that would turn the ambitious Norman Hartnell into one of the most famous fashion names of the 20th century.
(Photo by Royal Collection Trust)
Just over a year after taking her daughters to bridesmaids fittings, the Duchess of York became a Queen and an Empress. Elizabeth’s husband, Albert, was catapulted on to the throne by the abdication of Edward VIII. And when the new King George VI was crowned alongside his Queen Elizabeth, in May 1937, it was Hartnell who designed the gowns worn by the Maids of Honour. At last, his creations were seen in the splendour of the Abbey by a global audience.
He would go on to make many outfits for Queen Elizabeth, later The Queen Mother and her two daughters. It was Hartnell who created Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding gown and that of her sister, Princess Margaret. And he was given the most sought after royal commission of the 20th century when Elizabeth II turned to him for her Coronation gown. In fact, such was his influence in royal life that in 2020, over forty years after his death, he dressed another bride when Princess Beatrice borrowed one of Elizabeth II’s Hartnell gowns for her own wedding.
And while his other royal brides all chose white, it was the different way of doing things by his first regal client that left him very much in the pink.
