Sir
Hardy Amies,
KCVO (17 July 1909 – 5 March 2003) was born Edwin Hardy Amies in
Maida Vale, London. His father worked for the
London County Council, and his mother was a saleswoman for Madame Gray at Machinka & May, London. In his teens, he adopted his mother's maiden name (Hardy) and always cited her as the inspiration for his chosen professional path. Amies was educated at
Brentwood School, Essex, leaving in 1927. Although his father wanted him to attend
Cambridge University, it was his ambition to become a journalist. His father relented and arranged for a meeting between his son and
R. D. Blumenfeld, the editor of the
Daily Express. His father was mortified when Blumenfeld suggested his son travel around Europe to gain some worldly experience. After spending three years in France and Germany, learning the languages, working for a customs agent, as an English tutor in
Antibes, and later
Bendorf, Germany, Amies returned to England, where in 1930, he became a sales assistant in a ceramic wall-tile factory, after which he secured a trainee position as a weight machine salesman with
W & T Avery Ltd. in
Birmingham. Amies' mother's contacts in the fashion world and his flair for writing secured him his first job in fashion. It was his vivid description of a dress, written in a letter to a retired French seamstress, which brought Hardy to the attention of the owner of the Mayfair couture house
Lachasse on Farm Street,
Berkeley Square, as the wearer of the dress was the owner's wife. He became
Managing director at the age of 25 in 1934. In 1937, he scored his first success with a Linton tweed suit in sage green with a cerise overcheck called 'Panic.' 'Panic' was to be his debut in the fashion bible
Vogue and was photographed by
Cecil Beaton. By the late 1930s, Amies was designing the entire Lachasse collection. His second celebration creation was 'Made in England,' a biscuit-coloured checked suit for the Hollywood ingénue
Mildred Shay. He left Lachasse in 1939 and joined the
House of Worth in 1941. At the outbreak of World War II, Amies was recruited into military intelligence because of his fluent German and French. He listed among his accomplishments on his application mountaineering, shooting, boxing and sketching. Amies saw service in the
Special Operations Executive or SOE. Posted to SOE Headquarters in Baker Street in London, Amies was put in charge of the Belgium section and worked with the various Belgian resistance groups organising
sabotage assignments. Amies rose to the rank of
lieutenant colonel. SOE's commander
Major General Colin Gubbins did not regard a dressmaker as suitable military material, but his training report stated: "This officer is far tougher both physically and mentally than his rather precious appearance would suggest. He possesses a keen brain and an abundance of shrewd sense. His only handicap is his precious appearance and manner, and these are tending to decrease."
№ 14 Savile Row On 12 November 1945, Virginia, Countess of Jersey (erstwhile Hollywood film star and the first Mrs.
Cary Grant), who had been a former client during his days at Lachasse, financed 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. The business quickly took off in the postwar years when customers, who had been deprived of couture during the preceding years, snapped up his elegant, traditional designs. Amies 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 1956 and then chairman from 1959 to 1960.
Commercial success 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. 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;
2001: A Space Odyssey In 1967, Amies was commissioned by director
Stanley Kubrick to design the costumes for his film
2001: A Space Odyssey. 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. 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.
Queen Elizabeth II Amies is best known to the British public for his work for
Queen Elizabeth II.
''ABC of Men's Fashion'' Having written a regular column for
Esquire magazine on men's fashion, Amies published the book ''ABC of Men's Fashion'' in 1964. His strict male dress code – with commandments on everything from socks to the summer wardrobe – made for compelling reading: ==Hardy Amies' ownership==