Background

Hardy Amies was born on July 7, 1909, in London to the family of an architect for the London County Council and a saleswoman.

Education

Hardy was educated at Latymer Upper School and then at Brentwood School till the year of 1927. After graduation, his father wanted him to study at the University of Cambridge. But Amies was dreaming of getting into a career in journalism. His father made an attempt to get him a job in the Daily Express. However, it failed under the pretense that the editorial board wanted a collaborator of international culture. Through the suggestion of the editor, Amies went abroad to work and learn foreign languages.

Career

Amies spent three years in France and Germany. There he was working for an English school and a customs agent. On return to England, he started his work as a weighing-machine salesman for W. and T. Avery Ltd. located in Birmingham.

The entry into the fashion industry hap­pened by chance when the wife of the owner of the sportswear company Lachasse read a dress description he had written. She was so impressed that he was of­fered a job as a managing designer in 1934. Although he knew nothing about clothing design, Amies took the job because he hated being a salesman and quickly learned the business. For four years he worked for La­chasse in London.

After the onset of World War II he served in Britain’s Intelligence Corps, an assignment he was given because he was fluent in French. In 1941 he was made training and recruiting officer and rose to head of the Belgian section in 1944. Amies was planning and organizing sabotage operations. The most important one was the Ratweek held in January 1944. The operation was aimed at the extirpation of nazi collaborators in the resistance movement before the Normandy landing. Amies himself went to the occupied territory to recruit people. There was a list of at least a thousand Belgian policemen and informers with their addresses. However, the operation had to be stopped since the occupants began to kill civilians in response.

When he returned to London in 1945 he opened his own clothing design store, Hardy Amies Ltd. It was not long after that, in 1951, that Princess Elizabeth asked him to design some clothes for her, and in 1955 he officially became a dressmaker to the queen, an association that would last until about 1993.

In May 1973, he had sold Hardy Amies Ltd to Debenhams, who had already purchased Hepworths, the firm that distributed the Hardy Amies line. Ironically he purchased the business back in 1981. Then, Amies sold his company again in 2001 but remained its life president until his death.

In addi­tion to designing clothes for the queen, he also created clothes for other royalty, such as the Duchess of York. Besides, he designed the formal wear for the 1966 England World Cup Team and the 1972 Olympic squad and was responsible for the costumes for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Achievements

• Amies became a maverick designer for his time. His designs appeared on the cover of Vogue just a year after he had opened his couture house. In another 9 years, in 1955, he was appointed the official dressmaker to Her Majesty The Queen.
  
  Amies pioneered in ready-to-wear clothing for men and was the first designer to stage a menswear fashion show in the Savoy Hotel in 1962. Besides, he was the first designer on Savile Row to lower the height of men’s trousers.
  
  Amies is credited for having a great influence on the 1960s menswear revolution, and his designs made a mark not only in England but also in the United States, Australia, and other countries around the world.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Still here: An autobiography

    (Hardy Amies rose to become one of Britain's leading coutu...)

    1984
  • The Englishman's Suit: A Personal View of Its History’, Its Place in the World Today, Its Future, and the Accessories Which Support It

    (A charming and entertaining account of the suit's develop...)

    1994
  • Just so far

    (Here for the first time, a dressmaker 'in the heat of bat...)

    1954
  • ABC of Men's Fashion

    (Hardy Amies’s very firm guide to men’s dress. His perfect...)

    1964

• design

  • A costume for Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    1968

  • A Hardy Amies evening gown for the Queen she wore in Nova Scotia.

    1959

  • The trench coat as seen by Hardy Amies in the 1960's.

    (The trench coat as seen by Hardy Amies in the 1960's.)

  • The formal wear for the 1966 England World Cup Team.

    1966

  • The dress for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee.

    1977

  • Commonwealth Tour. This dress, worn by the Queen on a visit to Sydney, Australia, in 1954, was a particular favorite of Amies and his team, thanks to the way it emphasized her fashion model proportions.

    1954

Politics

Amies Hardy remained politically neutral.

Views

When Amies became a couturier to the Queen, he established the royal understated style of outfits. That was often criticized but he was unbending.

"I don't think she feels chic clothes are friendly," he once told an interviewer. "The Queen's attitude is that she must always dress for the occasion - usually for a large mob of middle-class people towards whom she wishes to seem friendly."

He followed the same approach while working on day clothes for women. "They must look equally good at Salisbury Station as the Ritz bar," he said. "Our customer always has one foot in the country, one in the town."

Amies remained a traditionalist. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph in 1993 he wrote, "It is clear that the man's suit - an English invention, I must add - is still worn by men at all times when respect for tradition and hope for an ordered future prevail... The suit is the uniform of the gentleman."

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

"Of course you pay for the name, but there is no way to make the name except for fair trading."

"You must look perfectly happy and relaxed in your clothes which must appear part of you rather than a wardrobe you have donned."

"Day clothes must look equally good at Salisbury station as the Ritz bar; our customer always has one foot in the country, one in town."

"Now, it doesn't mean to say that you're unkind to the lower orders. Being a snob simply means that I think the top is the best."

Membership

For his services to the queen, Amies was made a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order in 1977 and a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1989.

• Companion of the Royal Victorian Order

  The Royal Victorian Order , United Kingdom

  1977

• Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order

  The Royal Victorian Order , United Kingdom

  1989

• Chairman of the Society

  The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers , United Kingdom

  1959 - 1969

• Vice-Chairman of the Society

  The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers , United Kingdom

  1954 - 1956

Personality

When he set his own business, Hardy got rid of his "suburban gaucherie" and learned the manners of the upper classes.

Amies was a self-described snob. "I'm for elitism and its survival," he explained. "There's nothing wrong with it; it's usually benevolent and has good effects." At the same time, he was always the first to acknowledge his modest birth: "Not bad" he would say of his success, "for a suburban frock-maker."

Amies was quoted as saying “I feel that the success I have achieved in designing clothes for men.. is because I have been able to become a bridge between men of the established classes and those who shop in the high street.”

Physical Characteristics: Hardy Amies was a handsome athletic man with aquiline features and a full head of hair.

Quotes from others about the person

• Hardy's friend Peter Coats, the late and renowned gardener and socialite: "We would amuse ourselves by setting each other problems on the finer points of history, for Hardy is a keen historian. He might not know the exact details of the Treaty of Utrecht but he could certainly list the legitimate and illegitimate children of King Louis XIV, or tell you all there was to know about the Electress Sophie."
  
  Colin McDowell in his obituary for The Guardian: "He appreciated the good things in life and was a connoisseur of good food, fine wines, and firm male flesh."

Interests

• gardening needlepoint gros and petit point history pictures of Stuart monarchs

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

Amies was in a relationship with Ken Fleetwood, Design Director of Hardy Amies Ltd. They were together for 43 years until Fleetwood's death in 1996.

Sister:

Rosemary Amies

Rosemary Amies was one of only six women officers in the National Fire Service during the Second World War and afterwards served with distinction in the Women's Voluntary Service in Italy, Greece, Germany, Malaya and Hong Kong.

companion:

Kenneth Walter Fleetwood

Royal patron:

Elizabeth II

Amies became a royal dressmaker in 1950. He made his first outfits for the then Princess Elizabeth for her royal tour to Canada.

References

• Hardy Amies
  2012
• A Hundred Years of Royal Style
  1985
• World of fashion: People, places, resources
  1976
• Couture, the Great Designers
  1997