Peter Lewis-Crown OBE / House of LACHASSE
Peter Lewis-Crown OBE is a British fashion designer whose dedication and passion led him to become entwined with one of London’s leading couture houses, LACHASSE. In his new autobiography ‘House of Lachasse: The Story of a Very English Gentleman’, Peter Lewis-Crown OBE shares the secrets of couture, offers anecdotes about many well-known figures and brings to life a world of elegance and cocktail parties now reserved for museums and galleries.
Peter Lewis-Crown OBE giving a lecture at Oxford University
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THE MONTEBURY — Where does your story begin?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — I was born in Norfolk. My grandparents were dairy farmers but there was no work for them after the First World War, and so my father was sent out to work. There was no work for him in the local village so he took to hairdressing. He married my mother and they had three children. I was the middle child and they say that the middle one always pushes forward to establish himself, which I did. Right from a very early age I wanted to be a dress designer, even though I didn’t know what it meant. I would design dresses for my sister’s dolls and eventually for the village fancy dress parties. In the forties it was very fashionable to have lots of fancy dress balls. It grew and grew and I eventually went to school. I went to King Edward VII in King’s Lynn where I had private art lessons from a woman called Ms. Sheldon, who was very encouraging and taught me all forms of art. Fine art first of all, because I wasn’t allowed to do any fashion drawing or dress designing. I got restless and left at eighteen, having gained all of my certificates. My mother wouldn’t let me come to London until I had found somewhere to live. My aunt and uncle were staying with us and they offered me two rooms, one they turned into a studio and one which was to be my bedroom. I used to work for shops in the war time, because fancy gifts were in short supply, so I used to make them. A shop in the high street called Marshall’s, a very good china shop with royal patronage, used to sell them for me. Before I came to London, I was sent away to stay with some family friends on a farm and fell in love with the ducks and chickens. When I left, they gave me one in a box which started me off on a small poultry farm. So, with the fancy gifts and poultry farm I got enough money to pay for my art lessons.
When I wanted to come to London, I got a grant from the Norfolk education committee. The man interviewing me said that it was a very big grant that I wanted and he asked me to justify it. I said ‘I am going to succeed’, which was rather pompous, but they gave me the grant. I came to London, wrote around, and got into the Chelsea School of Commercial Art. I went to stay with my aunt and uncle for a few months and ended up staying for ten years.
THE MONTEBURY — What happened next?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — When I went to the Chelsea School of Art, I met a woman called Mrs. Stephenson, who took an interest in my work and introduced me to St. Martin’s School of Art, because she thought I ought to go there for evening classes. The model girl at Lachasse was also modeling for the students at St. Martin’s in the evening, so she again took interest in me through Mrs. Stephenson. That got me an introduction to Lachasse and I went along for an interview. Mr. Michael, the then designer, said that he could not offer me a job as a designer but they would teach me the trade. I was very grand, because I said that I would have to go away and think about it. Over the Christmas I thought that I would like to go and work there, so I went on a very early January day and took up the job. I was made to pick up the pins with a magnet and put out the water for the dam breaks that they used to press the clothes with. I learnt the trade under a wonderful woman called Connie, who taught me every possible thing about tailoring and stitching.
THE MONTEBURY — Was it very different to the sort of training somebody would go through now?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — Oh yes, it was very thorough. We were made to practice on bits of material and if they were not perfect, we would do them again and again. But, they eventually thought that I should take on my own work, which in those days was a big responsibility, because the clothes were very intricate and interlined. I was given a junior and was apparently a very quick worker. They then thought I ought to have my own workroom, so I was put at the top of the house. It was a very big building in Berkeley Square. The building was kept the same, so the horses went up on a ramp to the first floor, the fodder was kept on the ground floor and the stable lad slept on the top floor. When the lease terminated, it was exactly as it was when it was first built. The company started in Bond Street where Fenwick’s are and then we moved to Berkeley Square.
“ Each designer brings a new handwriting to a fashion house ”
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I gradually grew up and they suggested I go down to the showroom to seat the women on show days. I knew a lot of the clients and it was a very diplomatic job, because everybody wanted to sit in the front row. In the wintertime we would sit all the women with fur coats in the front row to see which was the best fur coat, but they didn’t know they were being judged behind the scenes. More and more clients got to know me and I was leading a very hectic social life. At St. Martin’s I met a boy called Ola, and his father was a great friend of Aage Tharrup, the then Queen’s Milliner. Ola was very keen for me to meet him and so I went to his showroom on Brook Street and they showed me all of these lovely hats. Through him, I met a woman called Elizabeth Voss who made the Queen’s tricorn hat which she used to wear for the trooping of the colour. One day, Ola said to me that Elizabeth Voss wanted me to make her a coat. I made her a brown coat lined with turquoise as well as a very pretty turquoise dress for underneath. She wore it and it was very much admired, and then she said that a friend of hers wanted something made. It turned out to be Lady Lumley Smith and her husband travelled the world a great deal in connection with the royal family, so she ordered a whole trousseau. In my spare time, I had all the workers at Lachasse working for me making private orders. I was also being recommended to all sorts of people and I spent most of the time on buses and tubes going from place to place fitting the clothes.
THE MONTEBURY — Did you ever think about setting up your own company and moving away from Lachasse?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — I had, but I am a creature of habit and I was settled there. The chairman of Lachasse at the time had four daughters but no son, and the deputy chairman was a woman who was not married, so they were sort of my business mother and father. I didn’t realise at the time, but looking back on it I could see they were pushing me to take over.
When the company first started, the first designer was Digby Morton who wanted to take over but Mr. Shingleton, who owned the company, wouldn’t let him. He left and Hardy Amies wrote a letter to Mr. Shingleton, having seen his wife at a hunt ball, describing this beautiful dress she was wearing. Mr. Shingleton said that was wonderful and that he must be the next designer which is how Hardy Amies got his break in fashion.
Hardy Amies also wanted to take over the business but left and opened on fourteen, Savile Row. Along came a young Millinery designer called Mr. Michael who was very famous for making suits for women that could be worn to the theatre and for cocktail wear etc. Each designer brings a new handwriting to a fashion house. Digby Morton brought tweeds to London and made suits for racing. All of the stripes on suits in the thirties were cut downwards and Hardy Amies turned the material around so the stripes went across, which meant that all had to match. Some of the silly fashion writers say that if you cut stripes around it makes you bigger, but if you have a seam through the bust line and you match the stripes going across, it doesn’t show the bust. If you have the stripes going downwards it silhouettes the bust and therefore makes the bust look bigger. Mr. Michael took over around coronation time and eventually wanted to take over the business, but Mr. Shingleton said ‘absolutely not’. Most fashions started in the hunting field, cuffs, split skirts, cravats all come from the hunting field, which is why they called it Lachasse. So, Michael got restless and so he left the company and bought Peter Russell’s business out and opened in Carlos Place.
So, Lachasse was hunting for a designer and they found an Irish Marquess who was known as Mr. Owen. He brought rather dark, heavy looking clothes that were not dainty. I think it was with the time but he was a land loving man and he married a German widow with whom he spent a lot of time on a German estate, so that outlook was heavier and darker.
THE MONTEBURY — How did you move on to take over the company?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — One of the vendeuse announced that she was going to leave and that she would give her book of clients to me. She had been left a lot of money and had no need to work anymore but then suddenly changed her mind and decided that she wanted to stay. The director said that she could not do that, because it was unfair to me. So, she said that she would stay a year and train me - it turned out to be the most difficult year of my life. She really didn’t want to leave and she knew that I was waiting in the wings. After a year, she left and I took over. The next year I doubled the turnover and the year after I trebled the turnover. I was earning so much in commission, they thought it would be better to make me a director behind the scenes, because I was only in my very late twenties/early thirties, which was very young for anyone to be head of a company. So, the four vendeuse working in the showroom were working for me but they didn’t know it and I had to be very careful to not let out that I was in charge. Gradually I bought more and more shares and to keep me to the company, Mr. Shingleton made some of the family sell some of the shares to the me. I took over more and more of the designing, and I saw that my clients wanted lighter, fluffier clothes as well as the sportier ones. So, I was allowed to put a few things in the collection each season. That grew and grew, the designer eventually left and I completely took over the designing. As I had two thirds of the clientele, it was quite an easy thing to do. By that time, I had a third of the shares and years later my co-partner died and left me her shares. So, I had two thirds of the shares and by the articles of the company I was entitled to ask for the third share, which I did and I got. |
With
HRH The Princess Margaret
at the Berkeley Hotel |
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“ You have got to know what your client has in her mind, long before she really knows what she wants ”
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THE MONTEBURY — Why did you eventually decide to close Lachasse?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — When the lease at Berkeley Square terminated we were about to close and didn’t know where to go. A client of mine lived in South Kensington and I used to go there to fit her. Coming back, I noticed a shop that was empty and in very bad state, but I asked my secretary to find out about it, because it looked promising. The minute we got inside, we realised it was what we wanted. It was a split-level showroom, with workrooms at the back. That is where we stayed until the lease went three years ago now. I was 76 then, some of the staff were getting older and I could see that life was changing rapidly, because women no longer have that amount of money to spend on their clothes and they want less constructive clothing. I thought rather than sell it on and see some young man come in and change the handwriting completely, I decided to close it. It was always Lachasse and I have left that memory in museums and galleries and I have a lot of the original clothes. The clientele was four thousand, spread all over the world. I designed for lots of different things and I think I was the only man to have three shows on the London stage all dressed by me. I was still lecturing at St. Martin’s, because they kept their eye on me and asked if I would go back there. The head tailor had walked out and they asked me if I would come and finish the term. Then they asked me to come back for the next term. I went from teaching two and a half hours a week to teaching four nights a week for two and a half hours. This went on for forty years. So, you can see I don’t jump about a lot.
THE MONTEBURY — What other work have you taken on?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — I used to work on the British Colour Council and for the Linen Research at Lambert in Ireland as well as lecturing all over the country with model girls. You would finish work at four o’clock, pack up the collection, rush to the train whilst the model girl would be putting her face on and we would step off for a cocktail party, dinner, fashion show and lecture.
THE MONTEBURY — What is the most challenging aspect of creating a couture piece?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — You have got to know what your client has in her mind, long before she really knows what she wants. If she has her heart set on something in the collection, I used to let them order that, and before we sealed the order, ask her if she had thought about other colours etc. Gradually, you would change it for them to what you thought was best. You must remember that you have got to satisfy both their mind and figure; they have got to feel good in it. A lot of clients would say that they would look after the front but I had to look after the back, because that would be when most people would see them. It is a meeting of minds and they are buying confidence and your taste, and relying on you to not let them down. Most women are very good, and we had very little trouble. They would bring their friends and relationships but you would have to be careful not to upset one, because you would upset the entire circle. It was very exciting, because a lot of them had débutante balls, which has all died down now.
THE MONTEBURY — Things have changed a lot. What is your opinion on the change?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — I think people buy on the run now. They buy garments and bits and pieces and put it all together but they don’t buy a complete look. They seem to be afraid to stand out, elegantly dressed and soigné. In the old days, they wanted to be looked at. They would go to Claridges and have paradise feathers in their hair and they wanted people to see that they were wealthy. Now, they run about in baggy-looking clothes that don’t fit and jumpers all over the place, a bit like Worzel Gummidge. It was a joy to see them and the women would aim to look like the model girls. They would take advice on their underwear, their corsetry, everything. Now it’s all too casual.
THE MONTEBURY — Was it difficult to dress the women who were larger than the model girls?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — You had to look at them and think about what they wanted and what they are going to feel comfortable in. They have to put the garment on and relax. If they have big bosoms, you have got to make rather important shoulders and take the eye away. I think models are a little too thin now and we always had slightly older model girls (24/26), which we were criticized for. We tried once or twice to put younger model girls in but it didn’t work simply because the clientele were established and wanted very plain clothes that had a beautiful fit and were beautifully made. They had all the jewellery in the world to put on them if they wanted to, and they had furs, so the clothes were the background. I have seen some of the most wonderful furs and jewellery in the world, and have designed things to go with them. I think the biggest shock I got was when a designer before my time chopped off all the sleeves of the jackets and made them three quarters. We were very hesitant about showing them, but one woman who was frightfully smart came in and asked for two or three of them. She said that it was good because after her guests had left, she could do the washing up without having to change her jacket.
THE MONTEBURY — Did Lachasse see a lot of change in fashion?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — Well, in the old days some of the topcoats were enormously heavy and I don’t know how they staggered around with them because they were quilted and the lining was quilted. With air travel, there wasn’t the space for that sort of life so we had to design thinner things, more tubular things. Audrey Hepburn brought in the very lean look from Givenchy. For an evening look they wanted lace and chiffon that didn’t weigh anything but was just beautiful colours. I think they have all lost their way at the moment. At St. Martin’s I used to teach John Galliano, Bruce Oldfield etc. Most of the designers in Milan and Paris were from St. Martin’s. They all came to me for the first year, went wondering about the school for the second, and came back to me for the third. They got a start in the couture world and got a polish, with their wild bit in between. They all did very well out of it, even if they didn’t take up dress making, they became writers, critics, artists etc. It is a shame that there are very few fashion artists now, because it is all photography. The model girls used to have to stand for hours after a fashion show whilst the artists drew the garments. Everything is instant now. They can click the camera and airbrush. In the old days it was a work of art. There were about six very good fashion illustrators including Francis Marshall and Rob at the Daily Express. It was a joy to see them and people used to wait for the new lines to come in. That has gone now. |
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Over the years, Lachasse took over lots of other companies and was described as the elegant octopus, because we kept buying up companies. In the end, the couture was still the biggest part of the business but the ready to wear was financing it.
THE MONTEBURY — Was your clientele mostly British?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — No, international. There is a lovely story about a woman getting off a plane in New York and another waiting in the lounge. The woman waiting said ‘I know where you have been’, to which the other replied ‘how?’. ‘Well’ she said, ‘the back of your skirt has got the pleats that are so famous at Lachasse, you have been to see Mr. Crown’. It was like a club and quite often they would come and chat and the drop away line would be a suit order. It was a very happy atmosphere and I encouraged the clients to know the workers.
THE MONTEBURY — At which point did the fashion world really start to change for you?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — The fashion evolution is very slow and each season I think it changed, but it began to change rapidly in the seventies. Jeans came in and people wanted to be free and not restricted by their clothes. I used to work for the clothing institute and we used to show a line and saw that it was being taken up very quickly by mass produced clothing. I once got off a bus going to Oxford Street and saw some very bright colours in a shop window. I wondered who had chosen those colours and realised that I had predicted them two years earlier on the British Colour Council. Couture is always slightly vulgar, because it has to be larger than life for people to notice the change. So, if you have a bow, you don’t put a mini bow but a large bow. It has to be a statement but the silhouette must be clean cut. That is the problem at the moment because there is not a clean silhouette. Machines have become so clever now because they can repeat the tricks that we used to do by hand. Button holes used to be done by hand but now they are done by machines. When the new fabrics came in at the end of the wartime, the designers were very lucky because the new colours and materials were being pushed out rapidly. Every season a new fabric came out and it was Courtauld who used to commission three or four dresses to be made in their new fabrics. They would pay a handsome price to drape these synthetic fabrics.
THE MONTEBURY — What is your most memorable experience from Lachasse?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — There have been lots. I think making a coat for Lady Thatcher for the Queen’s anniversary for Westminster Abbey, which was a cashmere silk with turquoise was rather lovely. It is difficult to explain, because every season all of the women used to come in and order four things for Ascot. Three to be worn each day and one extra in case it rained. I used to love to go and see which one they had chosen. I would advise on what they should and shouldn’t do but invariably they would do what they wanted to do. They would put a hat on at the wrong angle and if they came face to face with you in the enclosure they would look at you, you would look at them and then they would tilt the hat the way you originally suggested it. It was a bond between you. One grows very fond of your clients and since I retired I have kept in touch with a lot of them. My book is doing very well the world over and I am signing about a hundred a day.
“ Couture is always slightly vulgar, because it has to be larger than life for people to notice the change ”
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THE MONTEBURY — Who did you enjoy dressing the most?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — The actress Dinah Sheridan was a joy to dress. Edwina Mountbatten was a joy to dress, very undemanding, always very grateful and willing to listen to your advice. She was always ready to tease you and we had a great relationship. I did a lot of clothes for Oscar Homolka’s wife, Joan Tetzel. Flora Robson was great for her career and personal life and I dressed Zsa Zsa Gabor once. They were all such different women and they all had their needs. You had to rise to the occasion and they would always make sure that you did.
THE MONTEBURY — What about the future of couture?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — It is very difficult. I think anybody would be very foolish to predict what is going to happen. First of all, we have to get the finance of the world and country right before people have the money to splurge out on things. I don’t think they will ever go back to the beautiful, elegance we had. What I find desperately sad is that these young girls are making themselves look so tatty and scraggy and that beautiful period in their life where they have beautiful skin only happens once. I think that the sixties and seventies saw the end of that. People seem to be spending more money on clothes, and I finished Lachasse on a very high note, but I think I got out at the right time. I don’t like shoddy goods and people with open neck shirts shuffling into parties like they have just cleaned the drains out or taken the dustbins down the yard. |
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“ They seem to be afraid to
stand out, elegantly dressed and
soigné ”
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THE MONTEBURY — Is this change due to the change in education?
PETER LEWIS-CROWN OBE — I think a lot of it has to do with the schools that are not teaching people to sew. They are losing skills. In England, we are losing the trade and the beautiful tailor-made suits are disappearing. The occasions are also not there to wear these beautiful clothes. I am appalled when I go to The Ritz for lunch or dinner to see how some of these people look. I was taken to a very smart restaurant the other day and I was appalled at the tacky women, no ties and the hair - don’t mention it! I once saw Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll at a birthday part that was given for me. All the guests had arrived but it was her trick to arrive late. She came in with a black chiffon dress with floating panels and a triple row of pearls. She looked absolutely magnificent and everybody stopped talking and just looked at her. There was nothing in it but she looked absolutely statuesque. |
Evening EnsembleCopyright © John Cole at Studio Five‘House of Lachasse: The Story of a Very English Gentleman’ by Peter Lewis-Crown OBE is published by Delancey Press. For more information, please visit www.delanceypress.co.uk.
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The Top Ten Couture House Joint Fashion Show
Copyright © Herbert de Gray
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— February 2010
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