Sir Hardy Amies, KCVO, (1909-2003)
Michael Rhodes
Elizabeth II since 1955; Director, Hardy Amies Ltd, since 1946
[President since 1996]; Design Consultant to manufacturers in the UK,
EEC, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, & Korea, has died
[according to the BBC]. He was 93.
Edwin Hardy Amies was born 17 July, 1909, the son of Herbert William
Amies, by his wife, the former Mary Hardy, and was educated at
Brentwood.
Career: studied languages in France and Germany, 1927-30; trainee at W
& T Avery Ltd, Birmingham, 1930-34; managing designer at Lachasse,
Farm Street, London W1, 1934-39; War Service 1939-45; joined
Intelligence Corps 1939, becoming Lieutenant-Colonel and head of
special forces mission to Belgium, 1944; founded his dressmaking
business, 1946; Chairman, Incorporated Society of London Fashion
Designers, 1959-60 [Vice-Chairman 1954-56]; he was the recipient of
numerous awards - national and international - and was appointed CVO
in 1977, and advanced to KCVO in 1989.
Publications: "Just So Far" 1954; "ABC of Men's Fashion" 1964; "Still
Here" 1984; "The Englishman's Suit" 1994.
Sir Hardy's home was at Langford, near Lechlade, Gloucestershire.
Michael Rhodes
>
> Edwin Hardy Amies was born 17 July, 1909, the son of Herbert William
> Amies, by his wife, the former Mary Hardy, and was educated at
> Brentwood.
>
> Career: studied languages in France and Germany, 1927-30; trainee at W
> & T Avery Ltd, Birmingham, 1930-34; managing designer at Lachasse,
> Farm Street, London W1, 1934-39; War Service 1939-45; joined
> Intelligence Corps 1939, becoming Lieutenant-Colonel and head of
> special forces mission to Belgium, 1944;
In August 2000 the Times newspaper revealed that the outrageously camp
aesthete Sir Hardy Amies, was a key organiser of a secret wartime
campaign, codenamed Ratweek, to assassinate Nazi politicians in
occupied Europe.
Sir Hardy denied involvement, but Paul McCann of the Times saw
documents in the Public Record Office regarding the Special Operations
Executive that identified Amies as one of the organisers. Ratweek was
designed to be a major propaganda blow against the Nazi leadership.
In one week German administrators and senior Gestapo figures were to
be assassinated by secret agents. Sir Hardy, a Lieutenant-Colonel and
head of the Belgian section of the SOE in 1944, was one of the most
important SOE officers controlling operations in Western Europe. He
had to draw up lists of targets for his agents across parts of
northwest Europe. The operation did not have the impact intended
because many of the assassinations were not carried out in one week.
Sir Hardy told reports in 2000: "I was released early from the SOE
because my clothing business was doing well exporting. Perhaps it
happened after I left. I am not being secretive. I don't know anything
about it."
Sir Hardy also refused to contribute to "Secret Agent" the BBC2 series
on the SOE broadcast in the autumn of 2000.
His first association with the Royal household was via the Egerton
gels - one of whom was lady-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth.
Some Amies quotes: -
Princess Michael of Kent was also a Amies customer. He said of her:
"Of course she pays. We don't give clothes away to anyone."
"I hate strapless bodices, for example, because any man looking at one
thinks: "How the hell does she keep the thing up?" Nobody has ever
been elegant in a strapless dress because it implies that you're
making your bust work for you."
"Anything blatantly sexy can never be chic. Over-exposure of the body
is not chic."
"Dressing is mostly disguise. I object to clothes outlining the shape
of the body - it is a crime for any garment to be too tight. I can't
sew but I understand how fabric flows and drapes. A good cut is most
important. I dislike seams and darts."
"I never see any elegant dressed young women. They don't try hard
enough. The street scene is awful. As I drive through London sitting
next to my chauffeur I see young women who have dispensed with skirts
altogether, while as for the teenage element...they wear play clothes.
From watching these girls I realise that fashion today must take the
element of sport into account. But sport is the enemy of elegance".
"Women should spend their lives on a sofa...Like Madame de Pompadour."
"Her Majesty's biggest drawback is that she is only 5ft 4in, so to
make her look regal is difficult. Fortunately, she holds herself very
well."
"If the Queen weren't Queen she'd never bother about clothes. She's
fat too sensible!" is a Hardy Amies quote on QEII.
"The Queen has the most perfect manners. She gives you her undivided
attention and never makes a critical remark. The only sign of
disapproval is a raising of her eyebrows...But you get the message."
When people complained that the Queen looked dowdy, Amies reply was.
"I don't think she feels chic clothes are friendly. 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. There's always something cold and rather cruel about chic
clothes, which she wants to avoid."
Refering to Cecil Beaton he remarked: "Cecil was an unhappy queen, and
I have been a happy queen."
On Coco Chanel: "Everything she did was based on a man's suit."
In 1997 on Alexander McQueen's latest collection: "It was the naffest
thing I have ever seen."
On Honor Fraser on the catwalk: "Her dress showed the divisions in her
bottom. Nobody's going to walk down the street looking like that."
"A dress isn''t a dress until it's sold."
"There's no such thing as a designer of menswear - it's only history.
The suit around the world is based on the English suit, which began in
about 1670. Any man, whether he's American, Japanese, French or
whatever, who wants to be seriously well dressed, looks to the
Englishman's suit for how to achieve it. All those countries have the
good sense to know that they should attend to the dress of the English
upper classes, whose style has been admired and copied for 300 years."
--
MLR