AMIES Sir Hardy

Her Majesty the Queen is photographed during the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977. She wears an eye-catching pink silk crepe dress, coat and stole by Sir Hardy Amies, dressmaker to Her Majesty sine 1955 and the architect of her vivid, feminine and simple style. Amies, knighted in 1989, was designer and manager at Lachasse, a traditional British haute couture house, from 1934 to 1939. As well as being lieutenant-colonel in charge of special forces in Belgium, he designed clothes under the Utility rationing scheme. In 1946 he founded his own dressmaking business, designing for Princess Elizabeth and eventually holding the royal warrant. In 1950, Amies started ladies’ ready-to-wear and in 1961 began working with menswear chain Hepworths. His remark “A man should look as if he bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care, then forgot all about them” defines the Englishman’s approach to fashion.

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ALFARO Victor (Designer)

Victor Alfaro’s first collection, launched in 1991, was dubbed by Cosmopolitan magazine “a series of heatseeking glamour missiles”. Reputedly the heir to Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass, Alfaro has never sought to philosophize through his offerings; on the contrary, his mission is as simple as making the wearer look beautiful. This image shows a quintessential Alfaro creation in which vulgarity is proscribed, leaving room for bare simplicity skillfully counterbalanced by sexy, luxurious silk. The combination of a ball skirt and strapless top is typical of Alfaro’s use of separates for cocktail and evening wear, acquired while working for American ready-to-wear designer Joseph Abboud. He uses slub silk as others use cotton, in keeping with the American sportswear tradition of evening clothes that quietly forgot decoration for practical statements, even on a ball gown. In 2008 he introduced his Victor by Victor Alfaro brand.

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ALEXANDRE (Hairdresser)

Alexandre de Paris, or “Monsieur Alexandre”, as he liked to be known, attends to Elizabeth Taylor’s hair in 1962. Many legends surrounded the hairdresser, whose clients included the Duchess of Windsor, Coco Chanel and Grace Kelly. His parents, it is said, had wanted him to study medicine, but after a fortune teller predicted that “the wife of a king will do everything for you”, they relented and let him pursue his ambition. He was apprenticed to Antoine, the Parisian stylish who invented the urchin cut. Alexandre took on his mantle and became the hairdresser of the European social jet. Jean Cocteau designed his motif, a sphinx, for him in gratitude for the perm that restored to him “the curly hair of a true poet”. In 1997, Jean Paul Gaultier persuaded Alexandre out of retirement to design the hair for his first couture show, as he had done for Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain and Yves Saint Laurent.

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ALBINI Walter (Designer)

Two women striking disco poses wear the Walter Albini hallmarks: fast, glamorous clothes that recall shapes from the 1930s. Albini started his luxury sportswear business in 1965 and became known for his fundamental allegiance to the early styles of Chanel and Patou, which were counterpointed by the global influences of the 1970s. Bold colours from Asian and African art, as well as bright tartans, were employed on the jackets, skirts and other basic silhouettes. As much as any 1970s designer, Albini energized anti-establishment hippie layering and ethnicity and mixed it with the sophistication of the urbane sportswear pedigree. Albini’s motto was “Enjoy today and leave unpleasant things for tomorrow”. Ironically, premature death obviated any tomorrows, but Albini’s exuberant, aggressive and youthful sportswear was a significant contribution to the 1970s.

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