Fashion world asks: Can Queen's tailor still cut it?
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Your support makes all the difference.Hardy Amies, the Queen's favourite outfitter, has lost its chief executive, leading fashion watchers to wonder whether the Savile Row label can still cut it among the upper classes.
David Duncan Smith, the elder brother of Iain, the Tory leader, left his job amid claims that the company's pursuit of cutting-edge designs may have come at the expense of Hardy Amies' previously unshakeable appeal to the well-heeled.
For decades the Mayfair store has been a cornerstone of the British fashion industry, providing glittering ballgowns for debutantes or tailored tweed suits for race-goers. At the height of "gentlemania" fashions in the 1960s and 1970s, Hardy Amies enjoyed strong exports in the ready-to-wear menswear market, a lucrative niche now exploited by Sir Paul Smith. But since the label was sold last year by its founder, Sir Hardy, aged 93, it has been beset by problems highlighted by the departure of Mr Duncan Smith, who worked for Prada and Louis Vuitton before being hired by the house's new owners, Luxury Brands Group.
Leading designers drafted in to replace Sir Hardy have already left their jobs at the Mayfair atelier where the Queen's coronation gown was made by a dozen skilled seamstresses in 1953.
Jon Moore, the 45-year-old designer who worked for the fashion house for years and was responsible for most of the outfits worn by the Queen over the jubilee weekend, has left to become an interior designer.
Three weeks ago the designers Paolo Gabrielli, formerly at Bally, and his assistants Matthew Wood and Huguette Hubard, both graduates of the Royal College of Art, left the company.
With hopes of emulating the success of Burberry by developing a younger market, the company appointed Moroccan-born Jacques Azagury as head of couture. He is best known for his low-cut eveningwear, a favourite of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The latest ready-to-wear women's collection, launched at London Fashion Week in February, failed to impress some fashion writers and buyers. Comprising elaborate designs and festooned with bows, it was withdrawn amid criticism that it was "too young" and failed to appeal to the middle-aged clientele built up by Sir Hardy. The company announced it was going "back to basics".
Meanwhile Sir Hardy has unofficially come out of retirement and has been holding talks on the direction of the company with his protégé, the old-school couturier Ian Garlant.
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