Frocks Fit For a Queen

John Lewis was one of the brands invited to recreate four dresses based on their archived sketches from the year of the Queen’s Coronation – 1953. The four frocks – ‘Audrey’, ‘Sylvia’, ‘Monica’ and ‘Kay’ –  as well as designs from other labels such as Hunter, Daks and Alice Temperley, featured in the recent Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace from the 12th to the 14th of July. All the designs were presented in a catwalk show as part of the daytime entertainment programme during the three-day festival – a celebration of 60 years of fashion from royal warrant holders – which, of course, includes John Lewis.

Sketches of the vintage prom dresses

 

Keeping the project ‘Made in Britain’ Fashion Enter’s ‘Fashion Studio’ based over at the University of East London’s Docklands Campus, was approached to bring the vintage sketches to life. The Fashion Studio operates as a sampling and short run unit as well as holding Fashion Apprenticeship Programmes.

The team at the Fashion Studio are highly skilled and have a broad range of clients from High Street to Designer including the likes of House of Fraser, ASOS and House of Hackney.

Iain Ewing, the Womenswear and Accessories Design Manager at John Lewis Partnership was absolutely thrilled with the Fashion Studio and the final designs, he said:

“Just to say a huge thank-you for all your hard work on the vintage prom dress project.

 The dresses are in the window of Oxford Street for the next 2-weeks and they look amazing!

 There is also a 4-page spread in this weeks Hello magazine, which looks fabulous and they looked absolutely stunning on the catwalk at Buckingham Palace yesterday too!

 I know that Verity has been in touch with you about another couple of projects too, so can’t wait to start work on the next!

Thank-you again for everything.”

The dresses featured in Hello Magazine

Well done to the team at the Fashion Studio and if you missed the Coronation Festival then you can still catch a glimpse of the John Lewis vintage prom dresses, alongside original 1953 brochure images, in the windows of The John Lewis department store on Oxford Street until July 19th.

Dresses displayed in the John Lewis Flagship Store on Oxford Street

The Fashion Studio

Images courtesy of Hello Magazine and John Lewis