An Evening Fashion Show at the Savoy Hotel London (1951)

Let's join the stars, celebrities and Britain's top fashion designers. The occasion, a Mannequin Parade with a Difference. The theme is beautifully exemplified by Worth model Roland, exhibiting this banana cream face cloth dinner dress, heavily embroidered with topaz, pearls and diamante. A distinguished audience paid close and enthusiastic attention to the show. Norman Hartnell watches with Lady Rothermere, they are chairman and president of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, while film stars Richard Todd and Derek Farr relax and watch others perform for a change. Pam appears wearing a spring model from the house of Hardy Amies. In exquisite purple fine wool, features to note are the matching velvet collar, the pencil slim skirt and the matching blouse. And now Sheila, truly she walks in beauty like the night. A black fitted coat with cape collar embroidered in braid and velvet, is worn over a black wool dress with embroidered bodice. Tadpole is the name Hardy Amies gave this ensemble, and in case you wonder why, the secret's revealed in the shape of the embroidery. If winter comes can spring be, well really it can't, for here is Carol in a Charles Creed suit for 1951 in white Baratheon. Slim skirt tapering to a narrow hemline, the hip line emphasised by the three-quarter length jacket. Designer Hartnell casts a connoisseur's eye over a Digby Morton three-piece tailored suit in wool jersey. The umbrella by the way has won acclaim in both London and Paris, as the smartest accessory of the season. Whether to call this worth coat check or plaid has quite a problem. The title is Andeside, broadly translatable as what do you think? Anyway worn over a navy wool dress it fits the bill admirably, in this case Roland. One of the world's most famous models, Dolores, takes the stage in this her 3,000th Mannequin Parade. The appropriate title of this Hartnell outfit is Postman's Knock, and I'm sure any man would willingly answer the door. It's a non-stop parade of high fashion and fine fabrics, and now it's the turn of Joyce, wearing a Victor Stiebel wrap over coat in peacock velour, featuring wide sleeves cuffed with phantom beaver. The day dress underneath is in lightweight wool to match, the softly folded skirt wrapped over at the back. Mere man shouldn't be too enthusiastic, thinks Dennis Price.