[1950’s London Haute Couture] An Archive of 100 Original Drawings and Designs By London Designs

A fabulous collection of original drawings in a mixture of mediums (generally pencil, charcoal, ink, crayon and chalk), with a good number showing a company hand stamp in the upper left corner “London Designs Telephone Messages: Victoria 2652”. The undated drawings are absolutely exquisite and show the changing styles from post-war Britain to a new daring angular silhouette of pinched-waists and pencil pleat skirts. The collection is as follows:

63 Chiefly full length designs on uniform-sized paper (148x285mm) the majority being dresses and two-piece with the occasional coat or piece of outer wear. The drawing is meticulous, so may have been used to show clients, many have a stock number in the upper right corner. The colours are beautifully muted with just the occasional hint of something brighter - to a hair shade for instance. Some have a smaller secondary drawing alongside, often to show the silhouette from the rear. A few looser pencil sketches as well.

16 waist down designs on uniform-sized paper (133x230mm) all showing a wide variety of skirt designs for every occasion, from day wear to extravagant evening frills. Similarly executed to the standard expected by a demanding client as above, again with a stock number in the upper right corner.

21 rough working drawings on a mixture of paper stock and sizes (approximately between 200x253mm to 250x350mm). Largely full length and mostly in monotone (ink and pencil/charcoal) with just three with watercolour decoration, though in brighter shades than the muted colours above. These are likely to be the drawings where designs are roughly created before moving on to what would be shown to clients. Because of this they have a rather lively free style with lots of movement, some with annotations alongside regarding material choice or design detail.