Christian Dior London. Brown wool blend skirt suit with logo pattern jacket, early 1960s. Purchased in Grimsby.

Woman's jersey knit skirt suit, beige wool and polyacrylic blend skirt and jacket with small brown-on-brown chequerboard pattern, the jacket with additional darker brown CD logo pattern knitted into the fabric. One of the square patch pockets at the hem of the jacket has been attached upside down. Worn with a beige ribbed turtle-neck sweater with an embroidered brown CD logo near the lower edge of the hem.

Given by Kathy Davis

This suit was purchased by 'Audrey' in Grimsby in the early 1960s from a 'madam shop' located in the Old Market. Madam shops were small independent boutiques and dress salons typically run to cater to a local clientele. The (usually female) proprietors of such shops would order in garments from designers, ready-to-wear houses, and wholesalers specialising in the type of good quality clothing that was most relevant to the local customer base. The shop in Grimsby was run by a Mrs. Denys Petchell (née Kristina Ebenezersson, 1920-2005), who Audrey remembered as being a very elegant and always beautifully dressed woman whose shop reflected her own chic.

The Petchell business started in 1910 at 177 Cleethorpe Road, as a small draper's and milliner's shop. H. E. Petchell, the original owner, gradually bought adjoining properties until it became quite a large store. His son, Denys Eugene Petchell (also spelt Dennis; b.1916), was originally a buyer for the store, and eventually became owner of the business. Denys was Mayor of Grimsby in 1965, and became a Honorary Freeman of Grimsby in 1971. He was also awarded the CBE for political services. It is perfectly possible that he bought his wife a small shop on Old Market for her to run as a boutique/madam shop. This shop may well have been "L&G Modes," offering "Exclusive Ladies' Fashions," on the corner of Bull Ring in the Old Market Place. The buildings were demolished in the early 1970s.

Audrey, who worked as a staff and personnel officer for Laporte Industries, a factory specialising in chemical manufacturing on the Humber Bank, was always looking for smart outfits for work. She often participated in the interview and selection process for graduates seeking employment. The outfits she chose would eventually become her everyday wear outfits as they wore out, but she never wore this Dior suit. She realised soon after purchase that the jacket had the initials C.D. all over it, a detail that she felt made it too pretentious for her to wear for work, and wished she had bought another design instead. She remembered that the suit had cost about £40 at the time (equivalent to about £550-650 as of 11/2016), which was not cheap, and because she was conscious that it was a very good quality piece, she kept it carefully, even after it became slightly too small for her to wear. As a consequence the suit has never been worn, and still has its original hang tags.

Other than the good provenance, which tells us so much about the process of buying major designer names outside the major capital cities before designer-specific retail outlets became more widespread, this suit is of great interest as an early example of "logo dressing." The use of Christian Dior's initials to create a repeating design over the jacket, plus the subtler embroidery of a CD monogram near the hem of the sweater, produces a garment designed to transform the wearer into a walking advertisement for the designer. From a curatorial perspective, it is fascinating to know how Audrey reacted when she realised this, as while she clearly appreciated good clothing, she obviously did not wish to advertise that fact too explicitly.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of David Grimstead and Veronica Martin, members of Rod Collins's Lincolnshire History blog, for their generosity with information on the shops of Grimsby and the Petchells, which has helped me piece together a lot of the background to the suit.

- Daniel Milford-Cottam
30/11/2016

T.210:1-3-2016