A view of fashion archive, 1968

4 January 1968 ready-to-wear Jean Muir coat-dresses and bespoke couture

The contemporary look
The coat-dress proved to be an excellent town outfit in the transition time from summer into autumn. And all the signs and portents suggest that it is likely to supplant the suit for smart street-wear in early spring. It has a much more contemporary look than a suit, a much younger look, a more total, less cut-up look. Most of the better, more expensive, ready-to-wear houses have included coat-dresses in some form or other in their spring collections; and by the end of January they will be in the shops.

You don’t have to wait till then for the Jean Muir coat-dress in our picture, which is indeed a coat-dress par excellence. Fortnum and Mason already have it. It is in khaki-coloured corded wool, a fine hard flat fabric, superbly cut and tailored. There is great elegance in the back fullness, which stems from side-pockets and a curved back belt. Jean Muir’s prestige extends to the United States, to which she exports a great deal. Her clothes are of the category that in France is usually called haute boutique, and her collections, although ready to wear, are shown with all the panache of the couture. Many of the fabrics she uses are exclusive to her. The Jean Muir scarf the model girl has tied to her handbag is in one of the striking silks, with big circle designs in brilliant colours, that she is using for summer and party dresses this coming season.

Bespoke dresses

Readers who have material they want made up, or who like to have clothes made to their own individual ideas, or who just cannot find readymade clothes to their liking, often ask me to recommend a dressmaker or tailor who works for private clients. Now at last I have found this rare thing. The address is: Arnold Couture, 22 Chiltern Street, W 1– a small street running parallel with Baker Street. Telephone Welbeck 5641.

Arnold set up here after three years of designing and making clothes for Liberty’s “Treasure Shop,” which he still does. When you visit him at Chiltern Street he has a few of his own models to show you – more or less to start the talking, and because some people cannot visualise a finished garment from sketches and swatches of fabrics.

When the design and fabric have been decided, he cuts a muslin toile for your first fitting, then gives as many fittings of the actual garment as necessary. Workmanship is completely couture: interlining, hand finished seams, etc. Charges are 18-20 guineas for making a day dress; 25 guineas suit or coat 25-30 guineas cocktail and evening dresses. All linings, interlinings, buttons, zips, trimmings, etc, are included in the making cost. I suggested Arnold Couture to a reader who wanted a dress and coat made for her wedding, and she wrote afterwards, “Arnold made me a dream of an outfit.”

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