Simone Mirman
Simone Mirman (née Parmentier) | |
---|---|
Born | Paris, France | 18 May 1912
Died | 1 August 2008 France | (aged 96)
Simone Mirman (1912–2008) was a Paris-born milliner based in London, chiefly known for her designs for the British royal family.
Early life
Simone Parmentier was born in Paris on 18 May 1912 to middle-class Catholic parents.[1]
Simone had an apprenticeship with Rose Valois, one of the leading Parisian milliners of the 1920s and 1930s, where she developed her talent for designing hats to suit the trickiest faces, considering her first success to be a design which worked for her mother's features.[1]
In her early 1920s Simone met a Jewish medical student, Serge Mirman, whose
Millinery
Early career
In London, Simone worked with the couturiere
Business
During the
In 1947, Mirman was able to afford better premises near Hyde Park. In 1952, she moved to Chesham Place, Belgravia, where her salon and workroom remained for the rest of her professional career.[1]
By the early 1950s Mirman was supplying hats to the designers Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies, and Christian Dior.[1][3] She also supplied faithfully copied Dior model hats to John Cavanagh's 1952 debut fashion show – the first time Dior had allowed a copy of his hat design to be used by another couturier.[4] It was through Serge Mirman that Dior's licensed hosiery became established upon the London retail scene.[3]
Aside from royalty, her notable clients included the actresses Vivien Leigh and Valerie Hobson, as well as members of the English aristocracy and society.[3] On a less exalted level, Mirman designed caps to accompany the 1967 policewoman uniforms designed by Norman Hartnell.[1]
Through the 1960s and 1970s Mirman continued making fashionable hats. She created fun versions of the 1960s helmet hats encrusted with plastic gems,[1] and ultra-modern leather or plastic helmets with clear tinted PVC visors in 1966. Ernestine Carter chose one of these hats to complete the 1966 Dress of the Year ensemble.[5] Serge also helped his wife design, and he was probably responsible for the more outlandish and eccentric Mirman hats that attracted the attention of the press.[1][6]
In 1978 she also designed another women's cap for the Metropolitan Police, this time with a soft top, but its impracticality led to its rapidly gaining the nicknames 'butcher's boy' or 'Smurf' and it was withdrawn 18 months later.[7][8] After Serge died in 1980, Simone Mirman closed down her Belgravia salon, and ran a small shop for leather goods and simple headgear with the assistance of her daughter, Sophie Mirman. Sophie went on to found Sock Shop and the childrenswear boutique Trotters.[1]
Royalty
In 1952, after
Mirman's designs for royalty took into account their individual preferences – light and airy hats lavishly trimmed with flowers and feathers for the Queen Mother; and the very latest fashions for Princess Margaret.
Retirement and death
Simone Mirman retired in 1990 and returned to France, where she took up oil painting as a hobby until losing her eyesight.[1] She died in 2008 at the age of 96.[3]
Simone Mirman quote
- "If your features are even, you can wear a small hat even though your face is large. A small woman can wear a big hat in spite of all the warnings against it; but it must be in proportion to her size. She should never try to wear a hat to make her look taller. She'll fool no one about her size that way."[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Horwell, Veronica (14 August 2008). "Obituary: Simone Mirman". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^ ISBN 1-85177-194-8
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Simone Mirman: Milliner who learned her trade with Schiaparelli and designed hats for the Royal family, actresses and aristocrats". The Telegraph. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^ "Spring Fashions: London Designers' Collections". The Times. No. 52227. 5 February 1952.
- ^ "Dress of the Year: 1963 – 1969". Fashion Museum, Bath. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^ "Photograph of a hat likely to be by Serge Mirman for Simone Mirman". The Guardian. UK. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
- ^ 'Row over hat', Aberdeen Press and Journal, 10 January 1978, page 5
- ^ "Timeline - Period 1960-1990". Metropolitan Women's Police Association. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 7 August 2016.