Made in Preston, Worn by the World

Major exhibition opens at The Harris, Preston -19th September 2026 – 31 January 2027

Long before London had heard of accessible luxury, Preston had already cracked it. Horrockses Fashions — born from a Lancashire cotton mill, designed in Preston, sold at Harrods and Selfridges, and worn by the Queen — is coming home. The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library is today announcing a major exhibition celebrating one of the most remarkable fashion stories Britain has ever produced, opening on 19th September 2026.

Today – 3rd April 2026 is exactly eighty years to the day since Horrockses staged its very first fashion show in 1946 and is the perfect time to tell a story that Preston should be proud of.

A Preston Brand That Dressed Royalty

Horrockses started as a cotton firm rooted in the Lancashire textile industry. In the mid-1940s it launched a fashion label that would go on to dress Her Majesty The Queen — who had first pick of every collection, wearing the garments privately before they went on sale — as well as Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Kent. 

The brand sent designers to study the Paris collections, hired graduates from the Royal College of Art, and produced two collections a year — 160 dresses each time — at prices ordinary women could save up for. A Horrockses dress meant something. People bought them for weddings, for honeymoons, for the occasions that called for your very best.

The Largest Collection in the Country — Right Here in Preston

The Harris holds the largest museum collection of Horrockses garments anywhere in the UK — over 100  dresses, with around 60 going on display this autumn. It is the first time at The Harris since a major show 25 years ago that this collection has been brought fully to public attention. Alongside them will be original sample sheets, fabric swatches, design books, and photography that show how the label worked from the inside.

The exhibition is curated by Scott Schiavone, Decorative Art Curator at The Harris, who has spent years building the scholarly case for Horrockses and is publishing the first major new book on the subject — Everyday Glamour: Horrockses Fashions from Royalty to Ready to Wear (SCALA) — to coincide with the exhibition. Copies will be available in The Harris shop.

Do You Have a Horrockses Story?

The team at The Harris would love to hear from anyone with a connection to Horrockses — whether that means memories of working at the mill, a dress that has been passed down through your family, or a photograph of someone you loved wearing one. These stories are part of the fabric of this exhibition and of Preston's history.

Stories like that of Maryse Addison — described as the best-dressed woman in London in her day — whose brother worked at Horrockses and whose collection of 23 dresses forms a major part of the exhibition. Or of women across Lancashire who saved up weeks' wages for a dress that made them feel like the most glamorous person in the room.

Nottingham House in Preston was the sole local stockist of Horrockses Fashions dresses. If you or someone in your family shopped there, worked there, or simply stopped to look in the window — we want to hear from you.

An Exhibition Designed to Be Experienced

As well as the dresses themselves, the exhibition will feature a specially designed 'Horrockses garden' installation — an immersive, floral environment inspired by the brand's famous prints. It will tell the story of why these clothes mattered so much to the women who wore them. The exhibition runs from 19th September 2026 to 31st January 2027 and is free to enter, as all exhibitions at The Harris are.

People wanting to share their story can email - theharris@preston.gov.uk