Horrockses Fashions: Everyday Glamour & the Art of British Ready-to-Wear

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.

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 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.

Free