Henry Creed

Henry Creed II

Henry Creed II (* 1824 , † 1914 ) was an English men's tailor in the mid-19th century . He was also known as a manufacturer of equestrian clothing for women.

biography

He was the son of Henry Creed (born 1765) and grandson of James Creed (born 1710), the founder of the corporate dynasty from Leicester , who had come to London in 1760, where he had successfully tried to get to know the servants of fashion-conscious gentlemen and thus to win their rule as customers.

The grandson Henry Creed II followed this procedure. After he had enjoyed a careful upbringing and educated himself on his travels, he no longer tried to get acquainted with the servants, but with the gentlemen themselves. In this respect he was most successful with Comte d'Orsay , the most famous French dandy of the time, who also wrote a fashion column in the London Daily News , which gave Creed numerous contacts in the English and French aristocracy.

Creed also became known for his riding costumes for women. When he made riding costumes from similar fabrics for the Duke and Duchess of Alba , the older sister of the French Empress Eugénie , caused a sensation and became the origin of the tweed costume , one of the most important women's clothing items in the 20th century (the spy Mata Hari became 1917 shot in a tweed suit by Creed). Queen Victoria appointed him purveyor to the court for tweed clothing. He was also awarded the title of imperial purveyor to the court as a tailor in London.

In addition, Creed was a perfumer. In 1845 he created the perfume Fleurs de Bulgarie for Queen Victoria , which is still produced today.

In 1854, Creed opened a branch on Place de'l Opera in Paris and began selling English tweed clothing to the French of the Second Empire . The Empress Eugénie was also his customer. When, after the defeat of France in 1871, the business there seemed to be endangered, Creed traveled to Paris and was wounded in a political conflict there, but survived.

Creed was married to Eleanor Southey, sister of the romantic poet Robert Southey . His son Henry Creed III (born 1863) followed him in the management of the family business.

literature

• Ingrid Loschek : Reclam's fashion and costume lexicon. 5th edition Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-010577-3 , p. 529.
• NJ Stevenson: The History of Fashion. Styles, trends and stars. Haupt, Bern et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-60032-1 , p. 42f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handbook of the Supreme Court and the Court of His K. and K. Apostolic Majesty . Kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei , Vienna 1899, p. 361 .
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.