Victor Edelstein

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Victor Edelstein (born July 10, 1946 in London ) is a former British fashion designer who was best known for his creations for Diana, Princess of Wales in the 1980s. In 1989 he was listed as the English equivalent of Oscar de la Renta and described as a high-end tailor of the top ten thousand (literally: "the master of the English thoroughbred look"). Today he works as a painter .

Early career

Edelstein was born in London. In 1962 he began his career as a trainee designer for Alexon . He has also worked for Salvador, Nettie Vogues, Clifton Slimline and Biba. In 1970 he created his own label, but only for a short time. He then worked for three years for the London branch of Christian Dior SA under the direction of Jorn Langberg before re-establishing his label in 1978. In 1982 Edelstein decided to focus exclusively on haute couture , and also took on assignments for theater and ballet.

Customers

Princess Diana in Travolta Dress (Gala Dinner, White House, 1985)

Edelstein's studio was in Stanhope Mews West, London. His most important customers were Diana, Princess of Wales and Katharine, Duchess of Kent , Princess of Hanover , Princess Michael of Kent , Lucy Armstrong-Jones, Countess of Snowdon, geb. Lindsay-Hogg , Anna Wintour , Tina Brown , Michael Heseltine 's wife Anne and Lady Nuttall, who left the comment that Edelstein's studio was the only one where her husband Nicholas Nuttall accompanied them to buy clothes. In New York he served Princess Yasmin Aga Khan , Victoria Newhouse , Cece Kieslstein Cord , Anna Wintour, Tina Brown and Henryk de Kwiatowski, among others . In the late 1980s, his evening dresses ranged from £ 2,400 to £ 2,500, with £ 3,000 being the typical London limit. His customers typically bought three or four gowns per season: an evening gown, a suit, and a dinner gown or two.

Thatcher look

In preparation for Margaret Thatcher's state visit to Moscow in 1987, Carla Powell, wife of Charles Powell , one of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's senior foreign policy advisers introduced Edelstein to the Prime Minister. Powell had a similar, quite feminine figure to Thatcher and recommended that Thatcher change his clothes and put on shoulder pads, among other things, to hide her breasts a little. Edelstein supplied jackets, coats and suits for Thatcher, which had a style-forming effect and were positively registered in the television and debates appearances, which were closely followed by the Russian audience, as well as in the personal conversations of the Prime Minister.

Later years

Edelstein closed his fashion studio in 1993 with the declaration that there was no longer a market for bespoke luxury clothing. An important turning point was the separation of Lady Diana and the Prince of Wales, announced in 1992. Diana had generated significant sales as a fashion ambassador for the British fashion industry and fashion designers such as Edelstein and Catherine Walker since her wedding, and after leaving the royal family, fashion labels such as Versace and Valentino wore lavish clothes for free.

Since then he has been a painter who has exhibited his work across Europe and the United States. His portrait of Judith Martin , the American etiquette who came to be known as 'Miss Manners', was commissioned by her husband as a 70th birthday present and hangs today in the National Portrait Gallery , Washington, DC His wife, Annamaria Succi, is also a painter.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Nicholas Coleridge: The Fashion Conspiracy . Random House, 1989, ISBN 1-4481-4987-8 , pp. 217-219.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Dress Designers Factsheet (PDF; 36 kB) Historic Royal Palaces (Kensington Palace). Archived from the original on September 19, 2013. 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. Retrieved July 21, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hrp.org.uk
  3. ^ A b c d e Tony Glenville, Fiona Anderson, Emma Damon: Selected Glossary of British Designers 1947-1997 . In: Amy de la Haye (ed.): The Cutting edge: 50 years of British fashion, 1947–1997 , 1st publ. Edition, V & A Publications, London 1996, ISBN 1-85177-194-8 , pp. 203.
  4. ↑ a b c Victor Edelstein: Edelstein Biography . Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. 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. Retrieved July 22, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / victoredelstein.com
  5. ↑ Coolspotters: Victor Edelstein. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality Jonathan Aitken, A&C Black, Oct. 24, 2013, pp. 494–498.
  7. ↑ Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II, Philip Mansel, Yale University Press, 2005, p. 149
  8. ^ Judith Martin: The portrait of a lady: Judith Martin on sitting for Victor Edelstein . In: Washington Post , April 8, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2013. 
  9. ^ Judith Martin in Venice: NPG Portrait Search (Object ID 110823) . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Edelstein, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British fashion designer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH London