Foale and Tuffin was an English fashion design business established in London in 1961 by

Marion Foale Marion A Foale (born 13 March 1939 in Edmonton, London) is an English artist and fashion designer. With Sally Tuffin, she formed one half of the design team behind the 1960s fashion label Foale and Tuffin. Born in London, Foale attended Ilford ...

and

Sally Tuffin Sally Tuffin (born 1938 in Essex) Sally Tuffin; Marion Foale
National ...

. The label became a part of the 1960s Swinging London scene.

Company history

The designers had both studied at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1961. ''Foale and Tuffin'' was born after they made an appointment to show two dresses to a buyer at Woollands 21 shop, next door to

Harvey Nichols Harvey Nichols is a British luxury department store chain founded in 1831, at its flagship store in Knightsbridge, London. It sells designer fashion collections for men and women, fashion accessories, beauty products, fine wines and luxury f ...

, after hearing they were looking for merchandise from young designers. Foale and Tuffin took three floors of a narrow house and shopfront in

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. S ...

. Shunning Paris fashion, they turned their design focus towards ‘fun’ clothes. They became known for their tailoring, creating long lean suits and coats, such as those worn by Susannah York in ''

Kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

''.Suit by Foale and Tuffin, 1964
in the collection of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

By 1963, Foale and Tuffin had fulfilled their ambition of running a successful business without the help of a man. In 1962 ''Vogue'' magazine found their work, and chose a dress to be photographed. David Bailey took the shot, resulting in Foale and Tuffin's ''Vogue'' debut. Foale and Tuffin became a regular fixture of

Marit Allen Marit Allen (17 September 1941 – 26 November 2007) was an English fashion journalist and costume designer who specialized in costumes for films. She designed the costumes for several successful Hollywood films, including ''Mrs. Doubtfire'', ' ...

's groundbreaking 'Young Ideas' section in British Vogue, along with many other young designers such as John Bates,

Bill Gibb William Elphinstone Gibb (23 January 1943 – 3 January 1988) was a Scottish fashion designer who became renowned in the 1960s and 70s for his unusual and flattering designs. Early life and education Gibb was born near New Pitsligo, a small ...

Gerald McCann Gerald McCann (born March 20, 1950) is an American Democratic Party politician who served two non-consecutive terms as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey before being convicted of fraud in a savings-and-loan scam. When he was elected in 1981 he wa ...

, and

Jean Muir Jean Elizabeth Muir ( ; 17 July 1928 – 28 May 1995) was a British fashion designer. Early life and career Jean Muir was born in London, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father ...

.Garments worn by Marit Allen
in the

Accessed 10 January 2011. In addition to publishing their work and promoting it, Allen showed her support by wearing the clothes herself. Her Foale and Tuffin wardrobe was sold at auction in 2010. In 1963, Foale and Tuffin set up their first real premises in a little walkway called Marlborough Court, off

. Originally workrooms, this became their first shop. As well as designing for the British market, along with

Mary Quant Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, (born 11 February 1930)The Mary Quant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019-20 stated her year of birth as 1930, and that she became a student at Goldsmiths College around 1950. is a ...

, Foale and Tuffin designed for the large American retail chain

J C Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

. They also designed for the

Puritan Fashion Corporation The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...

under a label called Paraphernalia, for which

Betsey Johnson Betsey Johnson (born 1942) is an American fashion designer best known for her feminine and whimsical designs. Many of her designs are considered "over the top" and embellished. She also is known for doing a cartwheel ending in a split at the ...

was already a designer. They embarked on whistle stop publicity tours around America, including Breakfast TV. The last Foale and Tuffin collection, ''Coco Frills'', came out in 1972. A book was published in October 2009,'' Foale and Tuffin: The Sixties. A Decade in Fashion'' by Iain R. Webb, published by ACC Publishing Group.

References

{{Authority control English fashion designers 1960s fashion 1961 establishments in England 1972 disestablishments in England