Muriel Matilda Etches (1898–1974) was a British fashion designer and couturier, and a film and theatre costume designer. She first went into business in 1934, and found "widespread fame" in the 1940s. Etches was also a theatre and film costume designer, and worked with Sophie Fedorovitch and Cecil Beaton. Clothes that she created in the 1940s were the first modern fashion items to be honoured as key acquisitions by London's

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 ...

Early life

Etches was born in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of Charles Thomas Watkins Etches (1874–1964) and Agnes Helena Etches (nee Woollen). Her father was a captain in The

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

during World War I.

Career

Etches started a dressmaking business in 1934, but financial problems led to it being dissolved the following year. She started a new business in the late 1930s, and had "widespread fame" in the 1940s. According to a feature in ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', "Her clothes philosophy is for undating simplicity, for an elegance which relies on cut rather than trimming and above all for comfort: this last, an unusual and very welcome viewpoint." Her clients included the actress

Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gon ...

, Margot Fonteyn, Glynis Johns, Constance Collier,

Christine Norden Christine Norden (born Mary Lydia Thornton; 28 December 1924 – 21 September 1988) was a British actress. Early life Norden was born in Mowbray Terrace, Sunderland. She was the daughter of a bus driver. Her childhood home was in Chester Ro ...

, Paulette Goddard, and

Valerie Hobson Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the Pro ...

. Etches was also a costume designer for theatre and film, and worked with theatre designer Sophie Fedorovitch, and extensively with Cecil Beaton. According to the

(V&A), "Matilda Etches is now almost entirely forgotten except as a theatre, ballet and opera costume-maker. However, she was an extremely talented couturier, whose fashionable clothes were innovative and very carefully made."

Personal life

In 1919, Etches married the engineer

Robert Bamford Robert Bamford (16 June 1883 – 16 April 1942) was an English engineer, who with Lionel Martin (1878–1945), founded a company in January 1913 that became Aston Martin. Before his career in the car industry he was active as a racing cyclist. ...

, who founded a company that became

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

. They had a daughter, Patricia Bamford, who married the illustrator Robin Jacques. In 1950, she married the American economist and economics advisor,

Paul Homan Paul Thomas Homan (1893–1969) was an American economist, professor of economics at Cornell University from 1929 to 1947. Early life Homan was born in Indianola, Iowa. Homan earned bachelor's degrees from Willamette College, and with a Rhodes ...

. She spent her later life in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. After her death, Cecil Beaton wrote an obituary.

Legacy

Several Etches pieces are in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her 1948 evening dress of printed cotton is described as "an haute-couture interpretation of the wrapped garments traditionally worn by West African women", and a 1949 evening cape. In 1969, Etches donated selected items, and the cotton dress and evening cape were considered by senior V&A officials to be key acquisitions, the first modern fashion items to be so honoured.

Filmography as costume designer

* '' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), with Joseph Buto * '' Caesar and Cleopatra'' (1945) * ''

Beware of Pity ''Beware of Pity'' is a 1946 British romantic drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Lilli Palmer, Albert Lieven and Cedric Hardwicke. It is based on the novel of the same name by Stefan Zweig. A paraplegic young baroness mistakes co ...

'' (1946) * ''

Gaiety George ''Gaiety George'' is a 1946 British historical musical film directed by George King and Leontine Sagan and starring Richard Greene, Ann Todd and Peter Graves.Harper p.179 It is set in the late Victorian music hall, when an Irish impresario ...

'' (1946)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etches, Matilda 1898 births 1974 deaths British fashion designers 1940s fashion British costume designers People from Rotherham