Elspeth Champcommunal (1888 – 10 November 1976) was a British fashion designer and the first editor of ''

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'', ...

'' in Britain. She was influential as a designer in her own right in Paris, with an eponymous brand, later taking on the role of chief designer of Worth London. She was among the founder members of the

Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (also known as IncSoc, Inc Soc and ISFLD) was a membership organisation founded in 1942 to promote the British fashion and textile industry and create luxury couture to sell abroad for the war ...

(IncSoc) and remained involved with the organisation during her tenure at Worth London.

Background and life in France

Born Elspeth Mary Hodgson, little is known about her early life. British by birth, she married the French artist Joseph Champcommunal, who died in 1914 in the first year of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She remained in France, becoming closely associated with the Paris literary and artistic set and posing for portraits by photographer

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

. She was a friend of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

– who called her 'Champco' – and the

Bloomsbury Set The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Stra ...

artist

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, who helped her sort through her husband's paintings and would later stay in her home in the south of France. London Fashion Designers- the work of Members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, London, England, UK, 1945 D23781

London Fashion Designers- the work of Members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, London, England, UK, 1945 D23781

She travelled in Europe every summer from 1929–39 with the American literary publisher and modernist

Jane Heap Jane Heap (November 1, 1883 – June 18, 1964) was an American publisher and a significant figure in the development and promotion of literary modernism. Together with Margaret Anderson, her friend and business partner (who for some years was al ...

and Heap's friend Florence Reynolds. Champcommunal was in the Bavarian Alps with her two friends and the American journalists/writers Solita Solano and

Janet Flanner Janet Flanner (March 13, 1892 – November 7, 1978) was an American writer and pioneering narrative journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975.Yagoda, Ben ''About T ...

at the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the group managed to return to London via Switzerland. Heap would remain in London as Champcommunal's partner until her death in 1964.

Editor's role

Champcommunal became the first editor of the ''Vogue'' London edition, which was launched in September 1916. Produced in Europe to bypass shipping restrictions and paper shortages, the British version was largely a reproduction of the American edition initially, but Champcommunal thought it important that ''Vogue'' be more than a fashion magazine and it later included articles on health and beauty, society and sport, as well as travel and opinion pieces.Mahood, A., ''Fashioning Readers: The avant garde and British Vogue, 1920–9'' in ''Women'', 13 (1) (2002), pp. 37–47 Champcommunal remained with the magazine until the end of 1922.

Eponymous label

From the mid 1920s, Champcommunal had an eponymous couture label in France. An advertisement in a French periodical of 1926 places her salon in the Rue de Penthièvre, in the eighth arrondissement of Paris. Champcommunal's reputation was significant enough for one of her gowns to feature in the same year in an American newspaper article entitled: "Clothes that express fall fashion decrees".

Worth London

After moving back to Britain with Jane Heap, Champcommunal was appointed head designer with the firm of J. Reville-Terry. When this took over the British operation of Worth in 1936 – a formal split from the Paris arm – Champcommunal became house designer for Worth London. In 1942, when IncSoc was founded, Champcommunal represented Worth's interests among the so-called "big ten" of couture houses in London. In this role, she participated in IncSoc activities – including creating

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosoph ...

couture designs to promote its work. An image of a Worth London outfit by Champcommunal, comprising pussycat-bow blouse and slim tailored suit, originally photographed by the Ministry of Information in 1945, remains part of the Imperial War Museum archive. In 1949, Worth London designs featured in the lighthearted fashion-themed romance ''

Maytime in Mayfair ''Maytime in Mayfair'' is a 1949 British musical comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Nicholas Phipps, and Tom Walls. It was a follow up to ''Spring in Park Lane''. The film was one of the most p ...

'' within a fashion show sequence promoting the work of IncSoc members. In March 1953, shortly before her retirement, Champcommunal was photographed with other IncSoc members for a lavish feature in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine about the preparations for the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

of Queen Elizabeth.

References

External links