In February AD 1947 the Parisian couturier (dress designer) Christian Dior produced a sensation with his ‘New Look’ for women’s fashion. Its tiny waists, soft shoulders and long, full skirts were the opposite of the wartime square shoulders and short, skimpy skirts. Dior not only ‘saved the name of Paris’, ensuring that French designers would lead world fashion for the next two decades, he also delighted women everywhere who longed to escape from wartime austerity.

In Britain, clothes rationing, introduced in 1941, was still in force. When Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip in 1947, she had to get extra clothing coupons for the material of her wedding dress. The Labour government were dismayed by women’s enthusiasm for the new fashion. MP Mrs Bessie Braddock (large, and not known for glamour) called the longer skirt ‘the ridiculous whim of idle people’.

In Autumn 1947, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and the Duchess of Kent were given a private showing of the Dior collection at the French Embassy in London. They were soon seen wearing the new skirt length. The English royal designers Norman Hartnell and Molyneux had quickly adapted the new style for their collections. By December, English ready-to-wear manufacturers were producing their own versions. The New Look was to dominate fashion throughout the 1950s.