Simone Mirman
| Simone Mirman (née Parmentier) | |
|---|---|
Simone Mirman with a couple of her designs. Late 1950s.
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| Born |
18 May 1912 Paris, France |
| Died | 1 August 2008 (aged 96) France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
Simone Mirman was a Paris-born milliner based in London, chiefly known for her designs for the British Royal Family.
Simone Parmentier was born in Paris on 18 May 1912 to middle-class Catholic parents.
Simone had an apprenticeship with Rose Valois, one of the leading Parisian milliners of the 1920s and 1930s, where she developed her talent for designing hats to suit the trickiest faces, considering her first success to be a design which worked for her mother's features.
In her early 20s Simone met a Jewish medical student, Serge Mirman, whose communist beliefs made him undesirable to her parents. Despite neither speaking English, the couple eloped to London in 1937, but only married in 1939.
In London, Simone worked with the couturiere Elsa Schiaparelli, who was renowned for her bold millinery designs and concepts. She headed the hat department of Schiaparelli's London branch in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair until it closed down at the outbreak of war in 1939. However, Schiaparelli generously gave Simone the contact details of her English clientele, enabling her to successfully launch her own business.
During the Second World War the newly-wed, impoverished Mirmans lived in a small attic on Spring Street in Paddington. Each morning, they hid the evidence of their real life and transformed the attic into a millinery salon for Simone to serve customers seeking off-ration hats. As clothing coupons were not required for hats, there was a steady demand for the designs Mirman created out of scraps and oddments.
In 1947, Mirman was able to afford better premises near Hyde Park, and in 1952, she moved to Chesham Place, Belgravia, where her salon and workroom remained for the rest of her professional career.
By the early 1950s Mirman was supplying hats to the designers Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies, and Christian Dior. She also supplied faithfully copied Dior model hats to John Cavanagh's 1952 debut fashion show – the first time Dior had allowed a copy of his hat design to be used by another couturier. It was through Serge Mirman that Dior's licensed hosiery became established upon the London retail scene.
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