FASHION SHOW IN PALACE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27499, 5 November 1954, Page 2

FASHION SHOW IN PALACE

PRINCESS MARGARET CONGRATULATES DIOR LIVELY INTEREST IN “H”-LINE (H<Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 pjn.) LONDON, November 3. Princess Margaret watched with lively interest and appreciation today while 12 French and one British mannequin showed Christian Dior’s controversial “H”-line winter collection at Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, in aid of the British Red Cross. The palace is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill and has been the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough since 1704. After the showing, Princess Margaret personally congratulated Dior on the gowns. She presented him * and the organiser (the Duchess of Marlborough) with certificates and life membership medals of the British Red Cross. A fleet of private cars carried the fashionable audience—members of which paid five guineas each to attend —from Oxford and the ancient Oxfordshire town of Woodstock for the occasion. Each mannequin entered the palace’s vast library by a door opposite Princess Margaret’s seat, curtsied, and walked backwards for a dozen paces before continuing down the room and through the other rooms, where the 1600 guests were assembled. The collection, with one exception, was that with which Dior surprised the fashion world in August by launching his “H”-line.