Charles Creed

Charles Southey Creed (25 May 1909 – 17 July 1966) was a British fashion designer. Born into the longstanding tailoring house of Henry Creed & Company in Paris, he launched his eponymous label in London in 1946. The first elected member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, he had success in both Britain and the United States. Early life and career Creed was born in 1909 at 29 rue Singer in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the sixth child and third son born to tailor Henry Creed (1824–1914). Like Charles Worth, the Creed family was British and became part of the French couture establishment, rising to prominence in the 19th century. His grandfather, also named Henry Creed, had introduced women's professional tailoring to Paris in the 1890s. The company – which said its tailoring roots dated back to the 1700s – had a reputation for creating fine women's riding habits as well as men's tailoring; clients included the British and French royal families. Creed's father was said to have designed the outfit worn by Mata Hari when she was shot. Charles Creed was educated in France and Vienna, also spending some time as a designer with Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where he was said to have been very popular with clients. After a six-month spell completing his fashion industry education at Linton tweed mill in Carlisle – a key supplier to couturiers, notably Coco Chanel – he returned to work at the family firm in Paris in 1933. He retained a workspace in Knightsbridge during the early 1930s, which he shared with fellow designer – and later IncSoc member – Mattli. He was already considered notable enough in the United States to be chosen – alongside names such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Jeanne Lanvin – to design clothes for Frances Drake in the 1936 film version of I'd Give My Life. Creed was designing for the family firm in Paris at the outbreak of war, moving back in 1940 after the fall of France. He later described how he left Paris hours ahead of the Germans – with his father Henry Creed, then 80, refusing to evacuate the city where he had spent his life. Establishment of label Charles Creed established his London showroom and workspace initially in Fortnum & Mason, moving to a basement air raid shelter once the London air raids started in earnest. In early 1941, he toured the United States to promote British woollens to American consumers and encourage them to support the war effort.