Everyday Glamour

• Published to mark the 80th anniversary of Horrockses first ready-to-wear collection and the major exhibition at The Harris, Preston (19 September 2026–31 January 2027).
• Features newly rephotographed dresses and workbooks from The Harris’s collection, the largest of its kind worldwide.
• Includes a chapter on why royalty, including Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, chose to wear Horrockses Fashions.
• This gorgeous book is a timely celebration of 1950s design and textiles – 2026 is the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth and the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.

A glorious celebration of Horrockses, the much-loved fashion brand that brought design, style and colour to post-war Britain.

Horrockses was the post-war British fashion brand that led the ready-to-wear market, empowered women designers and integrated avant-garde artistic ideas into its textile designs, transforming everyday clothing into wearable art.

Based in Lancashire, Horrockses Fashions made stylish garments accessible to women from all walks of life – from factory workers to royalty. Famously, in 1953–54 Queen Elizabeth II packed Horrockses cotton dresses for her Commonwealth tour. Their full-skirted dresses used colourful textile prints, with floral, geometric or avant-garde designs by artists including Eduardo Paolozzi or Graham Sutherland, and empowered women designers such as Joyce Badrock too.

Everyday Glamour starts with a foreword by Amber Butchart, resident historian for Great British Sewing Bee (BBC 1). Editor and curator Scott Schiavone – with fashion experts Christine Boydell, Lisa Mason, Paige Blake, Matthew Storey, Liz Tregenza and Nadine Coyne – discuss the brand’s origins, impact and its appeal to vintage fashion followers today.

Everyday Glamour is published to mark the 80th anniversary of the first collection and a major exhibition at The Harris – showcasing the world’s largest Horrockses collection.

Scott Schiavone is the book’s editor and lead author. He is a fashion historian and decorative arts curator at The Harris Museum, Preston, where he cares for the Horrockses Fashions’ collection, the largest collection of its kind in the UK.

Amber Butchart is a curator, historian and broadcaster who specialises in the cultural and political history of textiles, dress and design. She is the resident historian for Great British Sewing Bee (BBC 1) and presented A Stitch in Time (BBC 4).