1907-1976 Victor Stiebel

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Victor Stiebel (1907-76) was brought up in Durban in South Africa, arriving in England in 1924 to study at Cambridge. Having designed for theatre wardrobe at university, he worked in dress design at the House of Reville for three years until opening his own house in 1932. He enlisted for the Second World War in 1940, closing his house, but he returned to designing in 1946, working for Jacqmar, and becoming Chairman of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers. He reopened his own house in 1958, having great initial success, but being forced to close after only 5 years in 1963 on health grounds.

Stiebel was very much part of the Establishment, and was commissioned to design new uniforms for the WRENS (1951) and the WRAF (1954) whilst also creating the going-away outfit for Princess Margaret on her marriage to Lord Snowdon in 1960. He was, however, also particularly celebrated for his romantic almost scuptural one-off evening gowns as in both of these dramatic examples illustrated; one in black cotton satin with a swathe of pleated white cotton from shoulder to hem; and the other in pink cotton organdie, printed with large white spots and finished with an attached white pique shawl collar.

manchestergalleries.org

 

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Cream moiré silk wedding dress, 1963.

This wedding dress was made for Stiebel's final summer collection in 1963. It has an empire line waist at the front. The back of the dress falls straight from the shoulders, forming a short train at the hem. Inside the bodice is a boned foundation, while a tulle petticoat maintains the full shape of the skirt.
Victor Stiebel trained under Reville & Rossiter and established his own business in 1932. He also designed utility clothing during the Second World War.

vam.ac.uk

 

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Stiebel was one of the most famous British couturiers. He was apprenticed at Reville and Rossiter in 1929 and opened his own house in 1932. The war forced the closure of his salon in 1939. He then designed exclusively for the house of Jacqmar after the war until the late 1950s.
His clothes were romantic, and at times experimental with his use of stripes, plaid and pleating. He was favoured by British royalty and many actresses (Vivien Leigh being one of his most famous customers). His final collection was Summer 1963.

Pieces by Stiebel are rare. Famed for his inventive use of fabric, this dress shows a lovely contrast to the floral print with the contrast bias binding trim on the jacket and hemline. The ensemble is beautifully made, with a subtle, flattering gathered shelf bust and superb tailoring in the jacket.

vintage-a-peel.co.uk

 

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A simple sleeveless top in white cotton piqué is here paired with a voluminous full-length gold and grey check skirt in this somewhat understated Victor Stiebel evening gown, designed in cotton for a Cotton Board fashion parade. South African-born Victor Stiebel (1907-76) studied at Cambridge, where he designed stage costumes for the Footlights Revues. After training with Reville and Rossiter, he opened his own couture house in London in 1932.

During the Second World War, Steibel worked with the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers to promote British fashion around the world. Together with Hardy Amies and Edward Molyneux, he created clothing ranges that could be mass-produced using minimal materials and labour, and selling under the CC41 Utility label. It is clear that the fabric-saving styles of the 1940s were a thing of the past by the time Stiebel designed this sophisticated gown. The long, full skirts of the mid-1950s reflect Britain's post-war optimism and prosperity, as fabric and labour were no longer reserved for the troops, and rationing had at last become a thing of the past.

Cotton, with broad stripes of gold, grey and a finely striped mixture of gold and grey, and checked with a narrower woven white satin stripe. Bodice, and stole lining of white cotton pique.

Boned bodice lined with white silk crepe. Top edge level with underarms, straight across back, rising above bust each side of front. Pointed waistline CF with slightly padded bust. CB fastening with hook and eye at top, zip to hip level. Turndown band along top edge, narrow shoulder straps. Skirt lined with white twilled cotton. Double circular organdie underskirt. Innermost underskirt of stiff nylon muslin.

Stole : Long straight piece of cotton, lined with pique. Centre of one side pleated to narrow band with pique ties to fasten round waist and form cape.

manchestergalleries.org

 

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c. 1947, Silk.

vanda.london.museum

 

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A stylish Victor Stiebel evening gown, 1950s, unlabelled, covered in pendant turquoise droplets and pastes, bust 94cm, 37in, waist 75cm 29 1/2in Victor Stiebel was born in South Africa in 1908. Because of his shyness he was often referred to as `the Garbo of Fashion'. He was renowned for his stylish and well cut gowns and made Princess Margaret's going away outfit. In a thumbnail sketch of Victor Stiebel's work in the September issue of Vogue 1960, it said that the `sense of elegance and magnificence he gives to his grand occasion ball dresses; and for assurance of knowing that one looks ravishingly pretty, that the fabric is magnificent - synonymous with grand `robes de style' which are full of glittering and romantic'.

kerrytaylorauctions.com

 

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For fashionable society women, ballgowns were the outfits which allowed the best opportunity for the most extravagant "dressing up". After the Second World War, in the later 1940s and throughout the 1950s, gowns usually took the form of fantasy floor-length creations using voluminous quantities of fabrics and trimmings. Indeed, in many ways, the 1950s saw the height of glamour in evening wear, exemplified in the work of stylish French and English designers, who could be commissioned to produce expensive and dramatic "one-off" outfits.

This gown by the South African born designer Victor Stiebel (1907-76) has a vast softly-gathered skirt in pink cotton organdie, printed with white spots with an attached white pique shawl-collar. This dress was a catwalk piece, commissioned by the Manchester-based Cotton Board directly from the designer, and shown at one of their fashion parades, in the Hyde Park Hotel in London in 1953. The original black and white photograph survives, showing the stylish and rather imperious model, Barbara Goalen, wearing the dress on this occasion.

Pink organdie with round white spots of varying sizes, over plain pink organdie.

White pique collar forming wide horizontally pleated fichu, passing round shoulders, attached and overlapping at CF neck only. Insertion at top edge to fit bust. Left side fastening at armhole with zip below, fastening under-skirt below waist, extedning to hip. Skirt has black patent leather belt to be slotted under the remaining sections. Circular pink orgnadie underskirt. Innermost underskirt of white silk crepe.

 

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An early Victor Stiebel crushed blue velvet evening gown, circa 1930, with matching petticoat, both labelled, bias-cut with short ruched, puffed sleeves.

kerrytaylorauctions.com