On the Beach or on Bond Street: Knitwear and early wholesale couture 1920-1935

This paper focused on the knitted garments produced by two British ready-to-wear companies; Rose and Blairman- established c 1921 and Matita established in 1924. It discussed why both firms initially sold imported Parisian knitwear, yet by the late 1920s were creating their own, often still Parisian inspired, knitwear. Advertisements from the late 1920s onwards placed emphasis on their distinctively ‘British workmanship’ and this paper considered how a blend of Parisian design and British workmanship ensured their success.

There are very few surviving early garments produced by either firm, therefore much of the source material for this paper came from editorials and advertisements. As these sources make clear, the market for their garments was largely a London middle-class one. This paper questioned why this was the case and what characteristics of the so-called knitted ‘sportskits’ produced by both firms appealed to middle-class consumers.

The focus period of this paper, 1920-1935, represents the pre-history of the wholesale couture sector, the term first used in the mid 1930s. However, I established why knitted garments were central to Rose and Blairman and Matita’s output and why ultimately knitted garments helped to lay the foundations for the wholesale couture trade.