Belinda Bellville, who has died at the age of 94, founded the fashion house Bellville et Cie (later Bellville Sassoon), whose young and fresh designs have become indispensable in the wardrobes of society ladies, brides-to-be and more than four royal families. decades.
She was called “Belinda Bellville, the darling of the best people” by the press, and her clients included Princesses Margaret and Alexandra and the Duchess of Kent, as well as Audrey Hepburn, Julie Christie, Jackie Kennedy and Catherine Deneuve.
“Title ladies applaud titled models,” reported the Daily Mail at one of their first shows in the 1950s. “200 women pack into an elegant hall in Park Lane to see 18-year-old Lady Beatty and five other models show off Belinda Bellville’s latest creations. The Duchess of Westminster, Lady Derby, Lady Rupert Neville, Lady Oppenheimer and Lady Ebury squeezed into small gilded chairs. Those less fortunate had to struggle to see from the corridor outside. “The street was jam-packed with Bentleys and Rolls-Royces.”
When Lady Pamela Mountbatten married David Hicks in 1960, her wedding trousseau was designed by Bellville, as was the dress worn by bridesmaid Princess Anne. Designer Cath Kidston, whose mother was Belinda’s first cousin, recalled being told that when Belinda went to Buckingham Palace for a fitting of the yellow ruffled dress, the Queen came to see her and said: “It’s beautiful.” She turned to Belinda and said, “Will she be washed?” she said.
In 1963, The Sunday Times reported that Bellville had just completed its 80th wedding dress of the season, with a further 20 gowns completed by October. A survey by Tatler at the end of the decade showed that Bellville et Cie had produced more high-society wedding dresses than any other couture house for 30 years.
In 1970 Belinda Bellville entered into partnership with David Sassoon and the business expanded into a full-blown couture house. In 1981, Belville Sassoon created the outfit Lady Diana Spencer wore when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced and went on to design her wedding trousseau and farewell outfit. Between 1981 and 1993, Bellville Sassoon created more than 70 outfits for the Princess of Wales.
Belinda Bellville, the eldest of three children, was born on March 29, 1930. His father was Anthony Seymour Bellville, whose family fortune came from Keen’s mustard. His mother was Audrey Kidston, whose family owned Clyde Shipping.
He grew up in Leicestershire, where his parents were part of a fashionable family with a passion for racing cars, planes and horses. Summers were spent at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight; here his parents sailed and threw parties on their yacht, the Mahelah, a converted Thames barge equipped with a grand piano and a cast-iron bath.
During the war his father joined the RNVR and had the deck of the boat concreted, turning it into an anti-aircraft platform, from which he claimed he would shoot doodlebugs – like shooting towering pheasants.
To avoid the bombs, the rest of the family moved to a house near Buildh Wells, on the banks of the river Wye; Here they enjoyed riding Welsh ponies in the mountains, fishing for salmon and collecting gull eggs.
Belinda’s interest in fashion was inspired by her paternal grandmother, Gladys “Cuckoo” Leith (who was divorced and remarried), who ran a clothing store on Savile Row in the 1920s. Belinda, who was rationing clothes during the war, helped her mother make clothes from whatever they could find, including old curtains.
Towards the end of the war Belinda studied briefly at Miss Faunce’s school at Wimborne St Giles in Dorset. The woman, one and a half meters tall and elegant, was presented to the court in 1947.
Determined to develop her own career in fashion at a time when opportunities to study for design qualifications were scarce, Belinda Bellville dabbled in fashion journalism, assisted a fashion photographer and worked in a clothing store on Bond Street.
In 1952, she married David Whately, a partner and later financier in a firm that produced mobile phones and abstract sculptures for advertising purposes.
The following year, at the age of 23, he founded Bellville et Cie in partnership with Sydna Scott, who had a shop in Kinnerton Street, Knightsbridge. “The space was very small, it had an outside toilet, and I would visit the neighboring bar to design and sketch dresses,” she recalled.
Needing money to invest in the business, Belinda sold the Citroen car her brother Jeremy had given her as a wedding gift for £500; surprisingly, it was all the capital the company needed.
In 1953, Belinda Bellville performed her first show as a model at Cuckoo Leith’s house in Manchester Square, alongside her sister Camilla and her friends. People lined up to see it and the show was a huge success and was featured in Illustrated magazine. Orders poured in, and by 1957 her collection included haberdashery, cocktail dresses, ball gowns and, most famously, wedding dresses.
It moved to new premises at 14 Motcombe Street in Belgravia, where it employed 40 people, serving an upmarket clientele. The Times observed: “Belville understood that Cheltenham racecourse was a drafty place and that he always knew from a distance of inches how much cleavage the Duchess would tolerate at dinner.”
He was joined by David Sassoon, who impressed him with his designs at the Royal College of Art degree show in 1958. Belinda, he later said, “had no formal education but had great taste; She understood fashion moods, had a great love for fabrics and a very good sense of colour. She knew socially correct people and brought in a lot of royalty.”
Bellville’s ready-to-wear collection “Boutique” was launched in 1963, and in 1965 Vogue Patterns invited Bellville et Cie to participate in their pattern book. By 1970 the company, now known as Bellville Sassoon, had more than 100 employees.
Belinda Bellville left the company in 1982 but remained as a consultant. As the company continued to develop under the management of David Sassoon, he moved with his family to a house outside Shaftesbury in Dorset.
The family moved to north Norfolk in 2001 and her husband David died in 2008. Belinda recovered from major brain surgery in 2011 but continued to live happily in Norfolk and was always commenting on her visitors’ fashion choices.
He is survived by three daughters.
Belinda Bellville was born on March 29, 1930, died on May 5, 2024.