Peter Lewis-Crown dead at 94: Society fashion designer dressed Princess Marina of Kent and Baroness Thatcher
Peter Lewis-Crown was the sole owner and fashion designer of Lachasse, Britain’s oldest couture house.
As well as dressing Princess Marina of Kent and the late Countess Mountbatten, Peter Lewis-Crown’s clients included Baroness Thatcher, Norma Major and actress Susan Hampshire. Those of you may not be familiar with Lachasse, Britain’s oldest couture house as it closed its doors in 2006.
Peter Lewis-Crown was only 18 years old when he joined Lachasse back in 1949 and before becoming its sole owner, he became director of the fashion house in 1969. According to The Telegraph, “There was no individual called Lachasse; its original designer Digby Morton is said to have come up with the name because British women would not buy couture unless it sounded French.”
Peter Lewis-Crown was born in Norfolk in 1930 and Tatler reported that “As war struck the nation, he and his sister put on a fashion show in their aunt’s garage, with a stage built by a local fireman and a piano on loan from the church. The tickets sold out. No doubt this memory would have come to mind decades later, when the designer staged shows at the country’s most stately country piles, impressing the likes of Lady Astor, who he said showed him great kindness.”
Peter Lewis-Crown was the second of three children, his mother Margaret worked for a local dress shop whilst his father John was a barber. He was forced to close his fashion house Lachasse at the end of 2006, citing rising rents and the congestion charge as the reasons behind it.
Peter Lewis-Crown, who changed his surname from Lewis Crown to Lewis-Crown told Montebury magazine about how fashion styles and tastes had changed over the years and said: “They seem to be afraid to stand out, elegantly dressed and soigné. Now, they run about in baggy-looking clothes that don’t fit and jumpers all over the place, a bit like Worzel Gummidge.”
Harrison Goldman, auctioneer and valuer at Bellman Auctioneers paid tribute to him on Instagram and said: “RIP Peter Lewis-Crown OBE, my friend neighbour and last of the great London coutieriers.”