{{Short description|South African-born British couturier (1907–1976)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Victor Stiebel | image = File:Victor Stiebel fashion designer.jpg | caption = Victor Stiebel, photographed by Cecil Beaton | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1907|03|14}} | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1976|02|06|1907|03|14}} | birth_place = Durban, South Africa | death_place = London, England | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | known_for = | education = Jesus College, Cambridge | occupation = Couturier | partner = Richard Addinsell }} '''Victor Frank Stiebel''' (14 March 1907—6 February 1976)<ref name=TimesObit>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Mr Victor Stiebel, creator of elegant clothes|newspaper=The Times|date=7 February 1976|page=14}}</ref> was a South African-born British couturier. A founder member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, he was among the top ten designers in Britain during the war and post-war years.<ref name=Englishness/> Among his more notable designs were the uniforms for the Women's Royal Naval Service in 1951 and the going-away outfit for Princess Margaret's wedding in 1960.<ref name=VandA>{{cite web|title=Overalls, Victor Stiebel|website=Victoria & Albert Museum|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1276042/overalls-stiebel-victor/|access-date=19 July 2018}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Victor Frank Stiebel was born in 1907 in Durban, South Africa. He arrived in Britain in 1924 to study architecture at Jesus College, Cambridge.<ref name=Englishness>{{cite book|author-last=De la Haye|author-first=Amy|editor1-last=Breward|editor1-first=Christopher|editor2-last=Conekin|editor2-first=Becky|editor3-last=Cox|editor3-first=Caroline|title=The Englishness of English Dress|chapter=Gilded Brocade Gowns and Impeccable Tailored Tweeds: Victor Stiebel (1907–76) a Quintessentially English Designer|location=Oxford|date=2002|pages=147–157|isbn=1-85973-523-1}}</ref>
Having designed for theatre wardrobe at university, Stiebel worked as a dress designer for the House of Reville for three years, beginning in 1929.<ref name=Adburgham>{{cite book|last=Adburgham|first=Alison|title=View of Fashion|date=1966|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=London|page=251|isbn=9787410001667 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qo0OAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Reville-Terry%22}}</ref> Founded by Wallace Reville Terry and Miss Rossiter, Reville (also known as Reville-Terry and Reville & Rossiter) was one of the foremost court dressmakers and fashion houses in London before the First World War.<ref name=Englishness/><ref name=Adburgham/> As was customary at the time, Stiebel learned the art of fashion design by working directly with a professional.<ref name=Englishness/>
==Career== ===Pre-war=== Stiebel opened his own fashion house at 22 Bruton Street, just off Berkeley Square in 1932.<ref name=MissLevy>{{cite web|last1=Behlen|first1=Beatrice|title=Miss Levy's Wedding Dress|url=http://blog.museumoflondon.org.uk/miss-levy/|website=Museum of London Blog|publisher=Museum of London|access-date=12 August 2014}}</ref> This proved so successful that he was able to expand the showroom to the Georgian ballroom next door within a year. He was assisted by his sister Noelle Stiebel, who managed much of the business's administration.<ref name=TimesObit/> The celebrated interior designer Syrie Maugham created the all-white decor that was her trademark style and Constance Spry—who later became a firm friend—supplied the flowers for the showroom and his twice-yearly fashion shows.<ref name="SLCS Shephard">{{cite book|last1=Shephard|first1=Sue|title=The Surprising Life of Constance Spry|date=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8k2Lcm9dzYcC&q=Victor+Stiebel&pg=PP158|publisher=Pan Macmillan|location=London|isbn=9780330-536110|access-date=12 August 2014}}</ref>
Stiebel became well known for his women's clothes and his use of striped fabrics.<ref name=VandA2>{{cite web|title=Day dress, Victor Stiebel|website=Victoria & Albert Museum|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O15662/day-dress-stiebel-victor/|access-date=19 July 2018|archive-date=20 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720024549/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O15662/day-dress-stiebel-victor/|url-status=dead}}</ref> As reported in ''Vogue'', "Stiebel has taken the lives and hearts and aspirations of Englishwomen and transmuted them into clothes, adding that touch of the artist, something that is rich and strange and exciting."<ref name="SLCS Shephard"/>
[[File:Detail of a Victor Stiebel evening dress, late 1950s.jpg|right|thumb|Evening dress, designed by Victor Stiebel, late 1950s. Fashion Museum, Bath.]]
===Wartime and post-war=== Stiebel enlisted for the Second World War in 1940, closing his house, but he was allowed to continue designing while involved with the services thanks to his involvement as a founder member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, his designs being manufactured as part of the war effort using government stock fabrics.<ref name=Englishness/> Called "Utility Fashion", each designer in the scheme produced a coat, dress, suit and shirt or blouse.<ref name=Goodyear>{{cite web|last=Goodyear|first=Jill|title=Fashions during Wartime|date=2003|url=http://www.johndclare.net/wwii13_fashion.html}}</ref>
Stiebel returned to designing in 1946, succeeding Bianca Mosca as head of the house of Jacqmar, and becoming Chairman of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers. He was commissioned to design new uniforms for the Women's Royal Naval Service (1951) and the Women's Royal Air Force (1954).
He reopened his own house in 1958, having great initial success, including designing the going-away outfit for Princess Margaret on her marriage to Lord Snowdon in 1960. Stiebel was forced to close the business in 1963, after just five years, having become unable to walk as a result of multiple sclerosis.<ref name=Englishness/> Hardy Amies took on all 120 of Stiebel's employees.<ref name=Englishness/>
Stiebel's clients included Katharine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh.<ref name=Sothebys>{{cite web|title=Catalogue Note, Evening Gown, designed by Victor Stiebel|website=Sotheby's|date=2017|url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/vivien-leigh-collection-l17148/lot.276.html|access-date=19 July 2018}}</ref> Stiebel and Leigh also became close friends,<ref name=Capua>{{cite book|last=Capua|first=Michelangelo|title=Vivien Leigh: A Biography|location=Jefferson, NC|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|page=26}}</ref> as illustrated by his more than 100 letters in the Vivien Leigh Archive, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum.<ref name=Sothebys/>
==Personal life== For many years, Stiebel lived discreetly with his romantic partner, the composer Richard Addinsell.<ref name=Hischack>{{cite book|last=Hischak|first=Thomas S.|title=The Encyclopedia of Film Composers|location=London|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|date=2015|page=1}}</ref> In 1968, he published an account of his youth in South Africa.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stiebel|first=Victor|title=South African Childhood|publisher=André Deutsch|location=London|date=1968}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/LCFVS Victor Stiebel Archive], Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) * {{NPG name|id=64588}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiebel, Victor}} Category:1907 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Artists from Durban Category:South African fashion designers Category:British fashion designers Category:LGBTQ fashion designers Category:Camoufleurs Category:20th-century British LGBTQ people Category:20th-century South African LGBTQ people