Making Fashion (1938) - extract

Norman Hartnell’s 1938 Spring Collection is modelled here by a group of society ladies (one of whom looks alarmingly like Nadia from 2004’s Big Brother) who pose awkwardly in a series of extraordinary gowns. Shot in glorious Dufaycolor (an early and beautifully distinctive colour film process), this is not only an important record of 1930s couture, but also a handy reminder that not so long ago you could be a clothes horse without being a teenage size-zero. This was an atypical subject for director Humph