Alison Adburgham (28 January 1912 – 23 May 1997) was an English journalist, author and social historian, best known for her work as fashion editor of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' newspaper, a position she held for 20 years.
Along with
Prudence Glynn of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' and
Alison Settle of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'', she pioneered British fashion journalism in a
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...
national newspaper; as a bylined columnist, influencing public perception of trends in clothing, the industry itself.
She also wrote several books on social history.
Early life and career
Adburgham was born Marjorie Vere Alison Haig on 28 January 1912 in Yeovil, Somerset, as the daughter of a doctor and an "unnervingly educated mother".
She was educated at home before winning a scholarship to
Roedean, an independent girls' school outside
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
.
Her first job was as an advertising copywriter, while contributing articles on manners and style to ''Clever Night & Day'' magazine.
She took a break from writing after marrying a copywriter, with whom she had four children.
Fashion journalism
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Adburgham began contributing to ''
Punch'' and later through ''The Guardian'' women's editor
Mary Stott
Mary Stott (born Charlotte Mary Waddington) (18 July 1907 – 16 September 2002) was a British feminist and journalist. She was editor of ''The Guardian'' newspaper's women's page between 1957 and 1972.
Charlotte Mary Waddington was born in Le ...
. She began to cover fashion collections at a time when newspaper fashion journalism was in its infancy in the UK, becoming an expert in the fashion industry of post-war Europe and in fashion history.
Adburgham's earliest bylined fashion piece, in December 1954, approached the wider relevance of fashion: "Over the last half-century there has been a complete change of attitude towards dress. Intelligent women no longer feel it is only the unintelligent who are interested in clothes; highbrows no longer ignore high fashion. When the question is asked, 'What has Dior done to us this season?' that pronoun refers to all women; and not least to those who sit on platforms, who are guests at literary luncheons, or who catch the Speaker's eye in the House."
Adburgham could be disapproving of the foibles of fashion. Writing about the latest collection of hats by
Reed Crawford in 1964, she said they "beggar description, especially his cocktail confections: high-standing exclamation pieces stuck through with monstrous hat-pins. Funnier hats have appeared in pantomimes, but not much funnier."
In a 1967 interview with
Mary Quant, reprinted in 2005, Adburgham grilled the "
Swinging London
The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...
" designer on the line between fashion and vulgarity, questioning some more permissive elements of the 1960s look and asking Quant, "Would you agree that just as there is brutalism in architecture... there is an element of brutalism in fashion today?"
Adburgham's 1997 obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Veronica Horwell stated she was not given to fashion excesses herself – describing her as wearing "rather Design Council style" clothes. A letter in response from
Fiona MacCarthy said "Design Council approved" was an unfair description of her style, adding, "She turned up at a party of mine in the 1960s looking rather like a dissolute exiled Polish countess in claret-red velvet with cascading ruffles at the neck."
Alongside her career reporting on trends in clothing, Adburgham worked with the fashion industry, serving as a governor of the
London College of Fashion
The London College of Fashion is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate study, short courses, study-abroad courses and business t ...
.
Writing
Adburgham wrote several books of social history, in later life from her home in North Cornwall. Her obituary recalled that the chapter on
Liberty of London she included in her first book, ''Shops and Shopping'', was later expanded into a biography of the store for its 1975 centenary, while ''Women in Print'' was seen as one of the standard reference works for media studies and for women's studies.
Partial bibliography
Details as they appear in the British Library catalogue:
Retrieved 9 November 2015
/ref>
*''A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841–1940'' (London: Hutchinson, 1961)
*''Shops and Shopping 1800–1914'' (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adburgham, Alison
1912 births
1997 deaths
20th-century English historians
20th-century English non-fiction writers
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English writers
British social historians
English fashion journalists
English women historians
English women journalists
The Guardian people
People educated at Roedean School, East Sussex
People from Truro
People from Yeovil
Writers from Somerset