Stella Mary Newton , née Pearce (17 April 1901,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– 18 May 2001, London) was an English

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

and dress historian, who brought the

history of fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

to bear on

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and the dating of paintings. Stella Mary Pearce was the daughter of Georgiana Mary Hoby, a concert pianist, and Henry Pearce, a Manchester bookseller and socialist. Educated at

Withington Girls' School Withington Girls' School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom, providing education for girls between the ages of seven and eighteen. Withington is a member of the Girls' School ...

, she then moved to London with her mother and joined Frank Benson's Shakespearean Company to become an actress. Turning to

costume design Costume design is the process of selecting or creating clothing for a performers. A costume may be designed from scratch or may be designed by combining existing garments. "Costume" may also refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a ...

, she became an assistant to George Sheringham and then an independent designer, designing for

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

's pageant play '' The Rock'' (1934) and his ''

Murder in the Cathedral ''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935 (published the same year). The play portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. El ...

'' (1935).Jane Bridgeman
Stella Mary Newton
(obituary), ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 25 May 2001 and ''The family Reunion''. Designing for theatre and fashion, she opened her own shop in the 1930s. In 1936 she married the art critic

Eric Newton Eric Newton is an American journalist, writer and media consultant. He is a consultant for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, an organization created by one of the founding families behind the Knight Ridder newspaper group. From 2015 t ...

. During the war they lectured on art history and design for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

's extramural department. A developing expertise in the history of dress enabled her to re-date paintings through the internal evidence of dress, as in her appendix to her husband's ''Tintoretto'' (1952). She worked as an adviser to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

between 1952 and 1961. In 1965, she founded a new postgraduate course in the History of Dress at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

,Lou Taylor, ''The Study of Dress History'', Manchester University Press, 2002, pp. 116–7 and ran it until 1976. Her students studied textile conservation as well as garment-making, and she encouraged

Karen Finch Karen Solveig Sinding Møller Finch (8 May 1921 – 15 April 2018) was a Danish-born British master weaver, conservator and educator who was the founder of the Textile Conservation Centre. Life Karen Finch was born in May 1921 on a farm in Rø ...

to found the Textile Conservation Course at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

in 1975. Newton received an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1976. She was the subject of a 1992 documentary for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's ''Third Wave''.

Works

*''Health, Art and Reason: dress reformers of the 19th century'', 1974 *''Renaissance Theatre Costume and the Sense of the Historic Past'', 1975 *''Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: a study of the years 1340-1365'', 1980 *''The Dress of the Venetians, 1495-1525'', 1988

References

External links

*Tim Wheeler
Portrait of Stella Newton
The Courtauld Institute of Art, 1991. More detail
here
*Elizabeth O'Kelly

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Stella Mary English fashion designers English women fashion designers English art historians British women art historians Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1901 births 2001 deaths People educated at Withington Girls' School English women centenarians 20th-century English businesswomen