In narratives of 20th-century design the 1960s are acknowledged as the instance of London's ascendancy into the international fashion arena. My thesis challenges this view, through a comprehensive reassessment of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers.

This organisation, from its creation in 1942 until its cessation in 1975, was the nucleus of London's couture industry. Unlike the post-war Parisian couture system, there is limited documentation of its British counterpart. The Society's actual role in establishing London as a contender on the world's fashion stage not only challenges the usually dismissive and narrow accounts of its work, but puts forward the thesis that London's 'Swinging Sixties' can be seen as a culmination as well as an inauguration. Through this revised understanding of fashion production, I aim to provide a more informed historical context for problems encountered by London's design-led fashion today.

The timeframe (1942-75) covers a particular moment of reconstruction and modernisation, in which changing ideas of nationhood, class, customs and social norms have clear implications for the manufacture and distribution of design-led clothing. Focusing on the organisational structure of the fashion trade will allow theoretical study to move away from consumer-fixated mythologies of fashion design to trace the links between national and international economies, industrial practices and commercial cultures.

Throughout the period, English couture operated within a carefully constructed hierarchy, aligned to an occasion-specific social season closely linked to the British monarchy and the cultural elite. This particular form of fashion production, as a refined signifier of social distinction, was nevertheless fully informed by a commercial imperative. It needed careful navigation as the developing market transformed attitudes and expectations. London-based couture offers a specific example of entrepreneurship manipulating both cultural and industrial practices.