When Belinda Bellville opened her dressmaking atelier in 1953, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, she intended that it should do red carpet business. Back then, such carpets were not display spaces for the entertainment industry, but traditional to the “season”, the annual programme of society events just reviving after the austerities of the second world war and the years following it.
Debutantes walked the red carpet to the palace, where they were presented to the monarch; to the balls and cocktail parties where matches were made and engagements announced; and along the aisle of the wedding church.
