In the Fashion Gallery at York Castle Museum, our new section York Makers celebrates some of the York-based creators represented in the museum’s collections. The museum has a wonderful selection of outfits by York-based entrepreneur and fashion designer Vivien Smith, two of which are now on display.  

Vivien was born in Colchester in 1947 and moved to York as a teenager when her father was stationed at Strensall Barracks. She completed her education at the Lucie Clayton College in London, where she took a course in fashion design.  

When she returned to York she continued designing clothes and employed local dressmakers to sew them. Jean S. of York worked for Vivien in the 1960s. She very kindly shared her memories with us.  

‘I saw an advert from Vivien Smith in my local shop in Huntington, York, for home sewers, probably in 1964. I contacted her and went to see her at her parents’ house in Strensall Army Barracks. We discussed her work and what she needed a home sewer to do and I went home with a cut out dress and the thread, zip and hook and eye required, also a sketch of the finished garment. No instructions, but I didn’t need them anyway. After that she always came to my house to drop off and collect the dresses.’ 

Jean was in her early 20s at the time and was already an accomplished dressmaker. She made clothes for herself, her sister and her mother. Sewing ran in the family: her mother had worked as an outworker sewing coat linings for Heatons in Leeds in the 1940s.  

Jean used her own Singer treadle sewing machine and iron. She remembers ‘Vivien paid me 7/6p for each garment which I thought was a very fair amount.’ She says ‘I really enjoyed the time spent making them and seeing Vivien’s designs.’ 

At first, Vivien sold her designs wholesale to boutique stores in York, Harrogate, Leeds and London. She hired a workroom in Micklegate and opened a small shop there. In a newspaper interview in 1991 she said ‘People still remember the screen we had behind which everyone ran around in bras trying things on.’ (Yorkshire Evening Press Business Magazine, 6 May 1991) 

In 1968, Vivien opened Simply Clothes at 40a Micklegate. All her designs were made in York, at first by homeworkers like Jean, and then at her factory at Hospitalfields Road, off Fulford Road, York. 

Both of the outfits currently on display were made at the Fulford Road factory in the 1980s. The fabulous skirt suit is made of bold pink silk, and the ball gown is made of polyester taffeta. The skirt has two layers to really make it stand out, and the sleeves are not attached to the dress. They have elastic in to keep them on the arms!  

The displays also include a pair of thigh-high purple suede boots that Vivien owned in the 1960s.  

Simply Clothes became well known as a place to buy formal dresses and evening wear. In 1981 the shop moved to Ousegate, York. Vivien also opened shops in Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Guildford, Hull, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield. We couldn’t track down exactly when Simply Clothes closed. If you know, please get in touch!