Restyling the best of British couture

UNLIKE Iain Duncan Smith, his older brother David plans to stay in opposition. David Duncan Smith, 50 to the Tory leader's 47, is in permanent opposition to the idea that there cannot be a British-based luxury brands group. Indeed, David said, the Luxury Brands Group is up and should be running at full pelt long before the next General Election, now no more than three years away.

'There has never been a British-based luxury brands group, and it is long overdue,' says Duncan Smith. 'A huge amount of the creative talent in the luxury sector is British-trained, but talented people have to go to Paris or Milan to get work, for lack of vehicles in this country for co-ordinating and developing that talent.'

He has been brought in from running the British end of the Italian brands group, Prada, to head LBG, a subsidiary of Simon Petherick and Ian Shirley's Ofex-listed marketing services company Cardington.

Cardington's name is being changed to Luxury Brands Group, and NM Rothschild has agreed to take on the task of raising the cash to fund brand acquisitions and store openings here and overseas. Whether LBG is looking for more or less than £20m, Duncan Smith will not say.

Cardington made a first-half pre-tax loss of £385,868 on turnover of £298,868, a performance that Petherick describes as 'not representative of LBG going forward'. But it is a good time to make progress, according to Duncan Smith: 'If you look at it in purely predatory terms, now is a good moment to be shopping for luxury brands, and there is a huge wealth of brands in the UK as well as overseas that would be interesting to us.'

He is developing LBG's first two acquisitions, the British couture houses Hardy Amies and Hartnell, both Royal Warrant holders. New designers are being hired, and Hardy Amies couture and ranges of men's and women's ready-to-wear and accessories will be shown in February, Hartnell couture in July and Hartnell ready-to-wear and accessories in September.

'Hardy Amies was the original menswear designer full stop, because until he came along, people did not design men's collections: a man just went out, ordered a suit and had it made. What Sir Hardy established was the ability to design the entire silhouette for a man - suits, shirts, ties, the lot.'

Cardington/LBG bought Hardy Amies in May for an undisclosed sum, and in September paid retailer Manny Silverman £196,000 in cash and stock for Hartnell. Sir Norman Hartnell died 22 years ago, aged 78, but Sir Hardy, now 92, remains as a non-executive director of the house he founded.

Hardy Amies was about 'sublime tailoring', said Duncan Smith, and traditionally 50:50 men's/women's couture: Hartnell was for women only ('fantasy ornate dresses'). Both are to stay that way.

'It is not enough, however, for either Hardy Amies or Norman Hartnell to remain solely a couturier, and if we are to establish them now as international brands in the luxury market, then the image will come from couture, but there will also have to be ready-to-wear and accessories. Both brands have to go into the mass market, where they will be competing with the Guccis, the Yves St Laurents and the Pradas.'

Duncan Smith said a first Hardy Amies flagship store will open in central London next September, followed by a Hartnell in spring of 2003. The Hardy Amies brand has been 'gently asleep' for some years, but it still does about £850,000 worth of licensing business, mostly in the Far East.

Couture, however, is to stay firmly in London. Hardy Amies, whose Royal Warrant came from the Queen, will continue to operate from its salon (since 1945) at 14 Savile Row, updated with the help of near-neighbour English Heritage. Hartnell, which won its Royal Warrant as dressmaker to the present Queen Mother in 1937, and went to design the 1953 Coronation gown for the Queen, is now coming home.

'Norman Hartnell,' Duncan Smith said, 'has been dormant for 10 years, but we are particularly pleased to have agreed a return to the premises from which Sir Norman began operating in 1923 at 26 Bruton Street. It is fantastic timing because the premises have just been restored to their former glory. It has said Hartnell on the side of the building for so long that English Heritage tells me that whatever happens, that name must stay - it is part of the fabric.'