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{{Short description|English journalist, 1912–1997}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Alison Adburgham
|name = Alison Adburgham
| image =
|image =
| caption =
|caption =
| birthname =
|birthname = Majorie Vere Alison Haig
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|01|28}}<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|01|28}}<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{Cite news |last1=Horwell |first1=Veronica |title=An Outsider's Eye |work=The Guardian |date=27 May 1997 |ref=pg.20}}</ref>
| birth_place = UK
|birth_place = Yeovil, Somerset, England
⚫
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1997|5|23|1912|01|28}}
| age =
|death_place = Truro, Cornwall, England
⚫
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1997|5|23|1912|01|28}}
⚫
|occupation = Journalist, author and social historian
| death_place =
|alias =
⚫
| occupation = Journalist, author and social historian
| alias =
|credits =
| gender = Female
| credits =
}}
}}
'''Alison Adburgham''' (January 28 1912 – May 23 1997) was a British journalist, author and social historian. She is best known for her work as fashion editor of ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper, a role she held for 20 years.<ref name="Guardian record">{{cite web|title=Adburgham, Alison|url=http://guardian.calmview.eu/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2fUK%2f1989|website=guardian.calmview.eu|publisher=Guardian Observer archive|accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref> Alongside [[Prudence Glynn]] of ''[[The Times]]'' and [[Alison Settle]] of ''[[The Observer]]'', she was among the pioneers of British fashion journalism within the context of a [[broadsheet]] national newspaper; as a bylined columnist, she had influence on public perception of trends in clothing, as well as on the industry itself.<ref name="How Fashion Works Waddell">{{cite book|last1=Waddell|first1=Gavin|title=How Fashion Works: Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Mass Production|date=2004|publisher=Blackwell Science|location=Oxford|isbn=9780632057528|pages=157|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GX-uAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=Alison+Adburgham&source=bl&ots=DhTYWo54SZ&sig=p43s8AyBm5mxM-7m0BHSeZAmPzY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAzgeahUKEwiCkJnG14rHAhWJ7RQKHcsoBHQ#v=onepage&q=Alison%20Adburgham&f=false|accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
'''Alison Adburgham''' (28 January 1912 – 23 May 1997) was an English journalist, author and social historian, best known for her work as fashion editor of ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper, a position she held for 20 years.<ref name="Guardian record">{{Cite web |title=Adburgham, Alison |url=http://guardian.calmview.eu/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2fUK%2f1989 |website=guardian.calmview.eu |publisher=Guardian Observer archive |accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref> Along with [[Prudence Glynn]] of ''[[The Times]]'' and [[Alison Settle]] of ''[[The Observer]]'', she pioneered British fashion journalism in a [[broadsheet]] national newspaper; as a bylined columnist, influencing public perception of trends in clothing, the industry itself.<ref name="How Fashion Works Waddell">{{Cite book |last1=Waddell |first1=Gavin |title=How Fashion Works: Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Mass Production |date=2004 |publisher=Blackwell Science |location=Oxford |isbn=9780632057528 |pages=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GX-uAAAAQBAJ&q=Alison+Adburgham&pg=PA157 |accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref> She also wrote several books on social history.

Alongside her work in journalism, she was the author of several books about social history.


==Early life and career==
==Early life and career==
Alison Adburgham was the daughter of a doctor father and "unnervingly educated mother".<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref> She was home schooled before winning a scholarship to [[Roedean School|Roedean]], an independent girls' school near [[Brighton]].<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
Adburgham was born Marjorie Vere Alison Haig on 28 January 1912 in Yeovil, Somerset, as the daughter of a doctor and an "unnervingly educated mother".<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/> She was educated at home before winning a scholarship to [[Roedean School|Roedean]], an independent girls' school outside [[Brighton]].<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/>


Her first job was as an advertising copywriter, and she also contributed articles about manners and style to ''Clever Night & Day'' magazine.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref> She took a break from writing after marrying a copywriter, with whom she had four children.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
Her first job was as an advertising copywriter, while contributing articles on manners and style to ''Clever Night & Day'' magazine.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/> She took a break from writing after marrying a copywriter, with whom she had four children.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/>


==Fashion journalism==
==Fashion journalism==
After the [[World War II|war]], Adburgham began contributing articles to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' and was later given space by ''The Guardian'' women's editor [[Mary Stott]]. She began covering the fashion collections – newspaper fashion journalism was then in its infancy in the UK – and became expert on both the fashion industry of post-war Europe and on fashion history.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
After the [[World War II|Second World War]], Adburgham began contributing to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' and later through ''The Guardian'' women's editor [[Mary Stott]]. She began to cover fashion collections at a time when newspaper fashion journalism was in its infancy in the UK, becoming an expert in the fashion industry of post-war Europe and in fashion history.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/>


Adburgham's earliest bylined fashion piece (from December 1954) set out her approach to the wider relevance of fashion: "Over the last half-century there has been a complete change of attitude towards dress. Intelligent women no longer feel it is only the unintelligent who are interested in clothes; highbrows no longer ignore high fashion. When the question is asked. 'What has Dior done to us this season?' that pronoun refers to all women; and not least to those who sit on platforms, who are guests at literary luncheons, or who catch the Speaker's eye in the House".<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news|title=Dior...Semi-Dior...Demi-Semi Dior|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=3 December 1954|ref=pg.5}}</ref>
Adburgham's earliest bylined fashion piece, in December 1954, approached the wider relevance of fashion: "Over the last half-century there has been a complete change of attitude towards dress. Intelligent women no longer feel it is only the unintelligent who are interested in clothes; highbrows no longer ignore high fashion. When the question is asked, 'What has Dior done to us this season?' that pronoun refers to all women; and not least to those who sit on platforms, who are guests at literary luncheons, or who catch the Speaker's eye in the House."<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news|title=Dior...Semi-Dior...Demi-Semi Dior|work=The Guardian|date=3 December 1954|ref=pg.5}}</ref>


Adburgham could be mildly disapproving of the foibles of fashion. Writing about the latest collection of hats by [[Reed Crawford]] in 1964, she said: "As for Reed Crawford's hats, they beggar description, especially his cocktail confections: high-standing exclamation pieces stuck through with monstrous hat-pins. Funnier hats have appeared in pantomimes, but not much funnier".<ref name="The Guardian Adburgham 230764">{{cite news|last1=Adburgham|first1=Alison|title=Winter and autumn collections: London Fashion|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=23 July 1964|ref=pg.7}}</ref> In an interview with [[Mary Quant]] of 1967, later reprinted in 2005, Adburgham grilled the '[[Swinging London]]' designer on the line between fashion and vulgarity – also questioning some of the more permissive elements of the 1960s look and asking Quant: "Would you agree that just as there is brutalism in architecture...there is an element of brutalism in fashion today?"<ref name="The Guardian (reprint)">{{cite news|last1=Adburgham|first1=Alison|title=The Shock of the New|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview5|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=14 May 2005}}</ref>
Adburgham could be disapproving of the foibles of fashion. Writing about the latest collection of hats by [[Reed Crawford]] in 1964, she said they "beggar description, especially his cocktail confections: high-standing exclamation pieces stuck through with monstrous hat-pins. Funnier hats have appeared in pantomimes, but not much funnier."<ref name="The Guardian Adburgham 230764">{{Cite news |last1=Adburgham |first1=Alison |title=Winter and autumn collections: London Fashion |work=The Guardian|date=23 July 1964 |ref=pg.7}}</ref> In a 1967 interview with [[Mary Quant]], reprinted in 2005, Adburgham grilled the "[[Swinging London]]" designer on the line between fashion and vulgarity, questioning some more permissive elements of the 1960s look and asking Quant, "Would you agree that just as there is brutalism in architecture... there is an element of brutalism in fashion today?"<ref name="The Guardian (reprint)">{{Cite news |last1=Adburgham |first1=Alison |title=The Shock of the New |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview5 |accessdate=2 August 2015 |work=The Guardian |date=14 May 2005}}</ref>


Her 1997 obituary in ''The Guardian'', by Veronica Horwell, said that she was not given to fashion excesses herself – describing her as wearing "rather Design Council style" clothes. A letter in response from [[Fiona MacCarthy]] said "Design Council approved" was an unfair description of her style, adding: "She turned up at a party of mine in the 1960s looking rather like a dissolute exiled Polish countess in claret-red velvet with cascading ruffles at the neck".<ref name="The Guardian MacCarthy">{{cite news|last1=MacCarthy|first1=Fiona|title=Letters|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=28 May 1997|ref=pg.17}}</ref>
Adburgham's 1997 obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Veronica Horwell stated she was not given to fashion excesses herself – describing her as wearing "rather Design Council style" clothes. A letter in response from [[Fiona MacCarthy]] said "Design Council approved" was an unfair description of her style, adding, "She turned up at a party of mine in the 1960s looking rather like a dissolute exiled Polish countess in claret-red velvet with cascading ruffles at the neck."<ref name="The Guardian MacCarthy">{{Cite news |last1=MacCarthy |first1=Fiona |title=Letters |work=The Guardian |date=28 May 1997 |ref=pg.17}}</ref>


Alongside her career reporting on trends in clothing, Adburgham worked with the fashion industry, serving as a governor of the [[London College of Fashion]].<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
Alongside her career reporting on trends in clothing, Adburgham worked with the fashion industry, serving as a governor of the [[London College of Fashion]].<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/>


==Writing==
==Writing==
Adburgham contributed several books about social history, in later life writing from her home in North Cornwall. Her obituary recalled that the chapter on [[Liberty of London]] she included in her first book ''Shops and Shopping'' was later expanded into a biography of the store for its 1975 centenary, while ''Women in Print'' was considered among the standard reference works for both media studies and women's studies.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
Adburgham wrote several books of social history, in later life from her home in North Cornwall. Her obituary recalled that the chapter on [[Liberty of London]] she included in her first book, ''Shops and Shopping'', was later expanded into a biography of the store for its 1975 centenary, while ''Women in Print'' was seen as one of the standard reference works for media studies and for women's studies.<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/>


===Partial bibilography===
===Partial bibliography===
Details as they appear in the British Library catalogue:<ref>[http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&frbg=&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1447025373680&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&vl(488279563UI0)=any&dum=true&tb=t&indx=11&vl(freeText0)=Alison%20Adburgham&vid=BLVU1&fn=search Retrieved 9 November 2015]</ref>
⚫
* ''Shops and Shopping 1800-1914'' (Faber & Faber, 1964).<ref name=F&F>{{cite web|title=Shops and Shopping|url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571296019-shops-and-shopping-1800-1914.html|website=faber.co.uk|publisher=Faber|accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
*''A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841–1940'' (London: Hutchinson, 1961)
⚫
* ''Women in Print'' (Faber & Faber, 1972)<ref name="Faber WiP">{{cite web|title=Women in Print|url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571295241-women-in-print.html|website=faber.co.uk|publisher=Faber|accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="The Guardian Horwell">{{cite news|last1=Horwell|first1=Veronica|title=An Outsider's Eye|accessdate=2 August 2015|publisher=The Guardian|date=27 May 1997|ref=pg.20}}</ref>
* ''Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814-1840'' (Constable, 1983)<ref name="Faber SFS">{{cite web|title=Silver Fork Society|url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571295906-silver-fork-society.html|website=faber.co.uk|publisher=Faber|accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
*''Shops and Shopping 1800–1914'' (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964)<ref name="F&F">{{Cite web |title=Shops and Shopping |url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571296019-shops-and-shopping-1800-1914.html |website=faber.co.uk |publisher=Faber |accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
⚫
*''Women in Print'' (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1972)<ref name="The Guardian Horwell"/><ref name="Faber WiP">{{Cite web |title=Women in Print |url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571295241-women-in-print.html |website=faber.co.uk |publisher=Faber |accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
*''Liberty's: A Biography of a Shop'' (London: Allen and Unwin, 1975)
*''Shopping in Style. London from the Restoration to Edwardian Elegance'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979)
⚫
*''Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814–1840'' (London: Constable, 1983)<ref name="Faber SFS">{{Cite web |title=Silver Fork Society |url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571295906-silver-fork-society.html |website=faber.co.uk |publisher=Faber |accessdate=2 August 2015}}</ref>
*''A Radical Aristocrat: the Rt. Hon. Sir William Molesworth, Bart., PC, MP of Pencarrow and his wife Andalusia''. (Padstow: Tabb House, 1980)


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Authority control}}


{{Persondata
| NAME = Adburgham, Alison
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = British fashion journalist; author and social historian
| DATE OF BIRTH = 28 January 1912
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = 28 May 1997
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adburgham, Alison}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adburgham, Alison}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:British women journalists]]
[[Category:English women journalists]]
[[Category:The Guardian people]]
[[Category:The Guardian people]]
[[Category:Fashion journalists]]
[[Category:English fashion journalists]]
[[Category:Women journalists]]
[[Category:People educated at Roedean School, East Sussex]]
[[Category:People educated at Roedean School, England]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English writers]]
[[Category: British historians]]
[[Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing]]
[[Category:20th-century English historians]]
[[Category:English women historians]]
[[Category:People from Yeovil]]
[[Category:People from Truro]]

Latest revision as of 03:52, 20 July 2024

Alison Adburgham
Born
Majorie Vere Alison Haig

(1912-01-28)28 January 1912[1]
Yeovil, Somerset, England
Died23 May 1997(1997-05-23) (aged 85)
Truro, Cornwall, England
Occupation(s)Journalist, author and social historian

Alison Adburgham (28 January 1912 – 23 May 1997) was an English journalist, author and social historian, best known for her work as fashion editor of The Guardian newspaper, a position she held for 20 years.[2] Along with Prudence Glynn of The Times and Alison Settle of The Observer, she pioneered British fashion journalism in a broadsheet national newspaper; as a bylined columnist, influencing public perception of trends in clothing, the industry itself.[3] She also wrote several books on social history.

Early life and career

[edit]

Adburgham was born Marjorie Vere Alison Haig on 28 January 1912 in Yeovil, Somerset, as the daughter of a doctor and an "unnervingly educated mother".[1] She was educated at home before winning a scholarship to Roedean, an independent girls' school outside Brighton.[1]

Her first job was as an advertising copywriter, while contributing articles on manners and style to Clever Night & Day magazine.[1] She took a break from writing after marrying a copywriter, with whom she had four children.[1]

Fashion journalism

[edit]

After the Second World War, Adburgham began contributing to Punch and later through The Guardian women's editor Mary Stott. She began to cover fashion collections at a time when newspaper fashion journalism was in its infancy in the UK, becoming an expert in the fashion industry of post-war Europe and in fashion history.[1]

Adburgham's earliest bylined fashion piece, in December 1954, approached the wider relevance of fashion: "Over the last half-century there has been a complete change of attitude towards dress. Intelligent women no longer feel it is only the unintelligent who are interested in clothes; highbrows no longer ignore high fashion. When the question is asked, 'What has Dior done to us this season?' that pronoun refers to all women; and not least to those who sit on platforms, who are guests at literary luncheons, or who catch the Speaker's eye in the House."[4]

Adburgham could be disapproving of the foibles of fashion. Writing about the latest collection of hats by Reed Crawford in 1964, she said they "beggar description, especially his cocktail confections: high-standing exclamation pieces stuck through with monstrous hat-pins. Funnier hats have appeared in pantomimes, but not much funnier."[5] In a 1967 interview with Mary Quant, reprinted in 2005, Adburgham grilled the "Swinging London" designer on the line between fashion and vulgarity, questioning some more permissive elements of the 1960s look and asking Quant, "Would you agree that just as there is brutalism in architecture... there is an element of brutalism in fashion today?"[6]

Adburgham's 1997 obituary in The Guardian by Veronica Horwell stated she was not given to fashion excesses herself – describing her as wearing "rather Design Council style" clothes. A letter in response from Fiona MacCarthy said "Design Council approved" was an unfair description of her style, adding, "She turned up at a party of mine in the 1960s looking rather like a dissolute exiled Polish countess in claret-red velvet with cascading ruffles at the neck."[7]

Alongside her career reporting on trends in clothing, Adburgham worked with the fashion industry, serving as a governor of the London College of Fashion.[1]

Writing

[edit]

Adburgham wrote several books of social history, in later life from her home in North Cornwall. Her obituary recalled that the chapter on Liberty of London she included in her first book, Shops and Shopping, was later expanded into a biography of the store for its 1975 centenary, while Women in Print was seen as one of the standard reference works for media studies and for women's studies.[1]

Partial bibliography

[edit]

Details as they appear in the British Library catalogue:[8]

  • A Punch History of Manners and Modes, 1841–1940 (London: Hutchinson, 1961)
  • Shops and Shopping 1800–1914 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964)[9]
  • Women in Print (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1972)[1][10]
  • Liberty's: A Biography of a Shop (London: Allen and Unwin, 1975)
  • Shopping in Style. London from the Restoration to Edwardian Elegance (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979)
  • Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814–1840 (London: Constable, 1983)[11]
  • A Radical Aristocrat: the Rt. Hon. Sir William Molesworth, Bart., PC, MP of Pencarrow and his wife Andalusia. (Padstow: Tabb House, 1980)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Horwell, Veronica (27 May 1997). "An Outsider's Eye". The Guardian.
  2. ^ "Adburgham, Alison". guardian.calmview.eu. Guardian Observer archive. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  3. ^ Waddell, Gavin (2004). How Fashion Works: Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Mass Production. Oxford: Blackwell Science. p. 157. ISBN 9780632057528. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  4. ^ "Dior...Semi-Dior...Demi-Semi Dior". The Guardian. 3 December 1954.
  5. ^ Adburgham, Alison (23 July 1964). "Winter and autumn collections: London Fashion". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Adburgham, Alison (14 May 2005). "The Shock of the New". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  7. ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (28 May 1997). "Letters". The Guardian.
  8. ^ Retrieved 9 November 2015
  9. ^ "Shops and Shopping". faber.co.uk. Faber. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  10. ^ "Women in Print". faber.co.uk. Faber. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  11. ^ "Silver Fork Society". faber.co.uk. Faber. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
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