c1640

ede's heritage

The Shudalls operated as respected tailors, robemakers and haberdashers from the area around Holywell Street, near the Strand, the centre of the tailoring trade in London during the seventeenth century.

1726

Ravenscroft's heritage

The Ravenscroft wigmaking business was established by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1726 and operated independently until merging with the robemakers Ede & Son in 1902.

Although the wearing of wigs as a fashion accessory was on the wane by the late eighteenth century, Ravenscroft’s location, close to the Inns of Court in London, meant that the business was able to prosper by supplying wigs to the legal profession.

1750s - 1760s

Ede's Heritage

Husband and wife, William and Martha Shudall were running the business by the mid eighteenth century. They maintained their reputation as specialist robemakers, with William regularly attending to the robing of the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle. William died in 1757, and Martha continued the business in partnership with Francis Stone.

During this period their largest appointment was to make the coronation robes for the Coronation of George III in 1761. The coronation robes are detailed in the company ledgers, and as well as the robes for the King and Queen Charlotte, the ledger also shows accounts for coronation robes for sixteen other dukes and 46 earls. Together with other degrees of peerage the total number of robes made for the coronation was well over a hundred.

1790s - 1810s

Ede's Heritage

For over 200 years, the business has supplied officers of the College of Arms with ceremonial dress. The Kings of Arms, Heralds and Pursuivants are a distinctive sight on state occasions in their vividly coloured medieval-style tabards. Their dress indicates the long standing nature of their office as organisers of state ceremonial events and experts in armorial matters, having authority to grant new arms and confirm proven pedigrees and claims to existing arms.

In Scotland, the Lord Lyon King of Arms similarly oversees state ceremonial, with heraldic responsibility extending to the registering and recording of new clan tartans, upon the request of the clan chief.

Lord Lyon King of Arms tabard, late 19th century, worn by Sir James Balfour-Paul during his tenure of office as Lord Lyon, 1890-1926. Sir James was on duty at the Coronations of Edward VII and George V, and at the state funerals of Queen Victoria and Edward VII. © E&R Archive and Collections

Herald’s tabard, early 20th century.
© E&R Archive and Collections

1820s

Ede's Heritage

William Webb became a key figure in creating the King’s vision of using chivalric pageantry for the event, and was requested to provide hundreds of mantles for knights and officers of the Orders of Chivalry. The business also supplied peers’ coronation robes, including the dress worn by the eight eldest sons of peers’ in attendance to the King.

1830

Ravenscroft's heritage

Speaker of the House of Commons, 1861, Rt Hon J E Denison, wearing full-bottomed wig. From a series of legal portraits collated by Burton Ravenscroft during the mid-19th century.
© E&R Archive and Collections

1830s - 1850s

Ede's Heritage

William Webb died in 1831 and the business passed to his son Frederick, assisted by Joseph Ede, an apprentice who had been taken on in 1811.

In 1834 Webb’s business was acquired by Thomas Adams, Joseph Ede’s uncle, and began trading as Adams & Ede.

Joseph Ede eventually took over and the firm took the name ‘Joseph Ede’ in 1848. He received a series of warrants from Queen Victoria, the business continuing to expand and prosper throughout the nineteenth century.

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is a Scottish Order of Chivalry revived during the seventeenth century from an Order with ancient foundations, and has remained an exclusively Scottish honour.

Continued royal support for the Order during the nineteenth century was ensured by Queen Victoria’s regular residence in Scotland. Her first visit to Scotland with Prince Albert was in 1842. In the same year, Adams and Ede was appointed to make Prince Albert’s Order of the Thistle mantle, the Order to which he was appointed in 1843 as the first ‘Extra Knight’ created by special statute for members of the royal family and foreign monarchs.

Between the mid- to late-nineteenth century, strict adherence to the rituals and customs of mourning, particularly in dress, reached its height. Consequently, the correct fulfilment of mourning dress etiquette became an important part of the tailoring industry. During this period, Joseph Ede’s ledgers include hundreds of orders for mourning bands and ‘weepers’, cuffs of ruffled white lace worn over the sleeves, worn at court during periods of national mourning.

1860s

Ede's Heritage

Joseph died in 1862 and his widow Anne took over the business for a short time. By 1868 their son Joseph Webb Ede had taken over (his middle name ‘Webb’ given in memory of his father’s former employer William Webb), renaming the firm ‘Ede & Son’.

In 1868 Ede & Son relocated to nos 93-94 Chancery Lane which is where the company head office is still located. This proved to be a well-chosen location situated close to the Inns of Court, legal dress being then, as now, an important part of the business, supplying the full range of legal clothing from plain back barrister’s robes through to the highly embellished black and gold robes of the senior judiciary. Up to 1933, the business supplied all judges on appointment with a definitive guide to dress regulations entitled the ‘Judges’ Robing List’.

1870s - 1890s

Ede's Heritage

The marriage between Joseph Webb Ede and Rosanna Ravenscroft was a significant event, uniting the two trades, although a formal merger was a number of years later, in 1902.

However, Joseph died six months into the marriage, at the age of 26, leaving his widow Rosa Ede to take over the robemaking business. Queen Victoria confirmed the appointment of Rosa Ede as her new robemaker in September 1871, and Rosa went on to manage the business for sixty years.

The company has long provided costume for theatre, television and film. As early as the 1890s, garments were provided for original productions of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s Iolanthe and Utopia Limited at the Savoy Theatre, to W S Gilbert’s own specifications.

1900s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

Ede, Son & Ravenscroft was responsible for a large proportion of the robemaking for the Coronation of Edward VII, the requirements for which were considerable due to there not having been a coronation since 1838. Entries in the company ledgers list the extensive work required for Edward VII and Queen Alexandra’s robes, as well as robes for peers, officers of state, bishops and clergy. The company was also commissioned to supply altar cloths and velvet to upholster the coronation chairs.

In 1902 the two companies officially merged: Ede & Son, robemakers, with Ravenscroft, wigmakers. Burton Ravenscroft, Rosa’s eldest brother, had taken over the wigmaking business in Serle Street, and he now moved it to premises at 1 Star Yard, backing onto Ede & Son’s Chancery Lane shop. With the merger came a change of name, to Ede, Son & Ravenscroft.

1910s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

With another Coronation only nine years since the previous ceremony, there was little new robemaking to be done for this event. Ede, Son and Ravenscroft was required to make adjustments to existing robes, and even the robes worn by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at the previous Coronation were adapted by the company to be worn by George V and Queen Mary.

As robemakers to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), the company made the Order of the Garter robes he wore at the Coronation of George V in June 1911, and the velvet robes for his investiture at Caernarvon in July of the same year.

1920s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

At the beginning of the twentieth century, all female academic robes were a distinct ankle length design in order to cover a full skirt length. As hemlines rose during the 1920s, so too could female academic dress, and by the 1930s academic robes had become a largely unisex style.

1930s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

On this occasion the coronation robes made by Ede & Ravenscroft included small capes and robes for the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, termed the ‘Little Princesses’ on the paper cut outs retained in the company Archive.

Rosa Ede died in 1931, with obituaries appearing in the national press. By the time of her death she had managed the business for sixty years. During this period she had held the royal warrant continuously which the press claimed to be an unprecedented achievement.

After her death, Ede & Ravenscroft passed to her nephew Stanley Ravenscroft and stayed in the Ravenscroft family for a further forty years.

1940s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

The company ledgers reveal that Ede & Ravenscroft was providing rabbinical clothing during the 1930s and 1940s for many of the London synagogues. Some of these clients were rabbis fleeing Nazi Europe such as Czech-born rabbi Irwin Landau who came to London in 1935, becoming rabbi of the Federation Synagogue in Neasden in 1942.

Although the company had produced Christian clerical vestments from its earliest days, up to this point it had not previously supplied Jewish robes in such quantities. The request for Ede & Ravenscroft to fulfil this function was perhaps due to the sudden influx of Jewish refugees combined with a decline in Jewish vestment manufacturing in Europe.

Ede & Ravenscroft continued to operate its tailoring business throughout the war, although, as this letter explains, under ‘abnormal conditions’. These included being required, along with other retail businesses, to operate a clothing coupon system. Clothes rationing was introduced in 1941 in response to shortages arising from a limited supply of fabric imports and raw materials and manufacturing capacity being focused on the war effort.

1950s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

The Queen’s ceremonial robes, supplied by Ede & Ravenscroft, were among the central symbols in a ceremony witnessed by 27 million people, the Coronation being the first national televised event.

For the 1953 Coronation, Norman Hartnell, designer of The Queen’s wedding and coronation dresses, designed an alternative style robe for peeresses, in consultation with Ede & Ravenscroft on the way in which the modifications could best be achieved. The new robe was designed to be sleeveless with a cape collar and cut all in one, unlike the traditional style robe with a separate kirtle, train and cape. This was the first major change in peeresses’ coronation robes since the reign of Queen Anne.

Ede & Ravenscroft has long had a reputation for using only the highest quality traditional fabrics in garment production, which continues to this day. But during the post-war period, synthetic fibre manufacturing revolutionised the mainstream dress industry by offering cheaper, more readily available alternatives. Cellulose acetate was one such fabric, produced by the Celanese company.

In 1953, just prior to the Coronation, Ede & Ravenscroft took part in a Celanese advertising campaign. Celanese ordered a coronation robe and kirtle made out of their own fabric in order to demonstrate its versatility and high quality, although failing to convince Ede & Ravenscroft of a switch away from traditional velvet.

1960s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

The Order of the British Empire is a twentieth century Order of Chivalry established by George V in 1917. In 1960, The Queen’s mantle of the Order of the British Empire was made by Ede & Ravenscroft to a scheme by British designer Marion Foale, while a student at the Royal College of Art.

As for the previous Prince of Wales in 1911, the company was tasked with providing ceremonial dress for the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969.

1960s - 1970s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

During this period, Commonwealth countries formed their own executive legislatures, legal bodies and academic institutions, each requiring new schemes of dress. Ede & Ravenscroft was required to design schemes which combined aspects of British systems of dress, whilst incorporating local cultural design.

1980s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

The company’s first warehouse was built in the early 1980s in Waterbeach, to the north of Cambridge. During the 1990s, further warehousing facilities were established in Grangemouth, Scotland in order to service academic institutions in Scotland and the north of England.

The company’s provision of graduation services continues to operate from Waterbeach and Grangemouth.

1990s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

Ede & Ravenscroft’s first website was developed during this period, offering online ordering and purchasing for all aspects of the business. Online ordering was particularly complementary to the company’s expanding provision of graduation services, transforming the speed in which transactions could be processed.

2000s

Ede & Ravenscroft's Heritage

In 2007 King’s College London was granted degree awarding powers and required a new scheme of academic dress. Ede & Ravenscroft worked closely with Vivienne Westwood in order to create a distinctive and contemporary design which incorporated gold King’s Lion buttons on each shoulder, with the hood fastened to the buttons, and the cowl bindings with the relevant school colour extending down the front of the gown.

London Metropolitan University’s strikingly modern silver and purple colour scheme was incorporated into their academic dress, as shown here in The Duke of Edinburgh’s honorary doctorate robe. As the then patron, he was awarded the first degree given by the new university in 2003.