Miss Selfridge

Miss Selfridge
	200px
Type	Private
Founded	1966
Parent	Arcadia Group
Website	www.missselfridge.co.uk

Miss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which showed "Miss Bonwit" dresses aimed specifically at teenagers. He later launched it throughout his Lewis's & Selfridges stores throughout the UK

File:Paperdress.jpg

Paper dress by Sylvia Ayton and Zandra Rhodes (1966)

History

By 1967 Miss Selfridge had concessions throughout the country within department stores, and by 1969 there were some independent branches on the high street.

The first of Miss Selfridge's mannequins were based on sixties icon and model Twiggy, and the first dresses were paper dresses designed to be worn once and then thrown away, by Sylvia Ayton and Zandra Rhodes.^[1] Couturier Pierre Cardin was also commissioned by Miss Selfridge to design four exclusive collections a year.

Ownership

In July 1999 Arcadia Group, which is owned by Sir Philip Green, acquired Miss Selfridge, along with Wallis and clothing retailer Outfit, from Sears plc. Arcadia Group also includes Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Burton, and Topman.

Advertising and promotion

Miss Selfridge was one of the first retailers to use Kate Moss in their campaigns and has used other successful models and actresses such as Naomi Campbell, Yasmin le Bon, Tess Daly, Saffron Burrows and Nicollette Sheridan before they found major success.

In 2006, to celebrate its 40th year of business, Miss Selfridge relaunched limited edition make up palettes containing some of the most successful products from the "Kiss and Make Up" make up range, which is now discontinued.

A recent collaboration with Bella Freud in 2005 was short lived.

Miss Selfridge also sponsored the Victoria and Albert Museum's 1960s fashion exhibition from 6 June 2006 - 25 February 2007.

In April 2010, Miss Selfridge launched the Gossip Girl Collection in which they had worked with Eric Damon, the stylist of the show Gossip Girl, to create a line of 8 dresses based on the four main female characters.