May 27, 2025.

Thanks Bill for the article. Toronto is a long way to visit, even by computer.

I am extremely pleased with my PFaff sewing machine, when I have the time. It is far superior to their mentioned Janome Make.

I was taught at boarding school by a well known London couturier, who could no longer manage her own business.  Then once I had passed my ballroom dancing exam as a teacher, I was invited to join "Angele Delange" couturier who made all "Princess Elizabeth’s bridesmaids’ dresses at Fortnum and Mason's 5 storey building in Piccadilly, London. She had two floors of dressmakers and two floors of tailors.  I learned to fit "Mamselle's " mostly titled customer's by watching exactly A.D. pinning materials and half finished clothes to very Talkative Ladies!

Angele Delanghe (sometimes Angèle Delanghe), was a Belgian fashion designer based in London who ran an eponymous label from the late 1930s to the mid 1960s and also produced couture designs for the West End department store Fortnum & Mason.

Mme A.D and I walked to Alice, Duchess of Gloucester's London apartment in the old Tudor Palace just off Piccadilly on several occasions.  The first time there MMA.D was about to introduce me to the Duchess, she raised her hand and said "That young lady and I met a few years ago, do you remember, my dear?"  I had to say, "Of course I do,  For one of your Charity's I was dressed up as Little Bo Peep and handing you a bunch of Flowers. When a photographer's light bulb hit me in my face, you saved me from falling down; at the same time you gave the photographer a good telling off!!" It is amazing how so many of the "Royal's"  remember people, Names etc. for a long time.

Another well known customer was Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, maybe 28 -30 years old. The first time I met her when she arrived a little early for an appointment  I offered her a comfortable chair in a quiet corner while she waited  for A.D. She asked me if I was relatively new there as she had not seen me before. I do not remember the details, but after she left AD called me into her office as she had news for me. The Duchess had 

TOLD her "to get rid of that dreadful Cockney female who drops pins all over the place; and please always ask Suzanne to join us".  Poor A.D. she did not know whether to be annoyed with the Duchess or keep quiet.  However if I was always there when the duchess came and we became friends; a few weeks later a parcel arrived for me @ Fortnum's butchery with a Christmas card, signed “Margaret”. It was a couple of edible birds (with long tails, the names escape me, but Daddy's favourites) from the Argyll estate in Scotland. I also had the same present for my birthdays for a couple of years. 

Sometimes memories come back so clearly, but ask me what I ate for breakfast after a late night, a completely different story!!