Edward Molyneux

Edward Henry Molyneux (5 September 1891 – 23 March 1974) was a leading British fashion designer whose salon in Paris was in operation from 1919 until 1950. He was characterised as a modernist designer who played with the refinements of couture style, a modernist aesthetic, and the desire to be socially and culturally advanced. Early life Edward Molyneux was born on 5 September 1891 in Hampstead, London, to Justin Molyneux and Lizzy Kenny. He was of Irish and French Huguenot ancestry. His uncle was Major Edward Mary Joseph Molyneux, who became known for his paintings of the Kashmir region. Edward was educated at Beaumont College, a Roman Catholic public school. Owing to the death of his father, he left school at the age of 16 to support himself and his mother while pursuing his ambitions as a painter and illustrator. Career Molyneux found employment as a sketch artist for the London edition of the American magazine The Smart Set, where his drawings of fashionable women attracted the attention of the celebrated couturier Lucile (in private life Lady Duff Gordon). She hired him as a sketcher in her London salon in 1910 and by the end of the following year had promoted him to assistant designer at her Paris branch. He also worked for Lucile in New York. On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the British Army's Duke of Wellington's Regiment with which he fought in the Battle of Arras. He attained the rank of captain but lost his sight in one eye. For a time, he worked in the Admiralty's signals intelligence unit, Room 40. He returned to work for Lucile after being invalided out of the war but a disagreement with her resulted in the termination of his contract in 1919.