A show that is back in fashion: The Savoy brings back its historic salon couture events – with afternoon tea

Contributed by Sherelle Jacobs

Once a month at The Savoy in London, the Salon Couture High-Tea recaptures the glamour of the Fifties, says Sherelle Jacobs

She had a fixed smile, and tunnel-black hair heaped into finger rolls. Her slender arms floated up and down in liquid, undulating exultation: a mimicking of Swan Lake? The corset of her dress was a thicket of grey feathers. Her skirt was a silvery river of spreading silk. Enmeshed Swarovski crystals caught the light when she moved, like stars blowing through fog. The audience watched her with concentrated silence. There was no longer the wet munch of apricot scones. Just the woozy clicking of camera phones.

I was watching a model work the room at the Salon Couture High-Tea at The Savoy in London. On the first Wednesday of every month, the legendary hotel’s Thames Foyer hosts a fashion show, featuring ball gowns by leading British designer Suzie Turner. These afternoons are inspired by the salon-style fashion affairs that The Savoy put on 70 years ago. It’s worth getting excited. One of London’s great aristocratic traditions is back.