This film is part of Free

Valerie Clemson Young

Mademoiselle Valerie is the queen of the ballroom and haute couture.

News 1980 5 mins

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Overview

Valerie Clemson Young shows one of the ballroom dances she used to demonstrate with partner Clemson in the glamour days of the 1920s and 1930s when they were England’s foremost ballroom dancers and world famous. They travelled the ballrooms of the world at sea and in hotels in the Palm Court era. The palm court was typically an atrium with palm trees in a prestigious hotel where functions such as tea dances would be held to orchestral accompaniment.

Clemson and Valerie choreographed their own dances such as the Panda Walk Chin Chin, the Muster and the Spotted Dog. Valerie also received sponsorship from the fashion houses of the day for her dresses some of which were of her own design and for which she received a commission. John Redfern (1820-1895) opened Redfern and Sons on the Isle of Wight and it became a leading European fashion house with shops in London, Edinburgh, Paris and New York. They are known for designing the uniform of the British Red Cross in 1916 but the Paris Headquarters closed at the outbreak of the Second World War.