Fashion designer Gunilla Pontén (1955)
When the young fashion designer Gunilla Pontén was presented to the Swedish royal court in 1955, she wore this stunning white silk dress of her own design. At the time formal court dresses were not required anymore, but I am certain that the then 73 year old King Gustav VI Adolf and Queen Louise talked about the dress after the ceremony was over. My restoration and colorization of an image in the Wikipedia Commons archive.
Pontén´s court dress also caught the attention of the media:
"She created a sensation with her dress, designed by herself, that was very unconventional. It was inspired by Balenciaga and was called ”the court shock” in the newspapers and magazines. She landed on the front page of the major Swedish daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and photos of Gunilla Pontén clad in that dress were spread throughout Europe." --
"Gunilla Pontén was educated at the Femina school of needlework and the tailoring school Tillskärarakademin. In 1948, she started on the fashion programme at Anders Beckmans skola (currently Beckmans designhögskola). From the 1950s until the 1970s, when she started her own company, she worked as a designer at various Swedish fashion companies. Her first collection appeared in 1955. It was not a success, which has been explained as her design being before its time. After that, things went better and her simple garments for young people, surprising in their contrasts, made a great hit.Gunilla Pontén has been attributed great significance for the development of Swedish teenage fashion. According to her, Swedish youth fashion was in very bad shape in the 1960s. The Swedish fashion industry lay way behind ”Swinging London” with among others Mary Quant’s youthful fashion, and Gunilla Pontén wanted to change all that. She wanted to get away from the boring old women’s fashion that she considered as typical of the Swedish market.It was Gunilla Pontén’s playful, colourful and unexpected garments that made her design desirable. She worked for a great number of Swedish fashion companies like DeHå, Saléns, Martinette, Stilmönster, Hettemarks and Wahls. In the mid 1960s, Gunilla Pontén designed collections but not under her own name. In the collections were trouser suits, minidresses and long cardigans in various materials like ribbed knitwear, raw silk and terrycloth. Bloomingdale’s in New York ordered 6,000 garments from one of the collections. One of the garments decorated the cover of Elle. She also designed clothes for Swedish films and theatre performances, as well as men’s clothes for Rydboholms during the 1970s.At the beginning of the 1970s, Gunilla Pontén started her own company. She had fifteen franchise boutiques of her own, in Stockholm and abroad. She also worked as a designer and colour coordinator for H&M. Her break-through as a fashion creator was great both nationally and internationally.
One side of Gunilla Pontén that is not as well known, is that of actress. She participated in 21 films in which she played supporting roles, for example in One Summer of Happiness in 1951.
Gunilla Pontén died in 2019, at 90 years of age. She lies buried in Lidingö Cemetery."
(The Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women (SKBL)
Fashion designer Gunilla Pontén (1955)
When the young fashion designer Gunilla Pontén was presented to the Swedish royal court in 1955, she wore this stunning white silk dress of her own design. At the time formal court dresses were not required anymore, but I am certain that the then 73 year old King Gustav VI Adolf and Queen Louise talked about the dress after the ceremony was over. My restoration and colorization of an image in the Wikipedia Commons archive.
Pontén´s court dress also caught the attention of the media:
"She created a sensation with her dress, designed by herself, that was very unconventional. It was inspired by Balenciaga and was called ”the court shock” in the newspapers and magazines. She landed on the front page of the major Swedish daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and photos of Gunilla Pontén clad in that dress were spread throughout Europe." --
"Gunilla Pontén was educated at the Femina school of needlework and the tailoring school Tillskärarakademin. In 1948, she started on the fashion programme at Anders Beckmans skola (currently Beckmans designhögskola). From the 1950s until the 1970s, when she started her own company, she worked as a designer at various Swedish fashion companies. Her first collection appeared in 1955. It was not a success, which has been explained as her design being before its time. After that, things went better and her simple garments for young people, surprising in their contrasts, made a great hit.Gunilla Pontén has been attributed great significance for the development of Swedish teenage fashion. According to her, Swedish youth fashion was in very bad shape in the 1960s. The Swedish fashion industry lay way behind ”Swinging London” with among others Mary Quant’s youthful fashion, and Gunilla Pontén wanted to change all that. She wanted to get away from the boring old women’s fashion that she considered as typical of the Swedish market.It was Gunilla Pontén’s playful, colourful and unexpected garments that made her design desirable. She worked for a great number of Swedish fashion companies like DeHå, Saléns, Martinette, Stilmönster, Hettemarks and Wahls. In the mid 1960s, Gunilla Pontén designed collections but not under her own name. In the collections were trouser suits, minidresses and long cardigans in various materials like ribbed knitwear, raw silk and terrycloth. Bloomingdale’s in New York ordered 6,000 garments from one of the collections. One of the garments decorated the cover of Elle. She also designed clothes for Swedish films and theatre performances, as well as men’s clothes for Rydboholms during the 1970s.At the beginning of the 1970s, Gunilla Pontén started her own company. She had fifteen franchise boutiques of her own, in Stockholm and abroad. She also worked as a designer and colour coordinator for H&M. Her break-through as a fashion creator was great both nationally and internationally.
One side of Gunilla Pontén that is not as well known, is that of actress. She participated in 21 films in which she played supporting roles, for example in One Summer of Happiness in 1951.
Gunilla Pontén died in 2019, at 90 years of age. She lies buried in Lidingö Cemetery."
(The Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women (SKBL)