Old Brentwood Sir Hardy Amies attended the school from 1919 to 1926.  The couture designer was fond of his time at Brentwood and even came back in his later years to design the girls' school uniform, which they still wear today.

Hardy Amies was knighted in 1993 and died in 2003; he opened his first couture house at 14 Savile Row in 1946, after a stint in the British intelligence service during the Second World War. Just one year later, his designs appeared on the cover of Vogue, and in 1955 he was appointed official dressmaker to Her Majesty the Queen for almost 40 years.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Hardy Amies 1909 - 2009, The House of Hardy Amies has opened its extensive archive to the public. The exhibition will be taking place throughout November, at London's No. 14 Savile Row.

The exhibition will include more than 7,000 of the couturier's sketches, from unseen drawings of a young Princess Elizabeth in the year she became Queen, to sketches of his costumes for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.