The fashion industry inspires a particular kind of creative tyranny. Such is the subject of Paul Thomas Anderson’s atmospheric, creepy, wickedly sharp film Phantom Thread, which last week picked up six Oscar nominations, including nods for Anderson and British stars Daniel Day Lewis and Lesley Manville.
The film centres around Reynolds Woodcock, a draconian, ferociously focused haute couture designer (played by Day-Lewis), and the two main women in his life: his sister, Cyril, (Manville), and Alma, a waitress who becomes his muse. Yet while Day Lewis – in what he has announced is his last ever film role – drew on many formidable fashion personalities for the role – including Cristobal Balenciaga and Hardy Amies – the original inspiration is said to have been the most uncompromising of them all: the English fashion designer Charles James.
So who was James – this man who became known as America’s...