clothing fashion founded chapel market islington london united kingdom in 1923 founder raphael nat wallis headquarters london united kingdom key people sir philip green chairman products clothing accessories shoes parent arcadia group website www.wallis.co.uk wallis is a british women s clothing retailer . the brand operates from 134 stores and 126 concessions across the uk and republic of ireland . wallis is a subsidiary of the arcadia group and one of the many companies under ownership of philip green . contents 1 history 1.1 1960s fashion success 1.2 further expansion 2 operations 3 stores 4 references 5 external links history edit the first store was opened by the founder raphael nat wallis in chapel market islington in 1923 . 1 2 known from the start for its coats sold originally for 19 shillings and dresses it had the slogan comparison invited . competition defied . 2 by the 1940s the chain had 25 shops and a turnover of 300 000 a year . 2 1960s fashion success edit from the 1950s under the leadership of jeffrey wallis son of the founder the company became known for its selections from paris from 1957 this was known as pick of paris later this became paris originals and produced exact copies of top couture clothes . 3 4 paying a fee to attend the fashion shows of names such as courr ges chanel and dior wallis buyers were then entitled to reproduce a small number of patterns from each show in practice another dozen or so would be recreated from memory . 5 the store s mannequins would wear canvas covers in the run up to a grand unveiling of the latest designs . 5 the copies of chanel suits created by the store attracted a loyal following among london socialites and working women alike . during the profumo affair trial christine keeler wore a different wallis outfit every day . 4 from the late 1960s the focus was on younger british designers in keeping with swinging london trends . 3 wallis had already attracted interest from foreign buyers and took a collection of clothing to the us at the request of american buyers in 1964 . it comprised some 70 coats suits and dresses . 6 in 1969 sylvia ayton formerly in partnership with zandra rhodes took over as head of outerwear at wallis . she would attend the paris fashion shows with jeffrey wallis and take notes afterwards deciding which designs would be copied . then they would return to look at them on the hanger and take measurements . ayton recalled at saint laurent you were only allowed to look so i would measure it up in my mind . often this would be enough and the garments would be on sale in wallis stores before the official patterns arrived from paris . 4 further expansion edit after steady growth the uk the brand opened its first stores in europe some of which were concessions within department stores . 7 by 1976 it was a plc with 54 branches including stores in germany switzerland and sweden . 3 it later opened outlets in saudi arabia and south africa under respective franchise and licensing agreements . 1 in 1980 wallis became a part of the sears group and in 1999 following the acquisition of sears by sir philip green the brand was transferred to the arcadia group . 1 operations edit wallis includes dedicated ranges such as its petite range and a premium range known as limited edition which was introduced in 2006 . wallis also works closely with cancer research uk and launched a charity charm bracelet in 2005 and charm necklace in 2007 designed by international designers and celebrities such as scarlett johansson and kate moss to raise funds for the charity . in september 2009 the supermodel yasmin le bon partnered with wallis to design her first women s clothing and jewellery collection called ylb . in 2010 the chain introduced a collection called wallis 1923 featuring coats based on its early archive patterns . 2 stores edit united kingdom over 400 bahrain 1 canada 1 cyprus 1 egypt 1 georgia 1 germany 1 gibraltar 1 indonesia 1 ireland 32 kuwait 4 malaysia 2 malta 1 netherlands 5 qatar 2 saudi arabia 25 singapore 5 slovenia 1 united arab emirates 12 references edit a b c wallis . arcadiagroup.co.uk . arcadia group . retrieved 29 september 2014 . a b c d alexander hilary 17 may 2010 . wallis still in style aged 87 . the daily telegraph . retrieved 29 september 2014 . a b c ten years of counting ourselves lucky 59709 . the times . 20 may 1976 . access date requires url help a b c blanchard tamsin 30 september 1995 . the wallis collection . the independent . retrieved 29 september 2014 . a b smith liz 1 october 1991 . a man and his woman 64139 . the times . access date requires url help print and plain reverse the trend 56020 . the times . 25 may 1964 . access date requires url help tisdall patricia 2 july 1974 . fashion group moves into europe 59128 . the times . access date requires url help external links edit official website v t e arcadia group chains and brands current burton dorothy perkins evans miss selfridge outfit topman topshop wallis former british home stores debenhams principles principles for men richards people montague burton anthony grabiner ian grabiner philip green tina green retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wallis retailer & oldid 716909253 categories retail companies of the united kingdomclothing retailers of the united kingdom1920s fashion1930s fashion1940s fashion1950s fashion1960s fashion1970s fashion1980s fashion1990s fashion2000s fashion2010s fashionhidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no urluse dmy dates from december 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 24 april 2016 at 17 07 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view