Matilda Etches

Muriel Matilda Etches (1898 – 18 April 1974) was a British fashion designer, couturier, and costume designer. She first went into business in 1934, and found widespread fame in the 1940s. As a theatre and film costume designer, she worked with Sophie Fedorovitch and Cecil Beaton. Clothes that she created in the 1940s were the first modern fashion items to be honoured as key acquisitions by London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

Early life Etches was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of Charles Thomas Watkins Etches (1874–1964) and Agnes Helena Etches (nee Woollen). Her father was a captain in The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during World War I.

Career Etches started a dressmaking business in 1934, but financial problems led to it being dissolved the following year. She started a new business in the late 1930s, and had widespread fame in the 1940s.

Etches was also a costume designer for theatre and film, and worked with theatre designer Sophie Fedorovitch,

In 1950, she married the American economist and economics advisor, Paul Homan. and a 1949 evening cape. In 1969, Etches donated selected items, and her cotton dress and evening cape were considered by senior V&A officials to be key acquisitions, the first modern fashion items to be so honoured. Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) Beware of Pity (1946) Gaiety George (1946)