Lucie Clayton Charm Academy
Lucie Clayton College was founded by Sylvia Lucie Golledge in 1928 as a finishing school which expanded into modelling two years later and turned into Britain's top modelling agency during the 1950s and 1960s by Leslie Kark who bought the business. His wife Evelyn became the figurehead and public face as Lucie Clayton.
In the late 1960s, Lucie Clayton added secretarial training to its curriculum which already consisted of cookery, flower arranging, make-up, deportment, fashion design, pattern cutting, dressmaking and style of dress.
The modelling agency closed in the late 1970s but the school went on preparing young ladies for marriage, society and the Season.
In the early 1990s, Lucie Clayton reinvented itself as a secretarial and business college. The courses ranged from a few days up to a full year and included skills such as shorthand to IT to budgeting, marketing, public relations, law and personal development. Along the way, students may pick up the odd City & Guilds or London Chamber of Commerce & Industry professional qualification. At the end of the course they left with Lucie Clayton's certificate. The list of employers associated with the college includes Amanda Wakeley, Arthur Andersen, Hermes, JWT, the BBC, Vogue, and Schroders.
In 2007, Lucie Clayton College merged with two secretarial colleges, Queen's College and St James's College, to form Quest Business Training. Today it is known as and it has moved to Grosvenor Gardens. Lucie Clayton House in South Kensington, London was converted into seven serviced apartments.Notable faculty
- Jean Broke-Smith - head-teacher in Ladette to Lady.
Notable alumni
- Jemma Kidd - countess, make up artist, model
- Tara Palmer-Tomkinson - socialite, TV presenter
- Anne Dunhill - novelist, translator, and granddaughter of Alfred Dunhill
- Celia Hammond - campaigner and founder of Celia Hammond Animal Trust
- Joanna Lumley - actress, former model
- Pippa Bennett-Warner - actress
- Paulene Stone - Vogue cover girl
- Samantha Juste - Top of the Pops TV presenter
- Sandra Howard - novelist, wife of Michael Howard
- Vicki Hodge - actress, model, and former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, Duke of York
- Lorna McDonald - former model
- Jean Shrimpton - model, actress
- Carole White - model and founder of Premier Model Management
- Nuala Quinn-Barton - model, film producer and mother of actress Mischa Barton
- Tania Mallet - model, actress
- Gillian Tett - financial journalist
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