It Started in Paradise is a 1952 British drama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring Jane Hylton, Martita Hunt and Muriel Pavlow.

[2] Set in the world of haute couture, the film was squarely aimed at female audiences its storyline concerns an established master of her craft being usurped by a younger, ruthlessly ambitious underling, who then years later finds the same thing happening to her.

Alice has departed the fiercely ambitious Martha, who has been biding her time for several years, launches a coup, designing and presenting a range of up-to-the-minute garments which are a huge success with the fashion media and bring clients flocking back to the salon.

Alice upon her return retains her composure, she refuses to countenance the Salon's "Vulgar" new look; she prophesies Martha's doom, and walks out, parting forever from the fashion world.

Over the course of the next decade Martha, with the help of Alison, a talented girl she took on straight out of school, restores the house to its pre-eminent position in the London fashion world.

[citation needed] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The idea seems to have been to make a sort of British All About Eve, set in the fashion world.