[1] In her early 1920s Simone met a Jewish medical student, Serge Mirman, whose communist beliefs made him undesirable to her parents.

[1][2] She headed the hat department of Schiaparelli's London branch in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair until it closed down at the outbreak of war in 1939.

Each morning, they hid the evidence of their real life and transformed the attic into a millinery salon for Simone to serve customers seeking off-ration hats.

[3] Aside from royalty, her notable clients included the actresses Vivien Leigh and Valerie Hobson, as well as members of the English aristocracy and society.

[1][6] In 1978 she also designed another women's cap for the Metropolitan Police, this time with a soft top, but its impracticality led to its rapidly gaining the nicknames 'butcher's boy' or 'Smurf' and it was withdrawn 18 months later.

[3] Mirman's designs for royalty took into account their individual preferences – light and airy hats lavishly trimmed with flowers and feathers for the Queen Mother; and the very latest fashions for Princess Margaret.

[1] The Queen insisted on hats that would please photographers – off-the-face brims (if any), clear colours to co-ordinate with her Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies outfits, and unusual fabrics to make her stand out in a crowd.