It Started in Paradise

It Started in Paradise is a 1952 British drama film, directed by Compton Bennett and starring Jane Hylton, Martita Hunt and Muriel Pavlow. Set in the world of haute couture, the film was squarely aimed at female audiences. Its storyline of 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 with a waspish male critic on hand throughout to provide a steady stream of acerbic, biting commentary led inevitably to the film being dubbed the All About Eve of the fashion world.

In 1938, Mme. Alice Hunt, chief designer of a famous London fashion house, has lost her touch. Where once she was the most sought after designer in the city, now her creations seem locked in the past and clients are looking elsewhere for modern fashions. She is persuaded by her senior assistant Martha Hylton that she needs a long holiday to recapture her creative inspiration. Once Mme. 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 uptotheminute garments which are a huge success with the fashion media and bring clients flocking back to the salon. The financial backer of the business is delighted with the upturn in profits Martha is promoted to chief designer and Mme. Alice is quietly retired.Over the course of the next decade Martha, with the help of Alison Pavlow, a talented girl she took on straight out of school, restores the house to its preeminent position in the London fashion world. She becomes so driven that she starts not to care who she treads on in her quest to be the best in the business. Over the years while her professional career goes from strength to strength, she neglects friends, treats associates badly and makes business enemies. ........

Source: Wikipedia