We've all heard of fashion gurus Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Mary Quant - all huge names in the history of the profession.

But Maudella?

Your average fashion victim may not gush with delight at the name and drag out from their wardrobes a glittering display of their creations.

Yet they ought to recognise the name because the husband and wife team who inspired the "fashion house" were one of the most successful duos in the history of clothing design.

And they're not from Paris, Milan or London, but from Bradford.

Maudella will be a familiar name to those women who chose to make their own clothesin former years.

For the company produced paper dress patterns for more than 50 years as Maudella Patterns Company. The patterns were used by home and professional dressmakers from the mid 1930s to the 1980s.

The firm was started by Maude Eleanor Dunsford in an attic in Fagley in 1937, and moved to Chapel Street, Little Germany, in 1939, with Maude's husband Sydney as manager.

It was sold to Simplicity, an American outfit, after the couple's son Ernest retired in the 1980s.

Now the fascinating history of the company is traced in an exhibition which opens this weekend at Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley.

It has been put together by Bradford Museums senior history keeper Anthea Bickley, pictured, and her team.

Anthea said: "Maudella was well known all over the country, and its designs were a great leveller.

"The Dunsfords picked out the latest trends from the most fashionable designers and translated them into their own up-to-the-minute designs.

"People could make their own smart clothes locally and cheaply, without paying couturier prices or waiting the year it took back then for catwalk fashions to hit the high street."

The company did not just stick to women's dresses but also produced patterns for men's clothes and soft toys, she added.

Around 1,000 Maudella patterns will be on show from May 4 until July 7, along with garments from the museum's costume collection that illustrate the clothes the patterns were used to create.

The collection has come from a variety of sources including WI groups and charity shops.

The pattern envelope was illustrated with an image of the garment and inside contained the tissue paper pattern which had to be cut out and then traced on to the material.

Among the display is one of the original pattern books which the company put together in the 1930s to be used by fabric shops to illustrate to customers the range of patterns on offer.

Customers could make garments ranging from sumptuous wedding dresses to utilitarian frocks and children's clothes - short pants and shirts, tunics and blouses.

They were popular at a time when girls learned sewing at school and most women were skilled with a sewing machine.

But by the mid-1980s fewer and fewer people were making their own garments and the firm was the only company in England both designing its own clothes and printing the patterns.