Motley, pseud.

Motley is the corporate name of Sophia and Margaret Harris (sisters) and their friend Elizabeth Montgomery Wilmot, who designed sets and costumes from 1932 to 1976 for plays by Shakespeare and modern classics, opera, ballet, and motion pictures. Their designs were used in productions in the West End of London, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the English National Opera, and in the United States on Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Motley is the corporate name of sisters Margaret Harris (1904-2000) and Sophie Harris (1900-1966), and Elizabeth Montgomery Wilmot (1902-1993), who designed sets and costumes for theatre, opera, ballet and motion pictures from 1932 to 1976 in England and the United States.

Their first designs, for London productions by John Gielgud and Michel Saint-Denis, were very successful, and in 1936 Saint-Denis founded The London Theatre Studio (1936-1939), a radical new theatre school which incorporated courses in theatre design taught by the Motleys. In 1940, Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery went to New York and remained there until the end of World War II, designing for numerous productions on Broadway. In 1946, Margaret Harris returned to London, while Elizabeth stayed, married the writer and journalist Patrick Wilmot (1904-1960), and continued to design for plays, musicals, operas, and ballets in New York until 1966.