Want: A David Bowie dress, a Greta Garbo hat, and the shirt Sean Connery wore in his first role as James Bond.
They are iconic items of 20th century clothing, but their whereabouts are unknown. Now the London Docklands Museum is making a public appeal for help in finding these and other garments ahead of a major exhibition scheduled for later this year.
Lost clothes are important because they have something in common. All were created by Jewish designers working in London’s fashion scene, and the museum believes their legacy has been overlooked.
“Jews worked at all levels of the London fashion industry throughout the 20th century, but the extent of their contribution was not widely recognized,” said Dr. Lucy Whitmore, the museum’s fashion curator.
East End tailors and shoemakers may be well known, but from the establishment of the ready-to-wear industry dominating fashion meccas such as Carnaby Street in the 1960s, to the establishment of the ready-to-wear industry, Jewish designers at every level of the fashion industry have been in business. She believes that very few people are aware of the impact that the company and its makers have had. .
“The new research has allowed us to unearth a very rich personal story of people’s contributions to the London fashion industry.”
Among them is Mr. Fish, born Michael Fish in Wood Green, north London, in 1940. fashionable set.
He dressed Connery, Princess Margaret, and Jimi Hendrix, made the robes Muhammad Ali wore in Rumble in the Jungle, invented the kipper tie, and devised the infamous “man’s dress.” . This is Bowie’s work on the cover of The Man Who Sold the World, which was released in 1969 and called Whitmore “a dream piece you must find.”
“He was a very radical thinker in how he approached gender dynamics in design, and we want to celebrate his contribution,” she said. I think he deserves to be a household name.”
Also in demand is a hat made by German-born Jew Otto Lucas. Otto Lucas’ eponymous Bond his street label was a huge success worldwide after the war, with clients including Garbo and Wallis his Simpsons. There are also elusive names such as haute couture worn by aristocrats and his label Larvis. Few have survived, such as the movie star and Madame Isabel, who was called ‘her designer of London’s leading dress’ in the 1930s.
While Whitmore admits that not all of these diverse characters are equally associated with being Jewish, an estimated 60-70% of Jews who immigrated to London in the early 20th century were I worked in the fashion and textile trades. , this is a really personal story,” she said.
“We are not going to talk about one shared experience, but we are using Jewishness as a lens for looking at London fashion. , and we’re just celebrating it.”
Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style open October 13th At the London Docklands Museum. Anyone with information about the item in question should contact the museum by March 1st.
