Jean Muir
Encyclopedia
Jean Elizabeth Muir, CBE, FCSD
(July 17, 1928 - May 28, 1995) was an English
fashion designer (though she herself preferred to be called a dressmaker).
, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper
's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father was an Aberdonian, and Muir would attribute her creative pragmatism and self-discipline to this Scottish ancestry. Her parents separated while she was still a child, and she and her brother Christopher were brought up in Bedford
by their mother.
She was educated at the Bedford Girls' Modern School (now known as the Dame Alice Harpur School
) in Bedford
. While she was academically unimpressive, she showed a precocious talent for needlework, claiming to have been able to knit, embroider, and sew by the age of six.
At the age of seventeen, she left school and went to work at an electoral registration office at Bedford Town Hall. She then moved to London, where she worked briefly in a solicitor's office before taking a stockroom job at Liberty & Co in 1950. She worked her way upwards to selling over the counter, and then despite her lack of formal art college training, was given the opportunity to sketch in Liberty's ready to wear department. This would serve as her apprenticeship
, and led to her gaining a job as designer for Jaeger
in 1956. While there, she helped develop the Young Jaeger fashion label.
. Undeterred, Barnes offered to fund her own design label, and so Jane & Jane launched in 1962.
In 1964, Jean Muir won the first of her three Dress Of The Year
awards for a Jane & Jane dress in printed Liberty silk, which is preserved as part of the Dress Of The Year collection at the Fashion Museum, Bath
.
From the outset, Muir's designs demonstrated the pared-down understatement and easy fit that would become her design signature. Jane & Jane was one of the first companies to bring couture standards and quality to the wholesale fashion industry. Muir used Liberty textiles in many of her designs.
After Muir left in 1966 to launch Jean Muir Ltd., the Jane & Jane brand was sold to the ready-to-wear fashion house Susan Small, where it continued for several years before quietly disappearing circa 1970.
. The first collection was presented in October.
The designs continued the tradition established at Jane & Jane. Muir used the best quality fabrics, working in silk, cashmere, jersey and crepe, with a focus on form and fluidity. She made coats and jackets from soft leather and supple suede. Muir rarely used printed textiles, and avoided unnecessary decoration. Where she used decoration, it was integral to the garment, such as pintucking, decorative but functional buttons or rows of parallel topstitch
ing on cuffs or collars for reinforcement. During the 1980s, Muir sometimes decorated clothing with sequins
Muir's designs were aimed towards the woman with a mature outlook, regardless of age. She avoided creating clothes for fantasy figures, but focused on modern, restrained elegance. She ignored the fads of high fashion design, but focused on creating a consistently evolving series of understated, sober clothes. She was a sensualist who cared about how her clothes felt to wear as well as how they looked to others. Muir placed pockets at hip level to encourage the wearer to hold her shoulders back confidently. She eliminated bust darts
as she preferred to mould fabric rather than cut it. Her designs were intended to fit into a limited and integrated wardrobe, and to avoid distracting the wearer.
Despite being known to posterity almost exclusively for black dresses, her eye for colour was very definite. She favoured dark and deep blues, very dark greens, and heather
-toned purples as well as intensely bright orange and deep saffron yellow
. She was a perfectionist about her colours, working closely with fabric mills and dyers to achieve her ideal tones.
Muir has been described as bringing common sense to clothing design to the pitch of genius. Jane Mulvagh describes Muir clothes as being comfortable and effortless, and, "once donned, easily forgotten by the wearer but never the beholder."
Following her 1964 win whilst at Jane & Jane, Muir went on to win the Dress Of The Year award twice more. She won in 1968 for a ruffled white voile dress with black polka dots, and in 1979 for an ensemble comprising a black rayon jersey beret and dress worn with a black leather jacket. As with her 1964 design, these outfits are preserved at the Fashion Museum, Bath
.
From 1985, the majority interest in Jean Muir Ltd. was held by the textile manufacturer Coats PLC. Muir regained ownership in 1989.
Muir was made a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers
, and was a recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 1984, she was awarded a CBE
.
The company continued despite Jean Muir's death in 1995. Leuckert continued his directorship, while the designs were produced under the supervision of Joyce Fenton-Douglas and a group of four designers who had all formerly worked with Muir.
In 2004, the first Jean Muir Ltd. shop was opened on Conduit Street, London. It was managed by Leuckert's daughter Friederike.
On 19 January 2007, the directors announced that Jean Muir Ltd. would be closing down. Leuckert made a statement to the effect that he had hoped that they could take the retail route based on the success of the Conduit Street shop. This required substantial outside investment, but they had not been able to come to any agreement with interested parties. He further said:
The Jean Muir shop continued to trade, stocking the final collection for Spring/Summer 2007, before it closed down for good.
was Muir's first house model
, and became a muse
, close friend and loyal customer. She was often photographed modelling Muir's designs in the fashion press. Other well-known Muir clients included Lauren Bacall
, Maggie Smith
, Judi Dench
, Charlotte Rampling
, Julie Walters
, Joan Plowright
, Dr. Miriam Stoppard
and Patricia Hodge
.
In 1967, Muir provided Eleanor Bron
's wardrobe for the 1967 film Bedazzled
. She did wardrobe for only one other film, Betrayal
, in 1983.
Her designs were also worn by public figures such as the author and historian Lady Antonia Fraser
and the publisher Carmen Callil
.
Jean Muir's clothing is also popular with a younger generation. In 2006, Sienna Miller
's favourite piece of clothing was a vintage Muir purple suede cape. Other fans of vintage Muir include Kate Moss
and Stella McCartney
.
and Lorbottle Hall near Alnwick
in Northumberland
. Their marriage was unconventional, described by Leuckert as "wonderful and loving, but never singular". In 1976, Leuckert fathered a daughter, Friederike, with another woman. His wife was aware of this, and Leuckert continued to live with her whilst paying regular visits to his daughter and her mother, Ingrid, in Germany
. According to Friederike, this was normal:
Leuckert married Ingrid following the death of his wife. Friederike went on to become manager of the flagship Jean Muir shop in London when it opened in 2004.
. She was buried at St Bartholomew's Church in Whittingham, Northumberland
. At the funeral, by request of the deceased, her friends all wore black with white flowers.
She had kept her terminal illness
secret from even close friends, working right up to the end. Shortly before her death, she began fundraising for the National Museum of Scotland
in Edinburgh
. Her husband and Jean Muir Ltd. continued the work begun, and pledged money in her memory, as did many of her personal friends and loyal customers. In recognition of her work, the Museum's Silver Room is dedicated to Jean Muir, while Jean Muir Ltd is named upon the founder's stone at the Museum entrance.
In 2005, Leuckert donated Jean Muir's archive collection of her fashion and accessory designs to the National Museums of Scotland. A special exhibition on Muir's design career opened on 7 November 2008 at the Museum.
Chartered Society of Designers
The Chartered Society of Designers , headquartered in London, England, is the professional body for designers. It is the world's only Royal chartered body of professional designers...
(July 17, 1928 - May 28, 1995) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
fashion designer (though she herself preferred to be called a dressmaker).
History and early career
Jean Muir was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father was an Aberdonian, and Muir would attribute her creative pragmatism and self-discipline to this Scottish ancestry. Her parents separated while she was still a child, and she and her brother Christopher were brought up in Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
by their mother.
She was educated at the Bedford Girls' Modern School (now known as the Dame Alice Harpur School
Dame Alice Harpur School
Dame Alice Harpur School is an independent girls school in Bedford, United Kingdom, for girls aged 11-18. In September 2010 the junior department of the school merged with the junior department of Bedford High School...
) in Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
. While she was academically unimpressive, she showed a precocious talent for needlework, claiming to have been able to knit, embroider, and sew by the age of six.
At the age of seventeen, she left school and went to work at an electoral registration office at Bedford Town Hall. She then moved to London, where she worked briefly in a solicitor's office before taking a stockroom job at Liberty & Co in 1950. She worked her way upwards to selling over the counter, and then despite her lack of formal art college training, was given the opportunity to sketch in Liberty's ready to wear department. This would serve as her apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
, and led to her gaining a job as designer for Jaeger
Jaeger (clothing retailer)
Jaeger is a United Kingdom based high-end fashion brand and retailer of menswear and womenswear formed in 1884 by Lewis Tomalin ....
in 1956. While there, she helped develop the Young Jaeger fashion label.
Jane & Jane (1962-1966)
Upon leaving Jaeger, Muir was approached by David Barnes, a mass-market jersey dress manufacturer, who was keen to have her talents on board as a designer for his brand. Muir declined, as she did not wish to design for the mass marketMass market
The mass market is a general business term describing the largest group of consumers for a specified industry product. It is the opposite extreme of the term niche market.-General:...
. Undeterred, Barnes offered to fund her own design label, and so Jane & Jane launched in 1962.
In 1964, Jean Muir won the first of her three Dress Of The Year
Dress of The Year
The Dress of the Year is an annual fashion award run by the Fashion Museum, Bath from 1963. Each year since 1963, the Museum has asked a fashion journalist to select a dress or outfit that best represents the most important new ideas in contemporary fashion. For 2010 the Museum broke with tradition...
awards for a Jane & Jane dress in printed Liberty silk, which is preserved as part of the Dress Of The Year collection at the Fashion Museum, Bath
Fashion Museum, Bath
The Fashion Museum is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England.The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963. It focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day and has...
.
From the outset, Muir's designs demonstrated the pared-down understatement and easy fit that would become her design signature. Jane & Jane was one of the first companies to bring couture standards and quality to the wholesale fashion industry. Muir used Liberty textiles in many of her designs.
After Muir left in 1966 to launch Jean Muir Ltd., the Jane & Jane brand was sold to the ready-to-wear fashion house Susan Small, where it continued for several years before quietly disappearing circa 1970.
Jean Muir Ltd. (1966-2007)
Jean Muir Ltd. was founded in August 1966 by Jean Muir and her husband Harry Leuckert in partnershipPartnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
. The first collection was presented in October.
The designs continued the tradition established at Jane & Jane. Muir used the best quality fabrics, working in silk, cashmere, jersey and crepe, with a focus on form and fluidity. She made coats and jackets from soft leather and supple suede. Muir rarely used printed textiles, and avoided unnecessary decoration. Where she used decoration, it was integral to the garment, such as pintucking, decorative but functional buttons or rows of parallel topstitch
Topstitch
Topstitching is a sewing technique. It is used most often on garment edges such as necklines and hems, where it helps facings to stay in place and gives a crisp edge. Decorative topstitching is designed to show, and may be done in a fancy thread or with a special type of stitch...
ing on cuffs or collars for reinforcement. During the 1980s, Muir sometimes decorated clothing with sequins
Muir's designs were aimed towards the woman with a mature outlook, regardless of age. She avoided creating clothes for fantasy figures, but focused on modern, restrained elegance. She ignored the fads of high fashion design, but focused on creating a consistently evolving series of understated, sober clothes. She was a sensualist who cared about how her clothes felt to wear as well as how they looked to others. Muir placed pockets at hip level to encourage the wearer to hold her shoulders back confidently. She eliminated bust darts
Dart (sewing)
Darts are folds sewn into fabric to help provide a three-dimensional shape to a garment. They are frequently used in women's clothing to provide a fit that closely follows the shape of the wearer.Two kinds of darts are common in blouses for women:...
as she preferred to mould fabric rather than cut it. Her designs were intended to fit into a limited and integrated wardrobe, and to avoid distracting the wearer.
Despite being known to posterity almost exclusively for black dresses, her eye for colour was very definite. She favoured dark and deep blues, very dark greens, and heather
Calluna
Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
-toned purples as well as intensely bright orange and deep saffron yellow
Saffron (color)
Saffron is a color that is a tone of golden yellow resembling the color of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived.The first recorded use of saffron as a color name in English was in 1200...
. She was a perfectionist about her colours, working closely with fabric mills and dyers to achieve her ideal tones.
Muir has been described as bringing common sense to clothing design to the pitch of genius. Jane Mulvagh describes Muir clothes as being comfortable and effortless, and, "once donned, easily forgotten by the wearer but never the beholder."
Following her 1964 win whilst at Jane & Jane, Muir went on to win the Dress Of The Year award twice more. She won in 1968 for a ruffled white voile dress with black polka dots, and in 1979 for an ensemble comprising a black rayon jersey beret and dress worn with a black leather jacket. As with her 1964 design, these outfits are preserved at the Fashion Museum, Bath
Fashion Museum, Bath
The Fashion Museum is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England.The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963. It focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day and has...
.
From 1985, the majority interest in Jean Muir Ltd. was held by the textile manufacturer Coats PLC. Muir regained ownership in 1989.
Muir was made a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers
Chartered Society of Designers
The Chartered Society of Designers , headquartered in London, England, is the professional body for designers. It is the world's only Royal chartered body of professional designers...
, and was a recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 1984, she was awarded a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
The company continued despite Jean Muir's death in 1995. Leuckert continued his directorship, while the designs were produced under the supervision of Joyce Fenton-Douglas and a group of four designers who had all formerly worked with Muir.
In 2004, the first Jean Muir Ltd. shop was opened on Conduit Street, London. It was managed by Leuckert's daughter Friederike.
On 19 January 2007, the directors announced that Jean Muir Ltd. would be closing down. Leuckert made a statement to the effect that he had hoped that they could take the retail route based on the success of the Conduit Street shop. This required substantial outside investment, but they had not been able to come to any agreement with interested parties. He further said:
-
- "It is sad, but I believe this is the way Jean would have wanted it. I have, of course, had offers, but I do not want Jean's name to fall into the wrong hands and be mis-used. That would be horrendous and she would have hated it."
The Jean Muir shop continued to trade, stocking the final collection for Spring/Summer 2007, before it closed down for good.
Celebrity clients and admirers
The actress Joanna LumleyJoanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
was Muir's first house model
House model
A house model is a fashion model who works exclusively or near-exclusively for a particular fashion brand, house or label...
, and became a muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
, close friend and loyal customer. She was often photographed modelling Muir's designs in the fashion press. Other well-known Muir clients included Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
, Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years...
, Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
, Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
, Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
, Joan Plowright
Joan Plowright
Joan Ann Plowright, Baroness Olivier, DBE , better known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English actress, whose career has spanned over sixty years. Throughout her career she has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy, and two BAFTA Awards...
, Dr. Miriam Stoppard
Miriam Stoppard
Miriam Stoppard OBE , is a British doctor, author, television presenter and agony aunt.- Early life and medical career :...
and Patricia Hodge
Patricia Hodge
Patricia Ann Hodge is an English actor.-Early life:The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion , Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St...
.
In 1967, Muir provided Eleanor Bron
Eleanor Bron
Eleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life and family:Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin...
's wardrobe for the 1967 film Bedazzled
Bedazzled (1967 film)
Bedazzled is a 1967 British comedy film directed and produced by Stanley Donen. It was written by and stars Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It is a comic retelling of the Faust legend, set in the Swinging London of the 1960s...
. She did wardrobe for only one other film, Betrayal
Betrayal (1983 film)
Betrayal is a film adaptation of Harold Pinter's 1978 play of the same name. With a semi-autobiographical screenplay by Pinter, the film was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by David Jones. It was critically well received, praised notably by New York Times film critic Vincent Canby and by...
, in 1983.
Her designs were also worn by public figures such as the author and historian Lady Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
and the publisher Carmen Callil
Carmen Callil
Carmen Thérèse Callil is a publisher, writer and critic. She founded Virago Press in 1973.-Life:Callil was born in Melbourne Australia, but has lived in London since 1960. Her mother Lorraine Clare Allen, widowed in her early forties, raised four children of whom Carmen was the third...
.
Jean Muir's clothing is also popular with a younger generation. In 2006, Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
's favourite piece of clothing was a vintage Muir purple suede cape. Other fans of vintage Muir include Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
and Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney
Stella Nina McCartney is an English fashion designer. She is the daughter of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and the late photographer and animal rights activist, Linda McCartney.-Early life:...
.
Diffusion lines and capsule collections of Jean Muir Ltd.
- 1983: Jean Muir in Cotton
- 1983: Jean Muir in Wool
- 1984: Jean Muir for Men (menswear)
- 1984: Jean Muir at Home (homewares)
- 1986-1995: Jean Muir Studio collection developed, this was a lower-priced line.
- Early 1990s: Jean Muir Essentials (lower-priced separates)
Personal life
Jean Muir had a discreet but complicated private life. In 1955, she married a German actor, Harry Leuckert, with whom she co-founded Jean Muir Ltd. and lived in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Lorbottle Hall near Alnwick
Alnwick
Alnwick is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. Their marriage was unconventional, described by Leuckert as "wonderful and loving, but never singular". In 1976, Leuckert fathered a daughter, Friederike, with another woman. His wife was aware of this, and Leuckert continued to live with her whilst paying regular visits to his daughter and her mother, Ingrid, in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. According to Friederike, this was normal:
- "People find that hard to believe, but Miss Muir knew about it, my mother knew about it and I knew about it. Nothing was hidden, but nor was it public".
Leuckert married Ingrid following the death of his wife. Friederike went on to become manager of the flagship Jean Muir shop in London when it opened in 2004.
Death and legacy
Jean Muir died in 1995, aged 67, at the London Clinic, of breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. She was buried at St Bartholomew's Church in Whittingham, Northumberland
Whittingham, Northumberland
Whittingham is a village in the English County of Northumberland.In the village is Whittingham Tower, a pele tower dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, converted into almshouses in 1845, and now in private ownership.- Governance :...
. At the funeral, by request of the deceased, her friends all wore black with white flowers.
She had kept her terminal illness
Terminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...
secret from even close friends, working right up to the end. Shortly before her death, she began fundraising for the National Museum of Scotland
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the Royal Museum next door, with collections covering science and technology, natural history, and world...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Her husband and Jean Muir Ltd. continued the work begun, and pledged money in her memory, as did many of her personal friends and loyal customers. In recognition of her work, the Museum's Silver Room is dedicated to Jean Muir, while Jean Muir Ltd is named upon the founder's stone at the Museum entrance.
In 2005, Leuckert donated Jean Muir's archive collection of her fashion and accessory designs to the National Museums of Scotland. A special exhibition on Muir's design career opened on 7 November 2008 at the Museum.
Jean Muir quotes
-
- "The clothes in themselves do not make a statement. The woman makes a statement and the dress helps."