Jean Muir

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Jean Elizabeth Muir, CBE, FCSD (July 17, 1928 - May 28, 1995) was an English fashion designer (though she herself preferred the description, dressmaker: Daily Mail, 12 June 2006).

She was born in London of Scottish parents, educated at the Bedford Girls' Modern School (now known as the Dame Alice Harpur School) in Bedford, which she left at the age of fifteen to pursue a career in fashion, encouraged in this pursuit by her exceptional gifts, even as a schoolgirl, as an illustrator. The eldest in a large family, she worked throughout her childhood to support her mother and brothers and sisters.

She worked as a saleswoman at Liberty & Co and a designer for Jaeger before starting the Jane & Jane label in 1961. Influentially, she designed Diana Rigg's wardrobe for the 1965 series of ABC TV's The Avengers, including her famous PVC catsuit for the episode, A Surfeit of H₂0. She left Jane & Jane in 1966 and set up Jean Muir Ltd in October of that year. Her husband Harry Leukert was also her business partner. They had no children, although Leukert fathered a daughter by another women whom he married after Muir's death from breast cancer [1] in 1995 (Sunday Times, 4 June 2006).

Muir was described by The New York Times as "one of London's most influential and modern minimalists".

She was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and was a recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.

She won the Museum of Costume's Dress of the Year award three times. The first was in 1964 with a design for Jane & Jane, then in 1968 and 1979.

She was awarded a CBE in 1984.

Jean Muir died in 1995 at her home Lorbottle Hall, Northumberland, and is buried at St Bartholomew Church in nearby Whittingham. At the funeral her firends all wore black with white flowers by order of the deceased.

[edit] Jean Muir Collection

The National Museums of Scotland recently acquired Jean Muir's collection of 20th century costume and accessories. It will be housed at a new storage building being planned for the National Museums Collection Centre, at Granton in Edinburgh.