The first Buckingham Palace fitting fashion designer David Sassoon ever did was a bridesmaid dress for the eight-year-old Princess Anne. “I had to go through the tradesmen’s entrance, and I was so disappointed – I thought I’d go through the main gates,” he says. Inside the palace, a liveried page whisked him up to the nursery. Prince Charles appeared, followed by the Queen. “I went backwards to bow and walked straight into the corgis’ water bowl,” says Sassoon, hopping up to demonstrate, “which upset all over my shoes”.
At 91, Sassoon is the only living designer featured in Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style, a new exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands that celebrates the contributions made by Jewish tailors, couturiers and retailers to the fashion industry. It’s an appropriate setting, at the heart of the East End, a trading hub where many Jewish migrants settled and made a living. The show features leading figures in their fields, among them master milliner Otto Lucas and wedding dress designer Netty Spiegel, as well as lesser-known pattern cutters and seamstresses. Plus, brands that pushed the boundaries of high fashion and dressed the rich and famous – among them the couture house that Sassoon turned into a roaring success.
