Beno Dorn was a Polish-English master tailor known for providing

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

with their first suits out of his shop in

Birkenhead, England Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpoo ...

, suits that are often mentioned as part of the rebranding that contributed to their breakthrough in 1962.

Life and career in England

His first shop was at 19a Grange Road West in Birkenhead – now on the Beatles Magic Mystery Tour, because it was here that the Beatles had their very first suits made. In episode one of the

Beatles Anthology ''The Beatles Anthology'' is a multimedia retrospective project consisting of a television documentary, a three-volume set of double albums, and a book describing the history of the Beatles. Beatles members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and R ...

documentary,

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

recalls: "We all went quite happily over the water to Wirral, to Beno Dorn, a little tailor who made mohair suits. That started to change the image".

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...

, the Beatles' manager and an old friend of Dorn, has been credited with replacing the group's leather "teddy boy" outfits with mod mohair suits, the subsequent famous collarless suits were produced by Douglas Millings of Old Compton Street, Soho, as part of an image change that led to their breakthrough. Dorn lived at Gourley Grange, Gourley's Lane in

West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cheshire, to th ...

until about 1973.

Later life

In about 1973 Dorn moved to Israel with his family. He kept running the tailoring business for a while, despite living abroad, until he retired. Around 1991, during his retirement, Dorn moved to Worthing, West Sussex, to be nearer family in the UK and lived there until he died in the mid 1990's.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorn, Beno 20th-century Polish Jews People from Birkenhead British tailors Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom