Muriel Alice Pemberton RWS (8 September 1909 – 30 July 1993) was a British fashion designer, painter and academic. According to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', she "invented art-school training in fashion in Britain".

Early life

Muriel Alice Pemberton was born in Tunstall,

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, on 8 September 1909, or 8 September 1910. The daughter of Thomas Henry Pemberton, who was a skilled amateur painter as well as a photographic innovator, inventing a one-camera stereoscopic process. Her mother, Alice Pemberton, née Smith, retired from a career as a professional singer upon marriage and she was also a gifted designer and needlewoman. At the age of fifteen, she was the youngest student at the local

Burslem School of Art Burslem School of Art was an art school in the centre of the town of Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry. Pottery was made on the site of the school from th ...

. In 1928, she obtained a scholarship as well as a major award to attend the School of Painting at London's

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

. In 1931, she was awarded the RCA's first ever Diploma in Fashion. Pemberton persuaded the head of the school of design, Professor Ernest William Tristram, to introduce such a course, and he asked her to draft the curriculum. According to the ''

ODNB The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

She proposed a combination of direct contact, sketching, and analysing with an actual couturier, learning the basic skills of cutting and sewing with a professional, and supplementing this with academic studies in the history of fashion and design at museums such as the Victoria and Albert.

Career

Following graduation in 1931, Pemberton was immediately employed to teach fashion drawing two days a week at St Martin's School of Art. Over time, she was able to expand this role and became head of the UK's first Faculty of Fashion and Design. The curriculum was much as she had originally proposed to Tristram. Even before the war, Pemberton's innovative approach to teaching fashion and giving it a proper place in the art college curriculum had attracted international attention. Her methods were widely copied, with teachers visiting from all over the globe to study her approach. Her students included

Katharine Hamnett Katharine E. Hamnett (born 16 August 1947, in Gravesend, Kent) is an English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts. Early life Hamnett was born on 16 August 1947, the daughter of James Appleton, a group captain. She attende ...

Bruce Oldfield Bruce Oldfield, OBE (born 14 July 1950) is a British fashion designer, best known for his couture occasionwear. Notable clients have included Sienna Miller, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diana Ross, Emmanuelle Seigner, Rihanna, Kelly Brook, Taylor S ...

Bill Gibb William Elphinstone Gibb (23 January 1943 – 3 January 1988) was a Scottish fashion designer who became renowned in the 1960s and 70s for his unusual and flattering designs. Early life and education Gibb was born near New Pitsligo, a small ...

and Bjorn Lanberg. In 1993,

John Russell Taylor John Russell Taylor (born 19 June 1935) is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such figures in film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, ...

published a biography of her life.

Personal life

In 1941, she married John Hadley Rowe (died 1975). Pemberton died at 56 Vale Road,

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origina ...

, Sussex, on 30 July 1993.

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading