Muriel Pemberton
{{Short description|British fashion designer, painter and academic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Muriel Pemberton
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1909|09|08|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Tunstall, Staffordshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age |1993|07|30|1909|09|08|df=yes}}
| death_place = St Leonards-on-Sea, England
| nationality = British
| residence =
| education = {{ubl|Burslem School of Art|Royal College of Art}}
| known_for = Fashion design training, painting
| notable_works =
| style =
| movement =
| spouse =
| partner =
| awards =
| website =
}}
Muriel Alice Pemberton RWS (8 September 1909 – 30 July 1993) was a British fashion designer, painter and academic.{{cite book|last1=McRobbie|first1=Angela|title=British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry|url=https://archive.org/details/britishfashionde00mcro|url-access=limited|date=2007|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0415057813|page=[https://archive.org/details/britishfashionde00mcro/page/n30 24]|edition=Reprint.}}
According to The Independent, she "invented art-school training in fashion in Britain".{{cite news|last1=Beetles|first1=Chris|title=Obituary: Muriel Pemberton|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-muriel-pemberton-1458928.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-muriel-pemberton-1458928.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=15 July 2014|work=The Independent|date=3 August 1993}}
Early life
Muriel Alice Pemberton was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, on 8 September 1909, or 8 September 1910.{{cite ODNB|title=Pemberton [married name Rowe], Muriel Alice (1910–1993)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53135|publisher=OUP|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53135 |accessdate=22 July 2014}}
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. 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. 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,
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, Bruce Oldfield, Bill Gibb and Bjorn Lanberg. In 1993, John Russell Taylor 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, Sussex, on 30 July 1993.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- John Russell Taylor, Muriel Pemberton: Art and Fashion (London: Chris Beetles, 1993)
- John Russell Taylor, Muriel Pemberton: Paintings (London: Chris Beetles, 1993)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pemberton, Muriel}}
Category:People from Tunstall, Staffordshire
Category:English watercolourists
Category:Alumni of Burslem School of Art