James Laver | |
|---|---|
 James Laver (around 1950) | |
| Born | (1899-03-14)14 March 1899 Liverpool, England |
| Died | 3 June 1975(1975-06-03) (aged 76) Blackheath, London, England |
| Spouse | Veronica Turleigh (m. 1928–1971; her death); 2 children |
James Laver,CBE,FRSA (14 March 1899 – 3 June 1975) was an English author, critic,art historian, andmuseum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for theVictoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959. He was also an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable".[1]
James Laver was born inLiverpool, England, on 14 March 1899, the second child and only son of Arthur James Laver, amaritime printer andstationer, and his wife, Florence Mary (née Barker), strictCongregationalists who brought up their children in apuritanical manner.[2][3] He attended theLiverpool Institute. His academic progress was put on hold by theFirst World War, in which he served as asecond lieutenant.
In 1919 he resumed his residency atNew College, Oxford, where he earned aBA degree second class in modern history 1921. The next year, he earned aB.Litt in theology for a thesis onJohn Wesley. His college fees and travel expenses were subsidised by a wealthy shipping magnate,Lawrence Holt.[why?][3] At Oxford, he contributed to the student magazineIsis and won the 1921Newdigate Prize for his poem onCervantes.[2]
In 1922, Laver entered the Department ofEngraving,Illustration, Design and Painting at the Victoria & Albert Museum where he worked underMartin Hardie. He arrived shortly before theInternational Theatre Exhibition was transferred to the V&A fromAmsterdam and was shown as part of his department. It showcased work by all the leading European designers of the time, and the Museum purchased several designs and models, which became the basis of the Museum's Theatre Collection. Laver was put in charge of this collection. Stage design became one of his passions, possibly in reaction against his upbringing.[2] In 1938 he succeeded Martin Hardie as Keeper of the department, a post he held until his retirement in 1958. Despite his significant contributions to object-centred dress history, he was never Keeper of Textiles for the Museum, or part of the Textiles section.[4]
Laver had an interest infashion history, which emerged through a desire to date images accurately through the clothing depicted within.[5] Laver defined the relationships between dress design and otherapplied arts, and discussed the influence of economic and social factors upon the development of fashionable taste.[2] In 1962, Laver received aNeiman Marcus Fashion Award in recognition of his work in the field of fashion history. In 1937 Laver, withPearl Binder, co-presented the first television programme to be dedicated to fashion history.[4]Clothes-Line, a six-part series, was so successful that in 1938, Laver and Binder reunited to present a revised re-tread (in three parts) of the programme, this time calledClothes Through The Centuries.[4]
Laver followed the theories ofThorstein Veblen andJohn Flügel, using them to develop his favourite theories. These were:
In the 1980s and 1990s, feminist fashion historians such asElizabeth Wilson andAmanda Vickery found these problematic, arguing that Laver andC. Willett Cunnington's views trivialised women's behaviour, role within the family, and their contributions to society and culture.[4]
Laver's Law was an attempt to compress the complex cycle of fashion change and the general attitude towards any certain style or period into a simple timeline. It first appeared inTaste and Fashion (1937):[6]
| Indecent | 10 years before its time |
| Shameless | 5 years before its time |
| Outré (Daring) | 1 year before its time |
| Smart | Current fashion |
| Dowdy | 1 year after its time |
| Hideous | 10 years after its time |
| Ridiculous | 20 years after its time |
| Amusing | 30 years after its time |
| Quaint | 50 years after its time |
| Charming | 70 years after its time |
| Romantic | 100 years after its time |
| Beautiful | 150 years after its time |
To supplement his pay whilst at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Laver dedicated his free time to writingmagazine articles, book reviews, play translations, dramatic criticism andlight verse. One of the plays he translated wasKlabund'sThe Circle of Chalk from the original German.[2]
His 1927 poem,A Stitch in Time, apastiche ofAlexander Pope'sThe Rape of the Lock set in modern times, successfully captured public attention, and led to Laver's popularity as a fashionable party guest.[3] A sequel in 1929 followed,Love's Progress, the two poems being published together asLadies' Mistakes in 1933.[2]
In 1932 he published a novel,Nymph Errant, about a girl returning to herfinishing school, who went astray along the way and ended up in aTurkishharem.[3] It was an instant best-seller and in 1933,Charles B. Cochran turned it into a musical,Nymph Errant, featuring songs byCole Porter andGertrude Lawrence as theleading lady.[2][3] Laver felt as if he was leading adouble life. He once stated:
"To my colleagues atSouth Kensington I had become a cigar-smoking,Savoy-supping, enviable but slightly disreputable character, hobnobbing with chorus girls and hanging round stage doors. To Gertrude Lawrence and her friends I was something 'in a museum', engaged in mysterious and apparently useless activities quite outside their comprehension; a character out ofThe Old Curiosity Shop, hardly fit to be let out alone."[2]
Laver continued to write fiction and work for the theatre and film on a less ambitious scale, but did not attempt becoming a full-time writer. His work on films included acting as historical advisor forThe Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) andThe Amateur Gentleman (1936), and he co-wrote the screenplay forWarning to Wantons (1948). During theSecond World War, he determined to read all the books onoccultism in theLondon Library. As a result, he became an expert in the field, writing a book on the prophetNostradamus.[2]
Between 1926 and 1938, James Laver was the Director of Art Classes at theWorking Men's College,Camden Town.[7] He ran a course onEnglish literature and also re-organised the art class, introducingliving models.[3]
Laver married the Irish actressVeronica Turleigh (1903–1971), a Roman Catholic in 1928. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. They first lived in a flat inPiccadilly, London, which proved convenient for their theatrical friends, and later moved toChelsea.[3]
Laver died on 3 June 1975 following a fire at his home inBlackheath, London.
