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After a visit
to the USA,
entrepreneur
Ben Sherman was
inspired by the
smart styling
of the Ivy
League colleges
and began
making shirts
in Brighton in
the early 60s.
Success came
soon enough as
his shirts sold
across Europe
and the US, and
in 1967 a shop,
The Jade House,
was opened on
Brighton's Duke
Street.
It didn't
take long for
the Oxford
shirt, complete
with a
button-down
collar,
back-pleat and
packaged in
distinctive
black boxes
with orange
logos, to gain
cult
status.
Expansion to
Carnaby Street
soon followed
and as demand
overwhelmed the
original
Brighton
factory,
production was
moved to
Northern
Ireland.
Sherman himself
sold the
company in 1975
and moved to
Australia where
he lived until
his death in
1987.
On the face
of it, it's a
fairly typical
story about a
successful
clothing
business, but,
as the
exhibition ably
demonstrates,
it's so much
more than
that.
As I
approached the
glass case
containing 40
years of Ben
Sherman
heritage, even
the security
guard couldn't
resist telling
me he still had
a pair of Ben
Sherman desert
boots at
home.
The brand it
seems is not so
much about
clothes but a
way of life, a
label, a status
symbol that
projects an
image and tells
the world
exactly what
you're
about.
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