Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: the Jewish tailors who built British menswear

Menswear aficionados would do well to make time in their London Collections Men schedule to pay a visit to the Jewish Museum in Camden of a final chance to see Moses, Mods and Mr Fish exhibition which showcases the immense contribution of Jewish designers on the menswear landscape.

The event runs until 19 June and on Monday 13 June at 2pm, its curator Miriam Phelan will give her final talk on the show's themes, stories and objects which take the visitor on a journey from the tailoring workshops of the mid-19th Century to the boutique revolution and Mod culture of the 1960s.

The exhibition demonstrates how an influx of Jewish tailors to Britain in the late 19th century led to the establishment of the ready-to-wear and made-to-measure industry for the middle and working classes. By 1901, 60% of Jewish men working in Britain were tailors. That there were so many tailors was down to discrimination in countries, such as Russia, where Jews were only allowed to carry out certain low-paid trades, of which tailoring was one.

One positive consequence of this unjust discrimination was that these tailors were highly skilled and went on to create some of the biggest names in British fashion, many of which endure to this day. Here are just two...

Burton

A young Lithuanian immigrant Meshe David Osinsky arrived in Britain in the early 1900s and changed his name to Montague Burton. He set up his menswear business in Chesterfield with a £100 loan and within six years he had a chain of stores and moved his HQ to Leeds.

Sir Montague Burton

The First World War in 1914 provided Montague with further opportunity as Burton supplied clothing for a quarter of the armed forces. By the end of the conflict, Burton employed 132 staff at its Leeds HQ which went on to become the largest clothing factory in Europe by the 1920s.

In 1931 Burton was knighted for "services to industrial relations"; he was very focused on the welfare of his staff ensuring they had meals, medical check-ups and eye-care due to the strain of the close needlework. It is estimated that by the time of the Second World War, around 20% of British men wore Burton clothing.

A move into womenswear followed soon after with the acquisition of Peter Robinson in 1946 (Topshop began life in the 1960s as a young fashion department within Peter Robinson) and by the time Burton passed away in 1952 he had amassed 616 stores making his business the largest multiple tailor in the world.

Burton is now part of the Arcadia group which also owns Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Evans.

Moss Bros

Founded in 1851 by Moses Moses, or Moses Moss, in Covent Garden as a second-hand store, the name Moss Bros appeared later. No one knows exactly when Moss Bros started to be used but when Moses passed away in 1894 he handed the business to two of his sons Alfred and George. Five years later the Covent Garden store was rebuilt and the Moss Bros name was placed above the door. In around 1897 the business began hiring suits, a service which is one of its cornerstones to this day.

Ready-to-wear started to take off in the early 1900s thanks to George Moss's skills as a tailor. The fact that Moss Bros ready-to-wear suits were still hand-made and not by machine helped set them apart from the competition. As with Burton, the First World War provided an opportunity as newly commissioned officers flocked to Covent Garden for their uniforms (but the family was hit by tragedy when George's son and Alfred's nephew Monty was killed at Passchendaele).

The business went on to dress governments, royalty and many more influential figures in British history. Alfred Moss passed away in 1937 and Harry Moss (George's son) took over. Many more Moss family members worked for the business. Eventually in 1980 the reins were passed to tailor Manny Silverman, himself the son of Lithuanian immigrants, but Silverman was ousted in 1987 and went on to buy royal couturier Norman Hartnell. Moss Bross merged with another great menswear brand Cecil Gee and Cecil's son Rowland took over as CEO in 1988.

There has been much change at the business since but it remains a fixture on the British high street and only recently reported positive growth figures on the back of a burgeoning menswear market.

Many more British fashion institutions and entrepreneurs can trace their routes back to the pioneering Jewish tailors who arrived in Britain in the late 19th and early 20th Century, such as Ben Sherman, Cecil Gee and, of course, Marks & Spencer, which was founded in 1884 by Polish refugee Michael Marks. The Mr Fish in the exhibition's title was Michael, a pioneering and exuberant tailor in the 1960s; he was the champion of the so-called "kipper tie" and dressed the likes of Mick Jagger and other big names of the era.

While London celebrates its booming menswear industry during LCM, it would only be fitting to go and pay tribute to the men who made it all possible while there is still a chance to do so.

Moses, Mods and Mr Fish, until 19 June, Jewish Museum, Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB