In a fashion career spanning more than 40 years, Jean Muir acquired a reputation for restrained, elegant design and a devoted following. We chart 12 signature styles from the Jean Muir archive and uncover what made her designs so innovative and enduring.

Who was Jean Muir?

Born in London in 1928, Muir left school at 17. After working briefly in office jobs, she began her career in fashion as a stockroom assistant at Liberty & Co in 1950. She quickly transferred to the lingerie and Young Liberty sections where she worked selling and sketching. Muir was a prolific home dressmaker and attended fashion illustration classes. In 1956 she moved to Jaeger as a designer, where she developed a youth range. 

In 1962, Muir left Jaeger to design her first independent collection under the Jane & Jane label. In 1966, she founded Jean Muir Ltd with her husband, Harry Leuckert.

The Jean Muir archive

Jean Muir's father hailed from Aberdeen, and she was immensely proud of her Scottish heritage. Before her death she had started fundraising for National Museums Scotland, and in 2005 her husband Harry donated the Jean Muir archive to the national collections.

The archive consists of around 18,000 objects which fully document the design, making, and promotion of Muir’s collections from 1966 to 1995. The collection includes paper patterns, sketches, fabric samples, jewellery and accessories, as well as around 400 finished garments, including some of her personal clothing.

1. Modern mood

From the first Jane & Jane designs onwards, Muir created feminine garments with simple silhouettes. They were designed to flatter the female form and to move freely with the wearer.

Muir loved modern shapes and this pleated, tiered silk chiffon dress captures the youthful 1960s fashion mood.

2. LBD

This elegant black Jane & Jane dress once belonged to actor Joanna Lumley. It was not only her first Jean Muir purchase after becoming her house model in 1964, it was also her first 'little black dress'.

3. Jersey

Muir particularly enjoyed working with jersey. This fabric doesn’t need to be hand-sewn or lined, or the edges bound to neaten them, but can be given an extraordinary architectural structure despite its supple qualities. 

This dress features all the quintessential elements of Muir’s work: navy blue matte jersey, pin-tucking across the chest yoke, top-stitching, decorative buttons and the precise cut, fit and flare for which her jersey dresses were much admired.

4. Colour

Muir is famous for her use of navy and black, but she was also a fantastic colourist. Here the piecing together of the coloured panels are accentuated by her signature top-stitching.

The romantic style of this dress is typical of the 1970s, enhanced by Muir’s characteristic use of matte jersey and the clever gathering of the fabric below the waist to create a fuller skirt. Joanna Lumley was famously photographed by Michael Barrett in a similarly colourful, flowing jersey dress.

5. Sheer femininity

Muir’s use of prints gave her collections vibrancy. She favoured supple fabrics, such as this silk georgette, which took the pigment well but also responded beautifully to a woman’s body. This maxi-dress is enlivened by the bold leaf print, echoed in the sequin embellishment at the neckline and cuffs.

Although Muir’s dresses appeared simple in shape, they were always intricately made and were the result of fastidious attention to detail. This is seen in the tiers of chiffon in this dress which are hemmed with lines of top-stitching.

6. Clever cutting

Muir’s work in suede often featured experimental cutting, hand-punching, printing, and a beautiful use of colour. This very feminine jacket demonstrates her technical excellence, with the use of clever cutting and pleating to create the full sleeve shape. 

Muir had a tendency to carry characteristic details of each season’s designs across the collection. Motifs printed onto jersey would be hand-punched or stamped into suede, bringing a unity to her work and helping to define the Jean Muir look.

7. Tailoring

Tailored garments in wool crêpe were a Jean Muir speciality. The fabric is made from yarns with a very high twist, which produces a distinctive, textured appearance. Crisp enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to move with the body, it is ideally suited to Muir’s technically complex yet deceptively simple designs. The curved cut of the double-breasted front of this jacket adds a typically feminine twist to Muir’s version of a menswear-inspired design. 

8. Soft skins

Muir’s skill for using soft, pliable skins like woven fabric is illustrated by this leather jacket, which falls softly in a feminine, flowing shape.  It was working with matte jersey, with its ability to take architectural shapes but to remain restrained and fluid, that taught Muir to work in leather.  This jacket features all the classic elements associated with Muir’s designs, with striking contrasting top-stitching, pin-tucking, and statement buttons, mirroring her work in jersey.

9. Printing pattern

Decorative prints were a distinctive element of Muir’s work in suede and leather. The gold pansy print on this imaginatively-cut, electric blue suede shows the versatility of Muir’s suede designs. She favoured soft, pliable skins like fine shirt suede and nappa leather but her manipulation of this stiffer suede illustrates her virtuosity in cutting animal skins.

10. Working in harmony

Jean Muir frequently commissioned prints for her collections, but she also loved the aesthetic qualities of Liberty fabric. She would often source textiles from the company’s archive, such as the silk used in this dress.

Muir’s printed fabrics were tailored with particular care, so that her fabrics and shapes would work in harmony.  This dress combines print with her signature use of decorative acrylic buttons and lines of top-stitching.

11. Hand crafted fabrics

Creating a Jean Muir collection involved collaborating with many highly skilled craftspeople.  Muir saw technical excellence and craft skills as fundamental to turning her ideas into successful clothing.

For this striking coat she worked with Annie Sherburne to create this hand-made felt. The painterly abstract pattern mirrors Muir’s work with intarsia-knitted cashmere sweater dresses and reflects her readiness to inject colour into her wool designs.

12. Painting in cashmere

Muir loved the versatility of wool. Her designs often featured ribbing, cabling, and intarsia, a technique used to create block patterns with multiple colours, without carrying the yarns across the back of the fabric. She was particularly fond of cashmere because it took colour so beautifully. Each season she ordered yarn from the Scottish cashmere specialists, Todd and Duncan.

This intarsia knit sweater features the ‘JM’ signature logo and the abstract faces that recurred often across her collections.