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Overview
Practical with a difference
English designer Digby Morton was particularly well known as a designer of suits.
Morton was a founding member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers. Establised in 1942, the Society aimed to promote London as a fashion centre, and increase the prestige of British fashions and fabrics in national and international markets. To this end, the Society frequently worked with the International Wool Secretariat (IWS). The latter was founded in 1937 by wool growers in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to promote wool. The suit was sent to the New Zealand Wool Board by the IWS to be used in local wool promotions.
Perfectly suited
Mary Annette Burgess, who was the Wool Board's Promotions Officer from 1948 to 1956, used garments such as this suit in stage shows designed to ‘educate, promote and elevate wool as the greatest of fibres’. Mary Annette visited Britain in 1951. During her stay she attended a meeting of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, where she was able to describe her work to them. In her stage shows she frequently drew the audience's attention to the tailoring skills of British designers such as Hardy Amies and Digby Morton, and suitability of wool for suiting.
Impact of war
The suit shows Morton’s skill in selecting interesting fabric for a distinctively contemporary suit design. The jacket, for example, is influenced by wartime bomber jackets.
Morton’s work was well nown in New Zealand through fashion magazines . During wartime, he was an official designer of the British Government’s utility clothing. These were practical, durable garments that used less fabric, important during times of severe rationing.