Jean Elizabeth Muir CBE FCSD (July 17 1928 - May 28 1995) was an English fashion designer (though she herself preferred the description, dressmaker: Daily Mail, 12 June 2006). She was born in London of Scottish parents, educated at the Bedford Girls' Modern School, which she left at the age of fifteen to pursue a career in fashion, encouraged in this pursuit by her exceptional gifts, even as a schoolgirl, as an illustrator.

She worked as a saleswoman at Liberty & Co and a designer for Jaeger before starting the Jane & Jane label in 1961. She left Jane & Jane in 1966 and set up Jean Muir Ltd in October of that year. Her husband Harry Leukert was also her business partner. They had no children, although Leukert fathered a daughter by another women whom he married after Muir's death from breast cancer ^* in 1995 (Sunday Times, 4 June 2006).

Muir was described by The New York Times as "one of London's most influential and modern minimalists." The oldest in a family of six or seven siblings, she worked throughout her childhood to support her mother and brothers and sisters.

She was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and was a recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.

She won the Museum of Costume's Dress of the Year award three times. The first was in 1964 with a design for Jane & Jane, then in 1968 and 1979.

She was awarded a CBE in 1984.

External links

• The family website
• The Jean Muir label continues under the control of her husband

English fashion designers | Chartered designers | Londoners | Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire | Deaths from breast cancer | Breast cancer patients | 1928 births | 1995 deaths