Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Hard-working Ivy, 87, is still made of all the White Stuff
A city centre fashion store may offer the latest in trendy designs, but when it comes to alterations it’s good to have an old hand to call on.
And they don’t come much more experienced than 87-yearold Ivy Chandler, who has just started work at White Stuff in Whitefriars.
After leaving school, she trained as a machinist and tailor and once worked for renowned fashion designer Ossie Clark during the swinging Sixties.
She started working for White Stuff’s head office in 1985, when there were just seven members of staff.
She and her close friend Lil were employed as machinists, originally making sports and skiwear.
When production moved abroad, Ivy continued to do alterations, shop curtains and cushions in the fashion store’s head office, a former Brixton brewery that still reeked of beer.
She continued working well beyond her usual retirement date and when she moved to Margate to be with her family the firm offered her a part-time job in Canterbury.
She said: “I’m no scholar, but I am a good machinist, which I picked up from my nan.
“We all had to learn how to sew, knit and crochet – even my brothers.
“Times were hard and my parents both had to work. My father was a glass-blower and Mum worked in an engineering firm. Most of my friends were evacuated during the war, but I refused to go.
“I love my work and can never see myself stopping. They make a lot of fuss of me at the Canterbury store, even arranging for a taxi to take me to and from work. I’m everyone’s unofficial granny.”
Canterbury store manager Anneliese Singfield said: “Ivy and her friend Lil are a White Stuff institution, having worked for the company since its earliest days.
“She always got on well with co-founder George Treves and his family and was even treated to a two-week holiday in South Africa when his mother emigrated there.
“Ivy and Lil were very much a double act and leapt at the chance to take on George’s 25 £1,000 challenges to raise money for charity.
“They dressed up as cowgirls and superheroes, played in a rock band, drove around in an American taxi and wore tea cosies on their heads during National Wear a Tea Cosy on Your Head Day.
“They managed them all before Lil sadly passed away earlier this year aged 90.”
Ivy was brought up in Peckham before relocating to Eltham.
She recently moved to Margate, where she lives with her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
Do you know someone still working into their 80s and beyond? Email kentishgazette@ thekmgroup.co.uk or write to The Editor, Gazette House, 5-8 Boorman Way, Wraik Hill, Whitstable CT5 3SE