Quality time
York fashion designer Eliza Lamb makes very special everyday clothes inspired by the best craftsmanship of yesteryear, as founder Georgina Nurse tells Stephanie Smith.
OLD-SCHOOL quality and considered detail are at the heart of every Eliza Lamb dress. Founder Georgina Nurse always knew that this was how it had to be, long before she decided to take the leap and launch her own clothing label. Years of handling beautifully made vintage fashion had already taught her a great deal. Georgina is originally from Lincoln, where she had her own vintage clothes shop.
“When I was younger, we always had a lot of books on design at home – my dad is an architect,” she says. “When I was still at school I used to alter and adapt clothing. I dyed a lot of fabric and used curtains with interesting patterns. It was in the early 1980s at the time of some odd styles. I'm sure what I made was pretty awful.”
She was 20 when she took over the shop, having worked there part-time for the previous owners. “It meant being able to play around with clothes that were absolutely amazing,” she says. “You don’t see anything like that now – the couture items from the 1950s.”
Alongside, Georgina also began working as a costume maker, creating historical garment replicas for theatres and museums. She and her partner, Richard Ison, a sculptor, moved to York 20 years ago.
Richard was making replica props for museums, and they both found they were working increasingly in the Yorkshire area. So they sold up and moved to York where they now have a studio in the city centre on Micklegate, having moved there recently from Bishopthorpe Road. They have ground-floor studios and live on the upper floors, which they are slowly renovating. Their two daughters are away at university.
Georgina launched Eliza Lamb in 2018 but did not want to name the brand after herself. In search of ideas, she paid a visit to York Cemetery.
“I went round all the gravestones and picked out a lot of first names and second names from roundabout 1900 time, and twisted them all around until something flowed. Eliza Lamb just seemed to have a tone,” she says.
Business has grown through word of mouth and returning customers. The dresses, skirts, jackets and skirts at first look simple but contain a great deal of work, with considered tailoring and structural detail. “I think a lot of that comes from years of handling old clothes,” she says. “You learn how things were made – the layering that goes in to hold it together, the tacking and the weight needed to make it sit well.
“Spending time repairing and copying garments of such quality is a great hands-on way to learn. Even basic workwear from the early 20th century is of incredible quality compared to a relatively expensive item today.
“Over 20 years I built up an enormous collection of clothing from the 1920s to the
1960s. You can take a detail you may