13 Facts About James Laver

James Laver, CBE, FRSA was an English author, critic, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959.

James Laver was an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable".

James Laver was born in Liverpool, England, on 14 March 1899, the second child and only son of Arthur James Laver, a maritime printer and stationer, and his wife, Florence Mary, strict Congregationalists who brought up their children in a puritanical manner.

James Laver had an interest in fashion history, which emerged through a desire to date images accurately through the clothing depicted within.

James Laver defined the relationships between dress design and other applied arts, and discussed the influence of economic and social factors upon the development of fashionable taste.

In 1962, James Laver received a Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in recognition of his work in the field of fashion history.

James Laver followed the theories of Thorstein Veblen and John Flugel, using them to develop his favourite theories.

James Laver's Law was an attempt to compress the complex cycle of fashion change and the general attitude towards any certain style or period into a simple timeline.

James Laver continued to write fiction and work for the theatre and film on a less ambitious scale, but did not attempt becoming a full-time writer.

Between 1926 and 1938, James Laver was the Director of Art Classes at the Working Men's College, Camden Town.

James Laver ran a course on English literature and re-organised the art class, introducing living models.

James Laver married the Irish actress Veronica Turleigh, a Roman Catholic in 1928.

James Laver died on 3 June 1975 following a fire at his home in Blackheath, London.