Janey Ironside was a British academic who was professor of fashion at London's Royal College of Art, a position she held from 1956 to 1968.
14 Facts About Janey Ironside
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Janey Ironside was a key figure in enabling fashion to be accepted as a valid academic subject in Britain.
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Janey Ironside's father was an important figure in the Indian Civil Service.
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Janey Ironside produced over forty pencil and watercolour studies of the children in the home and a number of these works were presented to the Imperial War Museum in 1981.
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Janey Ironside advertised her services as a "designer dressmaker" in Vogue and her customers included debutants and fashion editors.
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Janey Ironside's work was mainly made-to-order evening wear and wedding dresses, but by 1952 she had designed a full collection for a large retailer.
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In 1949, Janey Ironside taught at the private Fashion School in Ennismore Gardens, Kensington, next to the Royal College of Art.
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Janey Ironside's fashions were influenced by Paris and Dior's New Look but on the cheap using the materials she could find.
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In 1956, at Robin Darwin's urging, Janey Ironside was appointed as the Royal College of Art's professor of fashion, a post she was to hold until 1968.
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Janey Ironside replaced Madge Garland, whose assistant she had once been, in the post.
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Janey Ironside's students included Bill Gibb, Ossie Clark, Zandra Rhodes, Moya Bowler, Janice Wainwright, Sally Tuffin and Marion Foale.
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Janey Ironside introduced a menswear course and was laughed at when she said she thought Mick Jagger stylish.
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Janey Ironside wrote an autobiography Janey which The Times described as illuminating "a great deal more than the world of fashion".
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Janey Ironside made several suicide attempts and suffered serious medical complications from alcoholism including cirrhosis of the liver.