Head scarf 'London Wall' of printed rayon, designed by Arnold Lever for Jacqmar, London, ca. 1942

Head scarf of printed rayon. Printed with multicoloured posters with slogans on a brick wall.

Purchased. Registered File number 1987/1832.

Jacqmar Ltd. Fabrics produced a range of patriotic textiles printed during the Second World War. Many of these were created by Arnold Lever, their house designer. The brightly coloured slogans represent handwritten posters pasted onto a brick wall. A lively combination of warnings and exhortations to persevere courageously in the face of war, such as Churchill's 'We shall not flag or fail, we shall go on to the end', is punctuated by the reminder that 'Bill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted By Jacqmar'. Jacqmar was the first British scarf manufacturer to overtly display the company's signature on its products. Used as a wartime substitute for silk, rayon was a man-made fibre developed at the start of the 20th century.

Jacqmar was both a textile manufacturer and a London fashion house. Listed in commercial directories from 1936 to 1972 as Jacqmar Fabrics (1936) and Jacqmar Ltd Fabrics (1942), this branch of the company specialised in the production of luxury silk scarves. It gained a reputation for quality printed head squares through the 1940s and 1950s and was noted for patriotic scarves illustrating aspects of wartime Britain, which were first issued in 1941.

T.290-1987