The National Gallery in London has displayed the life and work of the late Aurora James since her career began more than fifty years ago. Born in miners’ wives and coal miners’ husbands in England’s South Yorkshire village of Cockermouth, James was actually given away by her father as a present on her birthday. She later changed her name to Aurora James and lived for a time as a housekeeper in miners’ accommodation. She then began to take up needlework and weaving, before setting out to work in interior design in London, where she honed her skills and took up commissions as a seamstress, furniture maker and printmaker before going freelance one day and founding her own company, which still trades to this day.
Her work has often been shown in galleries and exhibits internationally, although her own designs have often been favoured. Her most famous creation, the “Aurora” costume from her ballet “Le Diable Dancer”, is still the most popular of her work and is a testament to her flair for intricate detailing and her eye for detailing and shapely fabrics. The costume has been the subject of numerous commissions ever since, with fans including former Prime Minister John Major and TV presenter Julia Roberts. While the original dress was created for James’ first dance after coming back from her break, the latest version is much improved, with a fuller skirt and a cut with less frills round the waist and legs. It is not just her costumes that have won awards and accolades, but also the handbags, jewellery and other accessories that she creates with every garment. Many of her bags have become prized possessions all their own, a fact that only adds to her reputation and popularity in the world of fashion and artisans.
One of the things that characterised the works of Aurora James as a fashion designer was her drive to improve the quality of clothing available to women. She set up her own fashion consultancy in London in the late nineteen seventies, offering her services to high-class department stores and boutiques. Although this career was brief, it paved the way for many successful ventures in the clothing industry and helped establish her as one of the world’s leading fashion designers. She died in 1984, following a short illness and is now buried at St. James’s cemetery in Kensington. Her numerous children have taken over the running of her firm and her surviving children have kept the business going strong until recently, allowing it to prosper into a thriving profession for her children to carry on in their own right, today.