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James Laver

ジェームズ・レイヴァー

Jēmuzu Reivā

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1899-03-14 （Liverpool）
Died
1975-06-03 （Blackheath, London） age 76
Nationality
England, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Religion
Congregationalist
Residence History
Liverpool, England → Oxford, England → London (Piccadilly, Chelsea, Blackheath)

Career

Occupations
author, critic, art historian, museum curator
Active Years
1921-1975
Affiliations
Victoria and Albert Museum
Memberships
Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
Influenced By
Thorstein Veblen, John Flügel

Education

Liverpool Institute
Unknown
Period: 第一次世界大戦前
Country: England
Secondary school
New College, Oxford
Unknown / Modern History
Degree: BA
Period: 1919-1921
Year of Graduation: 1921
Country: England
New College, Oxford
Theology
Degree: BLitt
Period: 1921-1922
Year of Graduation: 1922
Country: England
Thesis on John Wesley

Awards

Newdigate Prize
1921
Work: Cervantes
Category: 詩
Organization: University of Oxford
Result: 受賞
Neiman Marcus Fashion Award
1962
Work: Fashion history works
Category: ファッション史
Organization: Neiman Marcus
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Nymph Errant

1932 Novel

A girl returning to her finishing school goes astray and ends up in a Turkish harem

adventurefashionsatire
Adaptations
  • [Musical] Nymph Errant / Charles B. Cochran (1933)

A Stitch in Time

1927 Poetry

Pastiche of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock set in modern times

satiremodern poetry

Cervantes

1921 Poetry

Poem on Cervantes

literary history

Taste and Fashion

1937 Fashion history

Fashion from the French Revolution to today

fashionsocial history

Bibliography

  • Cervantes (1921)
  • The Young Man Dances and Other Poems (1925)
  • A Stitch in Time (1927)
  • Love's Progress (1929)
  • Ladies' Mistakes (1933)
  • Nymph Errant (1933)
  • Portraits in Oil and Vinegar (1925)
  • Taste and Fashion (1937)

Adaptations

  • Nymph Errant (musical, 1933)

Translations by Author

  • The Circle of Chalk (translation from Klabund)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
satiricallight versehistorical narrative
Recurring Motifs
fashioncostume historysocial class

Legacy

Pioneering fashion historian who made the study of costume respectable in England. Known for Laver's Law.

Archives

  • Harry Ransom Center

In Popular Culture

  • Laver's Law cited in fashion theory

Quotes

  • To my colleagues at South Kensington I had become a cigar-smoking, Savoy-supping, enviable but slightly disreputable character...
    Source: Autobiography Museum Piece (1964)

Trivia

  • Laver's Law: Famous table on the temporal perception of fashion
  • Novel Nymph Errant adapted into musical by Cole Porter
  • Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings at V&A Museum (1938-1959)