This is a repeat of a highly popular presentation put on at Manchester’s Anthony Burgess Foundation in February

This event is both an in-person and on-line event. To reserve a spot for either option, please visit the lecture’s Eventbrite page.

The Lecture will describe the influence of European Immigration, under the rise of Nazism, on the Clothing Industry.

Based on her book The Clothes on our Backs: How Refugees from Nazism revitalised the British Fashion Industry, in which she considers the trade in pre-war Germany and in particular, the more modern approach there compared to Britain. The expulsion of Jews and pathways into Britain follows, and then the wartime production changes. Individual case studies then show the refugees’ wide range of experiences in this country, but also their contribution to all aspects of the industry from manufacture to display.

About the Presenter

Anna Nyburg’s PhD in 2009 was in Exile Studies and focused on the refugees from Nazism who transformed art publishing. The doctorate formed the basis of her book Emigres: The Transformation of Art Publishing in Britain. Since then she has published further books on design and related areas, as well as co-making a film called Refuge Britain: Stories émigré Designers to be shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Clothes on our Backs is her third book.

Now a trustee of Insiders/Outsiders, she works on events for their festival. As a committee member of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, she is organising a conference on the Refugees in Trade and Industry in 2023.

Dr. Nyburg is an Honorary Lecturer in the Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication at Imperial College London where she taught languages for some 3 decades.