Designer ‘over the moon’ after long-lost coat discovered in London charity shop
A British fashion designer was left thrilled after one of her unique designs was rediscovered in an Oxfam charity shop - almost four decades after it disappeared from her warehouse.
Jean Pallant could hardly contain her excitement when she learnt that her distinctive coat had surfaced in a donation bag at the Oxfam shop in Mill Hill, North London. "I was absolutely over the moon, really. It was very sweet of the person who discovered it to believe that it was something important," she said.
Seeing the garment again was a poignant moment for Jean. "It's like seeing a child. It's lovely," she said. "I know every single square inch of it, and I'm absolutely amazed that it looks so new, and it feels new. Everything about it looks exactly as it did when it went missing."
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Marina Ikey-Botchway, who runs the Oxfam shop in Mill Hill, instantly recognised the coat as a treasure when it arrived with other donations.
Spotting it amidst a batch of high street fast-fashion garments, she knew instantly it wasn't just any piece. "The very first second I saw the coat I knew this was something special, so I checked the label and after a quick Google found Jean's email," she revealed.
Ms Pallant, who made waves in the 60s cultural revolution and was part of a dynamic husband-wife duo, crafted the bright orange coat with sizeable buttons on her kitchen table back in 1988, and it even graced a Sunday Telegraph feature the same year.
She was left devastated nearly 40 years ago when she discovered that a coat, along with five other pieces she had created with her husband Martin, had vanished from her warehouse. "When we retrieved them all, there were these pieces which I remember, of course, because they're all my babies. These pieces were missing, and there's nothing I can do about it," she recounted.
The joy was palpable as Ms Pallant described the moment she was reunited with the coat, which to her amazement, appeared "absolutely brand new". She said: "It doesn't look as if it's ever been worn, so I'm thrilled about that as well. It doesn't look like a rag. It doesn't even smell of must, which is weird. I don't know where it's been for those years, but it's obviously been well cared for."
The iconic sixties fashion model Penelope Tree selected the coat for Oxfam's Style for Change fashion show, a collaboration with Vinted for the Second Hand September campaign.
Ms Pallant's unexpected reunion with the coat has reignited her hopes of finding the other lost designs. She remains optimistic, saying: "I'd love those to turn up. There are some really special pieces that I'd like back in our collection for our archive. Maybe they'll turn up, who knows? ".
"One of them was a piece which is so important to us, which was made in 1972 I think. It was worn by me in a TV fashion show to celebrate Britain joining the common market and it was a beautiful white jumpsuit and jacket with little mink spots on it. I'd pay anything to get it back."
Ms Pallant, whose husband recently passed away, is meticulously restoring and planning to bequeath the Pallant collection to the esteemed V&A Museum in London.
She shared her passion for the cause: "I think it's very important that this collection is in the V&A since we were part of the group of designers, which were part of the cultural revolution of Britain, the generation that made a difference in the 60s, 70s and 80s."
Determined to see her work among the greats, Ms Pallant stated: "I want our collection to be there with the other names that you will be familiar with of that era, which are names like Jean Muir or Ossie Clark or Bill Gibb or Zandra Rhodes, all of those British designers who started in the same era that we did."
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