Photographer Jim Grover looks back at the life of Maurice Dorfman, who ran a fashion shop in Clapham.
Maurice Dorfman ran Jeannette Fashions, a traditional haberdashery shop and the longest-surviving independent shop on Clapham High Street, south London.
"More than 60 people have shared their stories, old photographs, and mementoes with me, such is the breadth and depth of affection for Maurice in the local community and the desire to help me create a fitting tribute," Grover says.Dorfman's parents came from Jewish tailoring families - and in the late 1950s, the family moved into 20-22 Clapham High Street, an enormous four-storey building, five windows wide, with two shopfronts.
Catering to the needs of the numerous local seamstresses, costumiers, knitters, crocheteers and dressmakers, it thrived."I had every type of fabric you could want," he told Grover, in 2016, "silks… satins… jacquards… wedding-dress fabrics… everything... anything."I used to have to chain the pattern books to the table because people used to pinch the bloody books.
Two bouts of cancer, his advancing age and the general challenges facing independent High Street shops gradually took their toll.It was no longer a commercial enterprise - but Dorfman continued to open up every day, giving purpose to his life."It was a bit run-down but it looked colourful and it looked exciting and you could go in there and you could feel comfortable," one of Dorfman's customers of many years said.
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