Danny Tabi, furrier
At six yesterday morning, Brick Lane was empty of people but Danny Tabi, the last furrier in Spitalfields was already at work when I arrived at Gale Furs. When Danny started in 1963, hundreds worked in the fur trade and the streets thronged with workers from all the different garment industries making their way to work at six, but now there is just Danny. Others who merely import furs call themselves furriers, but Danny is the only one still working here with a lifetime’s expertise, at an occupation that must surely rate as one of the oldest known to mankind. I sat alone with Danny in the empty workshop at Gale Furs as the sun rose over Whitechapel and he told me his story.
“I was walking down Fournier St looking for a job one day and above the Market Cafe was a furrier, he interviewed me and said could I start on Monday. So I got a job starting the next week. Then, as I came out of there and walked back towards Brick Lane along Fournier St, when I got to Gale furs at number 8, I asked if they had any vacancies. The proprietor, Solly Shamroth, said “yes” and I could start the following day. So I went there rather than the other place and this was how my association started with Gale Furs. If I had turned left rather than right that day in Fournier St, my life would have been different.
I started at the firm, working with a guy called Max Ross, as a nailer. That’s a person that used to shape the furs by stretching them when they were wet. I picked up the nails off the floor and dampened the skins for him, then I used to go downstairs and pick up the needles from between the cracks in the floorboards with a magnet – nothing was wasted. In those days when you started in a firm like that you did everything, swept floors, did errands and got the cheese rolls too. Also on Friday my job was to clean three cars!
I could tell you a million stories of the street and the customers, and all the characters. Everyone had their special way of doing things. Morrie Klass, who taught me how to cut, he turned up for work in detachable collars, immaculately turned out, dapper like a city gent. He read The Guardian and The Times and spoke perfect Queen’s English. Maxie Ross, the nailer, he was a chain smoker always with a cigarette or a cigar. He used to leave a pint of milk on the window sill until it had congealed for a week and drank it sour because he loved it that way. He picked up nails and pieces of string and made use of it. He couldn’t walk past something he could use. One time, he had to go to a funeral but he had no proper black tie, so he wore a bow tie! Maxie was champion ballroom dancer, and he and Morrie won competitions in the ballrooms. That’s where Maxie met his wife, and his son used to play drums for Joe Loss. That was how I got to go to West End clubs because he got complimentary tickets and passed them onto me as a young lad of sixteen and seventeen.
Along the way I learnt all my skills and, as the factory started dwindling in workers, I found myself taking the places of the people who had left. People just retired but no-one came in to the trade, instead they were encouraged to go into office work.When you couldn’t replace them, you had to do certain things yourself. I found myself doing more cutting, making and sewing too. I learnt my trade during the sixties and seventies, then I started using my skills in the late seventies and eighties. During the sixties when there were eighteen people working in the furriers – it was a beautiful thing – turning out coats, collars, cuffs, stoles and hats, you name it we made it. It wasn’t just the work, it was the atmosphere.
Every single time you make a garment, it’s different because fur is a living thing. You work from scratch, one skin at a time, every time – when you match up pieces, the fur has to be same length. It’s definitely an art, you can’t explain what you did from arriving in the morning to going home at night. I’ve enjoyed my work over the years. I made a white collar from fake fur for Princess Diana. I’ve worked for lords and ladies. Katy Price is wearing one of my coats at present, and Kate Moss and Jemima Khan both have pieces of my work. They go to the West End stores to buy stuff but we make them here.
I was born in 136 Brick Lane in the attic in a one room flat, my mother lived there with me and my brother Ray. We weren’t brought up in luxury. At one point we lived in a hostel in Cable St because housing wasn’t available to mixed race families. I’ve worked since I left school, I never claimed benefits and I can count on my two hands the days off. I must be one of the longest-serving people in Brick Lane, I’ve always worked here.
I love walking down Brick Lane at five thirty in the morning, I can hear echoes from the past of when I walked down there suited and booted. I get emotional. People have moved away but I have always been drawn to the area. This used to be the dregs here, but here’s nothing wrong with Brick Lane. I’m pleased to see lots of young people come now. I pop out to get something and there’s crowds of young people. It’s incredible.”
Danny worked for Gale Furs for thirty years before he took it over, and now he is the proprietor and sole employee. Leaving the factory premises at 8 Fournier St in 1994 (it has become a private house now), today Danny works from a small nondescript second floor space on Whitechapel High St. On one side are the rails of coats and other pieces that have come in for renovation and repair, with prime garments displayed upon stands as superlative examples of the furrier’s art, and on the opposite side is the work table, pierced with infinite lines of little holes created when Danny transfers the pattern to the skins. Everywhere, scraps of fur are piled and paper patterns hang in sheaves from the wall.
Danny is justifiably proud of his skill and accomplishments and retains an appealing enthusiasm, shrewd yet bright. I was fascinated to watch Danny work at his cutting table, displaying natural dexterity, confidence and love of what he does, using all the tools that have always been with the company, many of which are a hundred years old or more, but still serviceable and in fact perfectly suited to the job. I felt privileged to be there in this sanctum and to understand that Danny extended his trust and welcome to me.
“It’s going to die a death” he declared without any regret, explaining that the Chinese are now the whole world’s furriers, as he took me through all the various tools of his trade demonstrating the purpose and telling the story for each one. A new world opened to me as Danny outlined the enormous number of processes and techniques that meet in the creation of garments of fur. We kept eye contact, like teacher and pupil, as he took me through what it takes to make a fur coat that might require seven weeks work. Picking up the tools, he mimed how he used them, specifying each of the distinctive requirements of the job and sometimes losing words when there were none to describe the methods of how you work with fur, and I had simply to follow his expert demonstration.
Today, Danny does all the different jobs and possesses all the skills of the eighteen staff that once worked for Gale Furs. He is widely respected for his talent and forty-seven years of experience at the high-end of an exclusive luxury trade. No-one is learning from Danny and, irrespective of your feelings about the origin of fur, there is an undeniable poignancy about the culture of the furrier which is an intricate refined expression of a certain vein of human ingenuity, with its own language, history and tools, and of which Danny is now the last exponent in a place where once so many people pursued this ancient trade.
The tool at the top is for stretching skins. Danny has used these scissors his entire career, they have a perfect balance and silken movement, and are over a hundred years old.
These irons which Danny uses as weights are over a century old too.
Newly acquired rolls of the highest quality silk lining, dated last day of December 1948.
Danny uses this machine from the Fournier St factory, the cloth with pins on it has been there since before he started in the trade. Note the Bishopsgate phone number carved into the wooden base on the right.
The tool on the left is a homemade device for snapping a razor into two triangular blades, it works perfectly. The other two are stretching blocks for stretching skins into shape, the one in the centre is marked with its owner’s initials.
An old weaver’s stool of traditional design that Danny uses when he sits at his sewing machine.
The magnet Danny used to pick up pins from the floor when he started work at Gale Furs in Fournier St in 1963.
Cheers to Danny Tabi, and thanks to you for this marvelous portrait.
What a hero! It makes me sad to think that someday that weaver’s stool will be adorning a posh loft and the irons will be door stops.
Fascinating article. It is sad that such skills will eventually die out and we will lose another part of the east end’s rich culture.
Well done to Danny who i have know a long time and he works very hard, its nice to see him trying to keep the trade going in the east end of london, and the artical was very intering reading. Love Lyn
I am researching the life of my grandfather (born 1892) who came from a family of furriers and worked mostly in the East End until the 1960s. It has been fascinating to read Danny’s story, and at last I’ve found out what a nailer is.
How do I contact Mr Tabi does he repair fur coats
I liked the piece but why no contact details
Sofia
A great story and I am wondering the same thing as Sofia – why no contact details? Does Mr Tabi still work? Would love to hear from him as I have 2 furs that need repairing.
Danny does wonderful work and repaired a coat of mine. Will be such a sad time when this work of art goes to dust. People like Danny are such skilled craftsmen.
Hello there!!! I am a furrier from Greece, Kastoria. I send you my greetings!!
Thank you Danny,you make our industry proud.
I am a 3rd generation Furrier based in Johannesburg,South Africa…our family furrier history stems back to 1910.
We specialise in make up and design of new fur garments,retyling of outdated garments,alterations,cleaning and most maintenance services.
We do work for clients all over the world.
If foreign clients have the budget,they are more than welcome to fly to Johaneesburg to visit my business,(by appointment only) choose and discuss any styles and we will gladly make up a garment exactly to that customers requirements and sent it on anywhere in the world.
We have a combination of tools that are decades old and modern machinery and techniques are combined.
I have a fur coat i would like turned into a cape please can you help me
I have 3 fur coats I would like to sell, can you tell me if you would be interested, or know of someone who might be.
A Tan mink swing coat, a mink trimmed fur lined raincoat and a Persian lamb jacket. Also a red fox hat.
Many thanks
Fiona Graham
Just seen Danny on the BBC on London on Film, arguments around the origin of fur aside, it’s great to see a historical figure portrayed so well in old footage is still part 0f Londonlife today.
Dear Mr Tabi, (Danny)
It has been very interesting watching and reading about your work right from the start; when you took a path that was meant to be, by taking an immediate job offer instead of the other one that started a day or so later! Very good!
Thank you for this portrait of your working life which shows how nice a person you are and says what a full life you have in the furrier trade being the only one left in spitalfields but now Whitwchapel. There was so much we learnt in the 60’s and seventies ( I am 64 my 1st job was training to be a hairdresser and 8 years later training and becoming a general nurse, though you mentioned doing all manner of jobs it was” all part of the way things were done” at Grays Furriers. The same was so for both my trainings.
Our lives were more regimented and ruled then and I expect from your story it was similar for yourself?
It seems it was just the way it was, very different then.
Thanks very much for sharing. I know how you love the area I used to nurse at Mildmay Mission Hospital on Hackney Rd not so far away?
Very Best Wishes
Valerie
Wonderful to read about Mr Tabi. Is he still working ?if so, could I take a fur coat for a very
small repair to him? I hope it will not tired him too much.
Dedicated people and wonderful craftsman are so rare now a days.
All my best wishes to Mr Tabi
Elsa
Like Elsa I to was very interested in Danny Tabi’s life, and also if he does repairs . I have purchased a vintage jacket from France, which I love ,but the shoulders need altering . Could Mr Tabi help me ? Anjie.
I have inherited a fur coat that needs a little repair. A friend of my daughter gave me the name so I looked it up on the web. What a fascinating story. I would love to bring the coat
to ‘Gales’ but I am in Herefordshire and it might be too far! We’ll see. But good luck and thank you.
hi i have a fur coat that needs a couple of repairs how do i go about getting it done do i need to make an appointment is there a phone number to contact you or do i just turn up if i no your address many thanks.
I have a fur collar that has to be replaced with a pelt which is exactly the type he is holding in the photo , does the gentleman have a phone no?
look forward to working with u
My telephone number is 0044 207 247 2014 form outside Uk. In Uk 0207 247 2014. My mobile phone number is 07506 444 947
Hi Danny,
My mum has a Mink jacket (about 30 years old but in good condition), that is split under the arm, would it be possible to repair it do you think, doesn’t mind how long she has to wait but would love to know if you could even just take a look!
Thanks
Jane
Good day Dani,
I am a bit confused as to where you are working from. Do you have a business in Johanesburg, South Africa?
All the best,
Emy
Great article that brought back memories. My father had a fur workshop in Fournier street (no 21 I think) up till the mid 60s. My brother and I spent lots of time up there and one of my favourite pastimes was using a great big magnet to pick up the pins from between the floorboards! :o)
Hi Sandra. Thank you for your comment. Please call me about 21 Fournier st.some thing of interest you might like to know. Regards Danny.
0207 247 2014
What a captivating article. I originally looked on this site as I have a fur coat I would like to sell, so would like to know if you might be interested. I found this story so touching. I know it is somewhat frowned upon to use fur, I actually agree with this myself, but reading about you Danny and the way you have learned your skill, I have nothing but respect for you. Times change, sometimes for the better and sometimes not, but there is no doubt you are a caring, dedicated person who believes in himself. Also, I sort of originate from this area, I grew up around Old Street, and my father had a fruit and veg shop and stall down Whitecross Street, so many memories brought back reading your wonderful article. Thank you
Hi Danny, my family lived in brick lane in the 1890’s when they first arrived in the UK. I have quite a bit of fur especially the long stoles with tails on and was wondering if anyone could convert them into a hat for me and ideas of what to do with some of the pieces. I would love to meet you and get some advice and hopefully commission a hat, any chance?
Please do get in touch, Anne
Lovely story of a seemingly lost world. There was something magical about entering into the ancient interior of the furrier in Fournier St to visit my Uncle Solly. It was like an alchemist’s lab, my uncle stood there with his arcane tools ready to transform the pelts that hung and lay everywhere into beautiful coats, hats, mufflers to protect the wearer against the biting winds of the East End.
I also worked in the fur trade as a cutter my story is much the same only I left the trade in 1985 I started in 1959 working for my mothers cousin Cyril Simmons the company was called Simmons and Fremder to this day I still miss it working with mink , sable , chinchilla all the top end of the trade , good on you Danny for sticking it out , we did far less to the environment than the oil companies did , but we were to small to be heard
Hi I am antique dealer and I am specialized in furs which I buy and sell them on to my customers. I do alot of antique fairs up and down the country where many people bring me their furs and I buy them giving you the best price depending on what fur it is and the condition. Suzan 07828 894 697 twitter Warwick Antiques
Great article, Danny did Solly retire?????
Dear Mr Danny
I have a Mink Coat which I would to be made shorter .
Does it cost a lot to do this repair ?
Regards
Magda Chrysaphiades
It was fascinating to read this article about you , I hope in real life your just as fascinating!!!!
I’m working just as hard as you and would love to meet you in person one day.
Perhaps you other name could be similar to mine!!!!
Avi Shem -oc X 🙂
Lovely article Danny may you go forth and multiple. Mucho love xxxx
Excellent article, and despite Danny’s pleasure at his new young neighbours, a shame that the Brick lane of the sixties is gone.
Hi Danny,
I’m wondering if you might be able to advise me on something…
On a whim I bought a coat from a shop in Chamonix am unable to wear it as it is too large. It has a label inside which says ‘Angelia L’, a polyester lining and says it is 10% marmotte, 35% fox and 55% rabbit. Is this something that you’d be able to alter for me? If not, could you point me in the right direction? Many thanks for your advice.
Julie (South London)
Hi Danny,I do not no if you remember me i remember you and your family good days had by all sad most of it has gone I live in upminster now sitting doing some reading on the the east end and came across your artical it made very good reading and reminded me just how hard It was in them days but you stuck with it and look at you now good luck Butch
I live in Wiltshire. I have always worn fur coats when the temperatures dip sufficiently. In the old days they were called “fun furs” but in recent years I have inherited the real deal. Wear has taken it’s toll and , on both jacket and coat , the pelts started to come adrift. Searched the internet and found Danny. I am no stranger to the area , having worked in the City all my life, and I have friends in London so it was not impossible to get up to London and take my coats to Danny. He has mended them both and got them cleaned for me and I collected them this week. Money well spent. Energy well spent. I urge anyone with any item of fur needing attention to make the effort and get along to see Danny.
Thank you Danny. I am so pleased with the result.
Mr Tabi is no doubt a skilled craftsman and – by the sounds of it – a class act all around.
I don’t know if you remember me {Tony Marin) as i worked with you at Gail furs as a nailer with Max Ross the nailer top floor i worked with Bruno Vassallo to remind who i am i wore glasses
Fabulous to see your still at it i remember the magnet hope your keeping well
you may be interested in this your in it…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OumeNbhBkJ8
All the best tony
Hi Danny, great story, also brought back great memoriers from the past, i started in the fur trade with a saturday job at Furs of Canada in the mid 1970 s for Sefton Marks and then in the work room at Faulkes Furriers in birmingham , leaving just before the shop closed, i remember both furriers having dealings with Gales, i now have my own furriers in Hertfordshire as furs are so much back in fashion, i still see Derek Sparrow formerly of regent street , Stephen Dobley and often speak to my old boss Robin Faulkes, i do miss the old days tho when i was in the work room……..what great days…..
really good article and responses but how about teaching some younger one,s the trade while your still working at it. there will always be a requirement for repairs and alterations and also making up new simulated fur. council grants for apprenticeships in this direction would be a boon. good luck and keep at it.
Dear Danni
I am a dry cleaner based in Ealing, London. I was on-line looking for a ‘fur cleaning course’ in the UK and came across your fascinating life story. I would love to meet you and your ‘nailer’ 🙂
Can I come by appointment and spend a day with you to learn the craft of cleaning fur? I promise to be attentive and an interesting student.
In anticipation
Anna
Hi
I have been given an Astrakhan coat by an older lady and I would like to have this altered. Please let me know how I can contact Danny, so I can get an idea of cost.
Thanks
Sandra
I have a full length mink coat approx. (30 years) and it needs repair. There are quite a few splits and I want to know if it can be repaired and how much approx. that would cost.
My great great grandfather was a furrier cutter in the east end of London. He came from Germany originally, its nice to read about the work he would have been doing,also to see the photos. His name was Martin Jacob.
Hi Danni
Are you still working? I’m a young furrier (well young by furrier terms!) based out of London now in Wiltshire. I’d love to chat to you about the industry and fur remodelling and repair. Please do get in touch: rmb@bewitchedltd.com. Best regards,
Ninx Flanagan (Member of the BFTA)
Dear Danny Tabi
pleasure to read youre story live learn Danny Tabi features on fur lifestyles open my eyes to the business of furs business thanks . iam
looking to buy fox fur silver white blanket made with silver fox with cashmere wool as broader do you make the blankets or throw , could you make fox out of coat finish off the throw with cashmere wool , please advise asap 07766617375 ,
regards
Gena Kerr
I have recently been left a beaver lamb coat & a ocelote jacket & wondered if you would be interested in purchasing them
Dear Danny
I have been asked to have a mink jacket authenticated for an old lady. Don’t know where to begin. Read your wonderful story and wondered if you could help, or give me phone numbers to follow up. thank you.
Margaret
Good afternoon. Fascinating reading, thank you. I have just received my late grandfather’s overcoat, fabric on the outside, fur-lined and with what I believe is astrakhan on the collar, but I don’t really know. I would estimate it to be from the 40s/50s, when my grandfather worked in Sweden and Finland. The only name in it is my brother’s, who wore it when he was at school in the 1980s! It has had some moth damage and parts of the lining are bald and some bits have been torn. The outside of the coat, which is a very dark grey-black, has orange spots on it, which I think might have come from storage in my brother’s rather damp house. I have taken some photos – would it be possible to send them to you by email to see if there is anything that can be done for it? I live in Sussex, so coming up is not impossible. I do hope you can help.
Good afternoon
Fantastic read. Not sure if you can help I have a black curly persian lamb with fur collar and cuffs coat that I’m looking at selling I have no idea how much this is worth or who I need to contact is this something you can help with or refer me to some one that could. I have been told that it is original from Basel and is approx 50/60 years old.
Look forward to hearing from you
Many thanks
Lucy
It was so lovely to meet you today Danny. My father Teddy Kilroy would be so pleased for his furriers things going to a good home. He worked in Bond street all his life starting as a journeyman in 1929 when he was fourteen. He worked for Worth and Brainin Brothers before having his own workroom there. I know that he would have loved to know you, I think that you would have been soul mates. My Dad was the most generous, kindest wonderful man and father. The world was a better place for his being here. I was a lucky girl to have been his daughter. Your story Danny is reflected in many ways with my own fathers. God bless Jackie.
My goodness, there we go, the fur trade alive and very well. Every high street had one as did every well dressed lady possess one! Most interesting, anyone remember Heller Furs in Bond Street? Remembering the 50s, 60s, 70s..
Fantastic to hear about Danny the furrier – it seems criminal that he will not be passing-on his talents. Fur is the only garment to really keep you warm in bitter cold weather & there are masses of old fur coats about & in need of attention. Amazing to see that he uses a simple Singer sewing machine for his work – I imagined it would be an industrial sewing machine to join pelts together. It really would be stunninmg if Danny decided to have an ‘Open Day’ where people could see him at work (maybe charge for the privilege?)
I wonder whether Danny could point me in the direction of getting my hands on some furrier’s elastic to replace broken ‘buttonholes’/ attachments ?
I was looking for furriers in London to buy fur skins to repair a 1914 cape for a client when i came across Danny’s story. It took me back to when i worked for the fur trade sewing skins, lining them and embroidery, repairs and alterations. The last few years there has been a lot of people looking for someone to reline & repair their fur coat. If anyone needs alterations please contact me by email sylviachin2004@yahoo.co.uk
Hello I would like to remodel my grandmother’s Broadtail Lamb fur coat. Could Mr Tabi help me?
Thank you very much
Hi, loved this post, so many memories of fashion culture in the 50s 60s 70s, before animal rights and liberation front took hold. In a previous post, Jill (coincidentally) mentions a name I’ll always remember in connection with an old friend.
I remember Heller Furs in Bond Street, near the Bond Street Hermes. A friend of mine worked for Herman Heller, modelling his furs for clients in the 70’s.. The workroom was in the basement. She would nonchalantly fling on a fur coat and parade around the shop in order to entice a sale!
Do you purchase mink clothing as i have a long stranded female mink coat, it belonged to my Mum,she sadly passed away last year and i am looking to sell it as i have put on weight and it no longer fits me
Danny Tabi, furrier can be found at Whitechapel High Street in London, inside of Thalia furs, providing full furrier services including fur alterations, remodelling, restoration, repairs, and fur cleaning work.
Dear Danny
I have a mink coat that is too tight under the arms. Is it possible to alter this to make it fit?
Loved reading this.
My mum Janice Knight was a furrier in East London and glad the trade is still going on.
Wonderful article Danny it just shows the east End kids from our day could make something of themselves, we had some good times at the Bruce and Last Chance , looking good
We are one of the Chinese furriers that Danny mentioned in this article and our web is hlfurs.com.
I was moved by this great story and this article made me think more about the fur industry at the current situation.
Regards,
Sherman
Hi guys I’m a care worker and I have a gentleman I look after who is 98yrs old he has told me he worked in the fur trade and worked for Gales? I would love to know how I could get some old pictures or something to show him??
I know you have done so very well and worked so hard. A long time since those days in the cottage homes in Hornchurch Essex. But the memories I have of Brick Lane were good memories, like you life was hard but its made me the woman I am today. It would be nice to talk to you, but I can see that you are proberbly very busy. Bless you Danny, take care. Sylvie.