Comments on: Joy Harris, Dressmaker

By: Ms Frances Donnelly

Ms Frances Donnelly — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:36:23 +0000

Joy we are exactly the same age and the idea of you going to Christian Dior to work at age 15 in 1961 is dizzy making!I admire your skills so much, having never progressed much further than dolls clothes and now avidly watching the Great Sewing bee. I am sorry it was impossible for you to get to Paris, but you did get to make couture clothes- and if you’d gone you might not have married Larry.I loved the photo of you aged four in one of the dresses your mother made you. I am almost sure I recognise it, from back in the day, from a Simplicity pattern. Though knowing your mother’s skills she probably just copied it by eye and made her own pattern. A fascinating life!

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:39:33 +0000

I remember the fashion stalls down ‘the Lane’ & whilst ‘temping’ at local offices, bought many an item for the weekend there! Perhaps Joy had sewn a seam or two on them, who knows..

By: Di Corry

Di Corry — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:06:26 +0000

What a great story, thank you for sharing it Joy.
You learned the hard way but it paid off in the end and I had no idea those fashionable C&A clothes were made in such conditions!

By: Jeremy Brown

Jeremy Brown — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 05:26:55 +0000

Lovely reading about Joy’s life .. as we say, the good old days.

By: CR

CR — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 05:22:49 +0000

From a sweat shop on fashion street where people needed to work to a fashion school where students go because they don’t have to work: Spitalfields has certainly changed.