Coat

In 1956 Sally Iselin was fashion editor of The Woman's Home Companion, a popular American woman's magazine. When she came to London from New York to cover up and coming British fashion designers, Sally met a designer called Harry B. Popper, of 19/20 Grosvenor St, London. Popper, originally an Austrian immigrant, had a successful business making wholesale couture under his own name and for stores like Harrods. He had backed himself into a corner with regard to a woman's swing coat he had made using a bolt of the special red wool cloth used exclusively for the uniforms worn by the Grenadier Guards, including the patterned brass buttons. Having made the coat Popper realised he could not sell it in England as it was illegal for civilians to wear military clothing at the time. Instead, he sold it to Sally who took it back to America, and continued to wear it through the 1960s. Her daughter, who donated this coat, also wore it in the 1970s.

The coat's styling reflects its military inspiration, with placketed pockets and a shaped detail on the back yoke seam. Popper himself died the year after it was made, in 1957. After his death, the firm passed to his business partner Lesley Kaye, who continued running it. The coat is fully lined in black synthetic satin and opens down the centre front, fastening with 2 spaced sets of 3 buttons. There are two open pockets at each side, with a button, and placket detail. The lower edge of the hem is cut and unsewn, although the lining is completely finished.

The Grenadier Guards, begun in 1656, are the most senior regiment of the infantry in the British army, and the Queen is the Colonel-in-Chief. The 1st Battalion's Regimental headquarters are Wellington Barracks in London.