Banks, Jeff

   b. 1943, Ebbw Vale

   Fashion designer

   Banks, trained at St Martin’s School of Art, is one of the most industrious designers and promoters of the British fashion industry. His Clobber boutique sold his own designs and those of other designers between 1964 and 1974, and in the mid- 1970s he launched the highly successful Warehouse chain of high street stores selling his own affordable high fashion but wearable designs. He now has his own Jeff Banks label as well as design licenses for other companies. He was a presenter of early series of the BBC programme The Clothes Show, the first mainstream fashion programme on British television.

   See also: Clothes Show, The; fashion, 1980s; fashion, 1990s

   TAMSIN SPARGO