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Following her studies in
England, she worked in the library of the British embassy in Beirut, where she met her future husband, Robert Porter. Together they travelled to Jordan and Iran, and had holidays in France and Italy. She studied painting during the day, and "went to nightclubs every night and
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After she separated from her husband, Porter moved to London in May 1964. Her first job was in interior design, working for
Elizabeth Eaton. She opened her first shop, an interior decorating business offering imported cushions, fabrics and hangings called
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went into receivership in
February 1981; she subsequently worked from ateliers on Avery Row and Beauchamp Place. In 1986 Porter had a short business partnership with
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36:(24 December 1927 – 24 July 2000) was a British artist, fashion designer and retailer who in the 1960s brought opulent Middle East fashions to London.
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to use the fabric for cushion covers, they were fashionable in their own right, and began making up her own in mixed fabrics and antique trimmings.
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sold approximately $ 300,000 worth of Thea Porter designs per year in the mid-1970s. On 1 April 1977 she opened a store in Paris, on the
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had millions of clothes." In June 1961 Porter had her first solo painting exhibition at the Alecco Saab
Gallery,
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noted that Porter had little interest in marketing and was generally poor at business.
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In 1952, she married Robert "Bob" Porter, an economist with the
British Embassy in
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on 27 July 1966. She realised that rather than just cutting up her imported
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has stated, "Sadly, one didn't hear of her after that". In her obituary,
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From 1967, she expanded internationally; her first wholesale client was
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in
Damascus, Fernhill Manor, then for a short time studying French and
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363:"Thea Porter, 72; Dressed the Elite of the 60's in Hippie Chic"
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Her customers, some of whom also became her friends, included
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In 1971, Porter opened a store in New York financed by
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425:Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London
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25:Thea Porter, photographed by
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450:20th-century women painters
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387:Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic
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420:People from Jerusalem
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370:. Retrieved
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301:The Guardian
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410:2000 deaths
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180:Sharon Tate
156:Jutta Laing
148:Mick Jagger
85:Old English
27:Joe Gaffney
399:Categories
263:References
40:Early life
160:R D Laing
50:Jerusalem
54:Damascus
29:in 1973.
118:kaftans
62:Arabist
372:3 June
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306:3 June
250:Beirut
186:, and
103:Career
97:Beirut
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