I got to know Henry Strzelecki when he was my lecturer at what was then the Domestic and Trades College in Manchester. When I cycled to the college I would meet him, also cycling, as he stopped on the way to buy chocolate for us to have in our coffee break. In teaching a City and Guilds course in pattern drafting, tailoring and design, he would encourage the class to push the boundaries with our designs and ideas, always with an infectious enthusiasm which made you the more determined to make it happen. I recall him telling me that the new fabrics in bright colours, together with the growing interest in sailing, was a business opportunity ready to be taken. How right he was.
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