Zika Ascher

Zika Ascher (3 April 1910 – 5 September 1992) was a Czech artist and designer who became pre-eminent in the related fields of British textiles, art, and fashion. He created his own textile company, which made its name with experimental fabrics and scarves designed by famous contemporary artists.

Ascher was born in Prague, where he was a skiing champion. In 1939 he married his wife Lida, and moved to England when Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany. In 1942, Zika and Lida Ascher set up their own textile company, Ascher (London) Ltd.

A substantial number of Ascher textiles designed by the British artist Henry Moore are held in the V&A collection. The designs were commissioned by Zika Ascher from 1944 to 1946. The first collection of Henry Moore textiles printed by Ascher was introduced at the Dorchester Hotel in London in May 1945. The Henry Moore Foundation published a book by Anita Feldman and Sue Pritchard in 2009, entitled Henry Moore Textiles, which contains extensive references and examples of Ascher textiles designed by Henry Moore. The book was published to coincide with an exhibition at the Henry Moore Foundation in 2008, which later went on tour. The book was published by Lund Humphries, a leading publisher on British Art.

There have been only four instances of production of the Henry Moore textiles and scarves by the Aschers in the 65 years since they were designed: The first was in the late 1980s when Zika Ascher printed two designs for wall panels which had not previously been printed. The second was when the Henry Moore Foundation asked the Aschers to reprint various curtain textiles that had faded over time at the artist's house at Perry Green. The third was a reprint of Moore scarves for the gift shop at Tate Modern, when they mounted a major retrospective of the artist's work in 2010. The fourth was as part of the first scarf collection by Sam Ascher, grandson of Zika Ascher, for Spring/Summer 2011, in which some archive designs by Moore, Graham Sutherland, and other artists were featured.

Zika Ascher's significant influence on the collections of major couturiers, such as Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, is cited in The Vogue History of Twentieth-Century Fashion by Jane Mulvagh (London: Viking Penguin, 1988). Christian Dior referred to Ascher as "Mr Rose Pompom" after Ascher designed a beautiful rose-printed fabric in the 1950s, and used it extensively in the summer Haute Couture collection by Dior. Apollo magazine London published a six-page monograph on Ascher in 1987. His work was displayed at the first major retrospective of Balenciaga's work at the Silk Museum in Lyons 1986. One of the first John Galliano collections, "Les Incroyables", featured many yards of Ascher's cream cheesecloth, drenched in water.

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