LONDON — The prayer hall at the Liberal Jewish Cemetery in Willesden was packed on Wednesday afternoon with familiar fashion figures saying a final farewell to Joan Burstein, the retail trailblazer and founder of Browns in London.
Guests at the memorial service — including Stephen Jones, Caroline Rush, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Nicole Farhi, Sam McKnight and Jonathan Newhouse — crammed onto benches in the venue, while others, including Daphne Guinness and Yasmin Sewell, stood in the aisles.
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They remembered a woman who championed designers including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan when they were still students, and who, well into her 90s, still set a standard for style and strength.
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Rabbi Alexandra Wright of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue said Burstein was cremated in Ibiza, where she spent most of the year, and where she celebrated her 100th birthday in February. Her family brought her remains back to London “so that she can be buried here in our cemetery, beneath a rose bush, and so that her family and you, her dear friends, can say farewell,” the rabbi said.
Wright described Burstein as “a pioneer, a founder, a woman with a discerning eye,” but also “a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, a woman whom everyone adored.”
She noted that Burstein’s life began in a family of “fine seamstresses” and with a father whose sisters had been court dressmakers and who dressed her from a young age in beautifully cut clothes.
Burstein’s instinctive appreciation of design and materials, the rabbi said, evolved into “a discerning eye, [a woman] willing to take risks and invest in the early careers of designers whose trajectories would surge forward and soar in the world of high fashion.”
Together with her husband, Sidney, they started their retail business with a single market stall in London, and cofounded Browns in 1970 with a store on South Molton Street. It quickly became the go-to place for women who loved fashion and who were willing to experiment with new names from New York, Milan and Paris, including Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Missoni, which Burstein introduced to the U.K. market.
Her earlier venture, Feathers, which was later run by her nephew Peter Burstein and his wife Suzanne, also became a key London fashion address before it closed in 2018.
Her son Simon Burstein described his mother during the service as “the personification of grace and style” and “a queen in her own domain.”
Known for her warmth and charm, she also had a formidable side. “Believe me, you did not want to cross my mother when she would give you a look that would kill you on the spot. Her standards were high, and you had to meet them. And if you didn’t, she would tell you in no uncertain terms,” he said.
Simon recalled the trauma of his parents losing their business and home in the late 1960s, pulling him and his sister Caroline Hammond out of the French lycée and putting them to work. “Through hardship, tenacity, determination and flair, that period ultimately enabled my mother to excel and become a beacon in fashion,” he said.
Burstein’s daughter Caroline, who is married to photographer Keith Hammond, described her mother as a woman who was always pushing forward, but who still made time for small, everyday joys.
“Our mother never looked back. She never regretted. She was, in every season of her life, relentlessly positive. It has been a little over 10 years since she retired from Browns and the world of fashion. She left without a backward glance, simply looking toward everything she hadn’t yet done. That was her. Always forward,” Hammond said.
She recalled how, as her mother’s strength declined, Burstein accepted it “with grace and made the very most of what she had,” studying flowers — often delivered by her granddaughter from her flower farm — savoring every sip of morning coffee, and every bite of banana on toast.
“Every afternoon, she played Scrabble fiercely and, more often than not, beat all her adversaries who were less than half her age. She sparred and joked with her carers, every single one of whom fell completely in love with her. That was her presence: huge, warm, impossible to resist,” Hammond said.
She added: “At 95, she decided she wanted to buy a house in Ibiza. Of course she did. She never lost her love of clothes and jewelry, and we were shopping for her until the very last week of her life. She maintained her standards throughout, including, I should say, drinking Laurent Perrier pink Champagne every single evening, right up until her final two days with us, her excuse being that it was the only alcohol that didn’t upset her stomach.”
Caroline Rush, former chief executive officer of the British Fashion Council, recalled saving up in her early 20s, for her first Browns purchase: a pair of cowboy boots.
“She was a fountain of wisdom, incredible stories, incredible generosity and grace, who just loved creativity and talent so much,” Rush added during the service, which ended with Gloria Gaynor’s song “I Will Survive” playing on a portable speaker. Guests later joined the family at a reception at the Old Kitchen, part of Kenwood House in Hampstead.
Burstein was made a CBE, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in 2006 for services to the British fashion industry. She later became honorary chair of Browns after selling the business to Farfetch, which is now owned by Coupang.
She is survived by Simon, founder of Leathersmith, which sells men’s clothing, accessories and luxury paper products, and Caroline, an artist. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.