Item 2020.27 - Alexandra Lab Coat

The company was begun by Alfred Isaac Davis in Bristol in the 1850s as a drapers. In 1880 it was named 'The Alexandra Drapery Company' and over the next twenty years grew into a department store which traded successfully until the 1950s. In 1959, responding to the increasing numbers of women in the workforce, Alexandra Overalls Ltd was established. The company moved into large scale production in 1969 with a factory in Lanarkshire and opened 18 Alexandra workwear shops across the United Kingdom between 1968 and 1986. The company name was changed to Alexandra Workwear Ltd in 1984 and in 1987 they were producing 80,000 garments a week. The company expanded through the 1990s by acquiring other workwear and corporate wear companies but went into administration in 2010, eventually being purchased by Men's Wearhouse.