Dimitri Omersa
Dimitri Omersa (* 1927 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ; † 1985 ) was a Yugoslav designer and manufacturer of leather seating furniture based on animal motifs.
Life
The naval officer Dimitri Omersa spent ten years in Yugoslav imprisonment after the Second World War . In 1955 he emigrated to the United Kingdom with his wife Inge , where they both settled in Lavender Croft , a focal point for refugees in Hitchin , Hertfordshire . Here he initially worked as a representative of a small leather company.
In 1958 he took over a leather goods factory after the owner Old Bill left . Old Bill had already dealt with the recycling of leftover leather in the mid-1920s and had the idea of a footstool in the shape of a stylized pig, based on a wooden construction that was filled with wood wool and covered with pigskin. Together with the pieces of leather luggage manufactured in his factory, Old Bill had also exclusively supplied these leather pigs to the Liberty department store for luxury goods in London's West End from 1927 onwards . The department store now hired Dimitri Omersa as the new owner to continue delivering leather pigs to Liberty.
Omersa soon had ideas for other animal motifs. His first new piece was a leather chair in the shape of an elephant, followed by a donkey and a rhinoceros. At first, the Liberty department store was skeptical of the rhino, but it became a bestseller and was later found in the logo of Omersa's company. The animals were only sold through the Liberty department store until the mid-1970s and had the words LIBERTY OF LONDON on the underside of one of the ears.
To expand its business, Omersa exhibited its leather donkey at the Californian State Fair in 1963 and won a gold medal. His leather animals were then sold by the Abercrombie & Fitch chain of stores in the United States until the 1980s , where they met with great acclaim among customers. Dimitri Omersa died in 1985.
Today the company Omersa and Co. offers a selection of 37 different handcrafted leather animals in different sizes (as of 2019). Since the late 1970s, cowhide has been used instead of pigskin. The workshop is located in Coningsby , Lincolnshire . The United States remains the company's most important market.
Trivia
- Former President of the United States Ronald Reagan had set up a pair of leather elephants from Omersa in his White House office .
- In the mid-1960s, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate had themselves photographed with a rhinoceros from Omersa. Around the same time, Vogue magazine ran an article on Edie Sedgwick , Andy Warhol's muse , featured in a balancing act on an Omersa rhinoceros.
Web links
- History of Omersa and Co. In: omersa.co.uk
- Dimitri Omersa Biografia . In: Museo CJV
- Dimitri Omersa (Yugoslavian, 1927-1985) . In: artnet , with pictures of designs by Omersa
- Portrait photo of Dimitri Omersa from 1973
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leather pig: around 1958, Dimitri Omersa, good condition. In: ZDF , Bares für Rares , objects from February 7, 2019.
- ↑ History of Omersa and Co. In: omersa.co.uk
- ↑ Dimitri Omersa Biografia . In: Museo CJV
- ↑ Sam Dangremont: Presidential Picks: A Look at the Reagan Family Auction. In: Town and Country of July 12, 2016.
- ↑ Omersa on Instagram. In: omersa.co.uk
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Omersa, Dimitri |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Yugoslav designer and manufacturer of leather seating with animal motifs |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1985 |