Zika Ascher

In February 1939 he married his wife Lida, Ludmila born Tydlitátová (*1913 Prague), coming from a Catholic family as the youngest of 6 children (3 daughters), educated on the secondary school of trade and economy.

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.

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).

One of the first John Galliano collections, "Les Incroyables", featured many yards of Ascher's cream cheesecloth, drenched in water.

An obituary in The Independent in 1992 credits Ascher with not only being the first to supply shaggy mohairs but also with introducing cheesecloths and romantic lacy fabrics to the catwalks of the late 1950s and mid-'60s.

In 1946 Ascher went to Paris and, using a telephone in the Cafe du Rond Point des Champs-Élysées, called Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, André Derain or Alexander Calder.

[4] "Every one of them invited Zika Ascher to meet them", wrote Lucy Davies in the Sunday Telegraph (Stella Magazine, November 2010).

Ascher's hand-tufted mohair fabrics continued to be much in demand for several years[citation needed], and were featured for instance in the Balenciaga Autumn–Winter collection of 1964.

He and other great artists at the time put their trust in the quality of the Ascher printing and colour matching[citation needed].

The Museum of Applied Arts in Prague organised a large research and exhibition under the title Šílený hedvábník (in English The mad silkman) in March 2019.