Tessa Welborn was the designer responsible for the bikini worn by
Ursula Andress in the film Dr. No; she was also an actress and, in her
later years, the owner of a private drinking club in the West End of
London. Tessa Prendergast, as she then was, set up her clothes design
business with a partner in the late 1950s in her native Jamaica. Her
most important commission came when the makers of Dr. No invited her to
design costumes for the Bond film, including what was to become the
world's most celebrated bikini. Miss Andress wore the ivory-coloured
bathing costume, adorned with an army belt and commando knife, as she
emerged from the sea on to a tropical beach. The outfit was sold in
2001 at Christie's to Robert Earl, owner of the Planet Hollywood
restaurant chain, for £41,125. Tessa Welborn was born Marie Therese
Prendergast into a prosperous family in Jamaica on October 17 1928,
although only half a dozen people were ever allowed to know her age.
Her father, Louis Prendergast, was a plantation owner who died when she
was in her infancy; her mother later married Noel Nethersole, who
established the People's National Party with Norman Manley and became
minister of finance.
