Gallery

Symington Collection: In 1908 after two years of development the noted Symington corset firm launched the Liberty Bodice. Made from an exclusively knitted fabric reinforced with a unique form of cloth strapping it became immediately successful. The fabric gave warmth with lightness and the strapping maintained the shape of the garment throughout countless washings. Indeed the Liberty Bodice was known to have passed through a whole family of children without ever losing its shape or quality. At its peak it was generally accepted that there was not a child in the country who had not learned from an early age to put on its Liberty Bodice when dressing. About 1912 a ladies Liberty Bodice was designed for those requiring more freedom for games and similar pursuits. The child's Liberty Bodice, both loved and loathed by thousands of children was finally discontinued in 1974.
The original advertising image for the 'Liberty Bodice' showing Freda Cox.
Freda was the daughter of Fred Cox, a Director at Symington's who was responsible for the development and successful marketing of the Liberty Bodice.

Symington Collection: Knitted elastic fabrics both plain or fancy and rich satin elastics printed or plain became part of the new swimwear collections. The most important change however, was in design when the knowledge of corset making was used to the full in creating what were first known as 'figure fitted' or 'corset tailored' sports suits rather than swimsuits. This was epitomized in the Peter Pan collection brilliantly conceived to include ruched cottons, knitted elastics and richly-printed satin elastics. The 'Peter Pan' brand was used under licence from the U.S.A.
Advertising literature of Symington's 'Peter Pan' branded swimwear, 1930s.

Symington Collection: Box top artwork for the 'Surprise Corset'

Symington Collection: Box top artwork for the 'Pretty Housemaid' Corset

Symington Collection: Close up of the art work for the 'Pretty Housemaid' corset box top. The maid is gazing at herself in the mirror, admiring her figure in her Pretty Housemaid corset.

Symington Collection: The Pretty Housemaid corset, c1890 was sold as being the 'strongest and cheapest corset ever made' and was fitted with a busk protector which stopped the busk front from breaking as the wearer stooped or bent over. What is fascinating about this corset and it's marketing is that it was directly targeted at young women in domestic service, which was then the largest employment sector in Britain. It demonstrates that young, working class women were a recognised consumer group with a small disposable income and an interest in fashion.

Symington Collection: 1899/1900 Busk front corset. Khaki drill lined white twill and interlined with hessian. There is no boning in this corset except for tempered flat steels to support the back lacing. It has strong, eight ply, string cording vertically and across the hips. The spoon busk has a wide steel support underneath which was known as a double busk.
The wholesale price of this corset was 16/3d per dozen.
Waist 21” Depth 14”

Symington Collection: c1890 Busk front corset typical of the beautifully designed styles of this period. In black lasting lined with white twill. Features flexible corded hips and an intricate boning system involving forty-two cane strips and four tempered steels down the back lacing. Long spoon busk.
The cane boning allowed decorative stitching to be accomplished by the recently invented embroidery machine. A skilled operative could safely pierce the cane strips without needle damage.
The original sample ticket on the corset quotes the price of 20/6d per dozen.
Waist 20" Depth 14"

Symington Collection: Symington's started manufacturing swimwear from the 1930s and by the 1950s they were using their corsetry skills to offer the same support and shape from their swimsuit as they did in their corsetry.
This swimsuit was designed by Symington's for a specialist house it is made from spun Rayon with an orchid print and ruching from the mid-riff and a loose fitting top tied at the centre front.
Date 1953