Date: 1955
Origin: Great Britain
Brand: Spirella
A letter written from the customer service department of Spirella to its customer Mrs A. Freeman, thanking her for a letter in which she expressed satisfaction for the brand’s custom alterations to her brassiere.
In 1910, the Spirella Company of Great Britain was formed following its success in the United States and Canada. Spirella corsets were made to measure. Women could visit Spirella salons to be fitted for their Spirella corset or go to a dedicated Spirella corsetiere to have their corsets made. They had corsetieres dotted around Britain who would create the made-to-measure corsets.
The aim of Spirella corsetry was to shape the body into the fashionable figure of the period, which in the 1930s and 40s was relatively slim. As the Spirella corsets were made-to-measure, it gives us a good idea of the shape of the women who wore the Spirella corset. Whilst many other corsets moulded women’s bodies, Spirella corsets arguably enhanced women’s individual body shapes. Spirella was known for creating well-fitted and well-made corsets. Advertisements for Spirella corsets from this era emphasised that female figures differ and they therefore wanted to cater to women’s individual needs.
Kindly donated to The Underpinnings Museum by Rose Freeman
