Liberty & Co.
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Liberty is long-established department store in Great Marlborough Street in Central London, England, in the West End shopping district.
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[edit] History
The business was founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875 to sell ornaments, fabrics (for which it became especially famous) and miscellaneous objets d'art from Japan and the Far East. Liberty & Co. first catered for an eclectic mix of popular styles, but then went on to develop a fundamentally different style closely linked to Art Nouveau and the Aesthetic Movement of the 1890s. The company became synonymous with this new style, to the extent that in Italy, Art Nouveau became known as the Stile Liberty, after the London shop. Liberty still has a distinctive style and still produces some of its own fabrics.
[edit] Architecture
Its building fronts Great Marlborough Street and is one of the most prominent Tudor revival Arts and Crafts buildings in London. It is a Grade II listed building. The timbers used in the construction of the building (built in 1924 by architects Edwin T. Hall and his son Edwin S. Hall) were taken from two British naval ships, HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan.[1] Unlike a typical large department store, the shop has resisted the trend for suspended ceilings and corporate display fittings. It retains the original Tudor Revival detailing (with some typical 1930s touches) inside as well as out. The interior is split up into a series of relatively small rooms, arranged around several windowless atria, which are lit by glazed roofs and have wooden balconies at each level. There are stairs and decorative lifts instead of escalators.
[edit] Retail activity
The shop sells up to date fashions, cosmetics, accessories, gifts etc. in addition to its homewares and furniture.
Liberty has its own team of window dressers and is known for imaginative and often surreal window displays, especially at Christmas.
Since 1988, Liberty has had a subsidiary in Japan which sells Liberty branded products in leading Japanese shops. It also sells Liberty fabrics to international and local fashion brands with bases in Japan.
[edit] Liberty of London
Liberty of London is a luxury accessories brand which draws on Liberty's heritage. Launched in 2005, it operates under the creative direction of Tamara Salman. It is majority-owned by MWB Group Holdings plc. In the summer of 2008 a flagship Liberty of London boutique was opened at 197 Sloane Street, London. On 22nd June 2009 Vogue reported Sloane St store sold & business to transferred to Regent Street's newly made-over store.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Alison Adburgham, Liberty's - A biography of a shop, George Allen and Unwin (1975)
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Liberty of London |
- Official site
- Liberty of London official site
- Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the Evolution of the Liberty Style
- Vintage Fashion Guild
- Vogue reports Sloane St store sold & business to transferred to Regent Street's newly made-over store
[edit] Original Liberty objects in museums
A starter list:
