‘I Love My Liberty Bodice’ celebrates the undergarment that was loved or loathed by generations of children. The fleecy bodice, with its cotton tapes and rubber buttons, has become a thing of nostalgia for many thousands of people who grew up with it as part of their childhood.
The Liberty Bodice was launched in 1908. It was followed by the ‘Libertyland’ marketing campaign, a land where sweets grew on trees and children played alongside fairy tale characters and woodland animals.
The exhibition tells the story of R. & W.H. Symington & Co. Ltd, the Leicestershire corsetry manufacturer, who developed the new undergarment for children and looks at the way childhood changed at the beginning of the 20th century.