If you are over 65 you might remember Liberty Bodices, Suspender belts, Roll-Ons and Panty Girdles.
They all seem such strange items of underwear, now that we are used to briefs that can be very brief and bras that can be strapless or backless. Or maybe they are not so odd and you are wearing them now!
It was thanks to the Lunchtime TV programme Bargain Hunt that I found out where Liberty Bodices were made when the presenter visited Market Harborough Museum.
From the internet..........................
Symingtons Liberty Bodices
The Liberty Bodice was invented by Fred Cox, Marketing Director at R & W H Symington & Co Ltd in 1908. It was a fleecy knitted vest with rubber buttons, re-enforcing cotton tapes and buttons to attach drawers and stockings. The bodice helped to change the way that children dressed in the early part of the twentieth century.
Until then most middle and upper class children wore supporting re-enforced corsets that were supposed to help ‘train’ their developing bodies. The Liberty Bodice was a softer, less restricting garment that allowed children to move around and play, at a time when playing and being active were viewed as an important parts of childhood.
Fred Cox’s daughter, Freda wore the bodice in an original advertising photograph. She appeared as the ‘Liberty Bodice Girl’ in much of the early marketing. The Liberty Bodice was produced in its millions and continued to be made until the 1960s. Loved or hated by three generations of children it remains one of Leicestershire’s most interesting products.
Until then most middle and upper class children wore supporting re-enforced corsets that were supposed to help ‘train’ their developing bodies. The Liberty Bodice was a softer, less restricting garment that allowed children to move around and play, at a time when playing and being active were viewed as an important parts of childhood.
Fred Cox’s daughter, Freda wore the bodice in an original advertising photograph. She appeared as the ‘Liberty Bodice Girl’ in much of the early marketing. The Liberty Bodice was produced in its millions and continued to be made until the 1960s. Loved or hated by three generations of children it remains one of Leicestershire’s most interesting products.
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| A child's Utility Liberty Bodice 1943 |
My Mum dressed me in a Liberty Bodice, although by the late 50's they didn't have the tapes and buttons to attach drawers and stockings -thank heavens!. They were abandoned by the time I started school.
I remember with loathing the Suspender Belt - too old for socks and before tights were common it was stockings held up by a belt with suspenders. Worn with a mini skirt of the time, it was always a worry that stocking tops would show...........nobody would bother now but back in the early sixties in Suffolk it would have been wrong to see petticoats, bra straps or stocking tops (bit like the Victorians and ankles!)
Mum had roll-on supportive underwear, it held everything in with suspenders for stockings but I can remember the Pantie Girdle (now they would be called Shape wear) which was worn over the top of tights, mainly to hold up the tights which had a tendency to slide down and wrinkle .
I'm very glad that none of those items feature in my wardrobe in 2022!
(Edited in to say - if you can't see the image of a Liberty Bodice which is there in drafts but seems to disappear HERE is a link)
and a PS...... Happy Holidays to all readers in the USA - have a good Thanksgiving Day
Back Tomorrow
Sue
It was the rubber buttons I disliked. A bugger to do up on a cold morning
ReplyDeleteI loved mine when I was little and now we've got fleece in one form or another.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had known of these in time to ask my grandmother.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Sixties when tights largely replaced stockings and suspender belts - such a disappointment to male teenagers, especially with the advent of the mini-skirt!
ReplyDeleteI used to wear all these. So sad when I outgrew liberty bodies and was stuck with suspender belts. Even at age 11 we were expected to wear long stockings with garters or suspenders with school uniform. We were just little girls forced to dress like women.
ReplyDeleteBodices. Auto correct doesn't believe me.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember any of them lol. The title did surprise me though - made me smile!
ReplyDeleteOh to be so young!
DeleteHow I HATED my liberty bodices. I found them hard to get on and off. Mum used them as an extra layer of warmth and I rejoiced when the weather improved and she put them all away for the summer. Ditto for suspender belts and stockings - < shudder >. I was so glad when tights became the thing although Mum wasn't so pleased. They cost more and if one leg laddered, the whole thing had to go, not just that leg. As for roll ons - horrible things. How we suffered in the olden days. lol
ReplyDeletexx
I seem to remember such thick tights for school that they didn't ladder but just fell down!
Delete< chuckle > The length we had to have our skirts, there wasn't much of a gap between hem and long sock top! I hated stockings and Mum wouldn't get tights (when they came in)
DeleteFabulous pictures here (https://leicestershirecollections.org.uk/fashion/Symington-collection) The thing that intrigued me when we lived in Leicestershire was that Symingtons were famous for making two things - corsetry and milk puddings! My first suspender belt came from Woolworths and was white with red rosebud trims.
ReplyDeleteYuck to milk puddings - like the cold rice pud on your post today!
DeleteThank goodness suspender belts died a death when mini dresses appeared. The art of picking up something gracefully had to be learnt! Apparently Mary Quant designed shorts to go with her mini dresses.
ReplyDeleteGosh, you've taken me back. I had a Liberty Bodice too - lovely and warm in the winter. Suspender belts were a proper PITA - so glad when tights were invented though of course, you had to have nail varnish to top those inevitable ladders.
ReplyDeleteI still don't like a bra strap showing (any more than I particularly like tattoos on women - to me they are still things that the Stevadores had down the docks) and if your petticoat showed, a friend would say "Charlie's dead" - gosh, I'd quite forgotten that!! I had a roll on girdle at 15 or so - Lord knows why as I was stick thin!
I never wore a liberty bodice but I did have summer and winter vests, wool for winter, cotton for summer.
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget the sanitary towel belt with the hooks for the loops. All quite a caboodle with the suspender belt.
ReplyDeleteUgh!
DeleteI remember wearing a liberty bodice at junior school I think with a vest underneath but perhaps not but definitely under a blouse, pinafore dress top and a home knitted cardigan - so many layers. I also remember suspender belts and stockings, grey ribbed ones for school and then the dreaded American tan for work. It was such a relief when tights became available especially with skirts getting shorter:)
ReplyDeleteI always found keeping the seams straight on my nylons a real pain. We were constantly looking behind to check, or asking each other “ are my seams straight “ Mine had a mind of their own!
ReplyDeleteHahahaah - nope I didn’t guess that one at all. I escaped these as I grew up abroad. I can remember a holiday in the UK one Christmas, my mother bought me a vet to wear and I put it on over my clothes. Didn’t realize it went in first.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory.
And that reminded me of a story of a elderly Great Aunt who had a bad back and insisted on wearing a corset Over her other clothes!
DeleteI can understand this it was probably to stop the bones sticking into her. I am pleased I can just wear jeans now. Unfortunately I have had to wear all of the above.
DeleteNever wore the liberty top but the garter belts I did. How uncomfortable they were panty hose was the best invention and now no one wears hose just tights.
ReplyDeleteCathy
I must have missed those by a few years, although I did wear some uncomfortable suspender belts to hold up my stockings, until tights arrived. Those hideous American Tan ones that were always too long for a shortie like me.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I had Liberty Bodices, I think for warmth. I remember our doctor telling Mum, 'they don't need these' and that was the end of them.
ReplyDeleteOh I remember having to wear a liberty bodice over my vest in the depths of Winter, although I, thankfully, missed out on suspender belts as we weren't allowed to even wear tights until our second year at secondary school, it had to be socks, either long or short. But tights back in the day were virtually all one size weren't they, and being tall I was forever hitching them up and causing ladders.
ReplyDeleteI remember my Mum struggling every morning to pull on her roll on ! I'm pretty sure she wore an extra pair of pants on top of her tights to hold said tights up - they didn't have the wonders of Lycra then - nylons were nylon!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
I don't remember wearing anything called liberty bodices, but in winter before my teen years, I wore little sleeveless tee shirts that would always have little rose embroidered on them. They were soft stretchy cotton, and our blouses over them. In elementary school we wore heavy tights in winter. Everyone walked to school and home again and it is cold and snowy here near St. Louis, Missouri. They were made like panty hose but were heavy knit fabric. In fall we would wear smooth tights that were a thinner stretch fabric and came in various colors to match our outfit. Navy blue, black, red, or a hideous flesh tone. In Junior high everyone was wearing nylons & girdles with those terribly uncomfortable metal snap things to hold up our hose. I only wore a stretch girdle to hold up my nylons. My Mom used to laugh and say "so round, so firm so fully packed" when I put on my stretch girdle. I think that came from an old time cigarrette ad. When I got home and took the girdle off there were red dents in my skin for hours from those dumb clips. And I remember starting to wear a bra in 6th grade. Oh, to me it was a hateful itchy thing. They were called training bras. It trained me to fidget. Luckily the bras got softer and stretchier by Junior high, or I would have been fidgeting twice as much between an itchy stiff bra and those stretch girdle snaps for my nylons. Those were the days of white go go boots, mini skirts, but here in Missouri, not too mini. They were considered unsuitable by the school and if there was a question about suitability, the school had a girl kneel on the floor and if the bottom of the hem didn't reach the floor, the skirt was too short, and they had to go home.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I was in high school our stupid nylon stockings and girdle were replaced by pantyhose that came in an egg--Le'ggs(sp?) I had gotten used to wearing a bra and would have been mortified not to be wearing my bra. I guess the training bra actually did train me. But at age 69 my bra training has gone out the window. I never wear one at home and only wear them if I am going out somewhere or to the doctor. I prefer to wear just a satin camisole top under my blouse if I am wearing a sweater or jacket. Normally, I feel like I am invisible anyway when I go out to stores and stuff. So I don't think that many people are checking out the headlights on a woman in her late 60's. They're always on low beam anyway these days.
The headlights comment made me laugh.
DeleteI remember in early sixties when we starched waist slips and they were selling them with hoops sewn in and you would wear them to make a skirt stick out and look very full—-i was going to a secretarial college and was coming down the upstairs of the bus. When i felt something——-the plastic hoop was starting to come out. I descended the bus stairs probably red with embarrassment trying tp nochalently roll up the plastic hoop and hoping no one was staring at me. Jean/winnipef
ReplyDeleteHa...the days of stiff petticoats that flared out. I remember my cousin and I wrapping plastic under out skirts so it sounded like we were wearing stiff petticoats because our mothers would not buy us one.
DeleteWhen I was a toddler my mother made all my panties from white cotton broadcloth with elastic tunnels around the legs and waist. She said it was so she could soak them in bleach solution to keep them white after I came in from playing in the sandbox or garden dirt. In reality it was probably because we were dirt poor and it was cheaper to make them from and old sheet than to purchase them ready made. With her being so frugal I am surprised she never learned to knit or crochet. In fact, to my knowledge, none of my female relatives had those needle skills except for crocheting doilies and such.
ReplyDeleteMy mother insisted I needed a girdle to wear for my first teaching job...I was about 115 pounds....how bizarre I think now!
ReplyDeleteWell, I really don't know what to say to that - ha ha. I do remember my gran wearing corsets right up until she passed away.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I remember all of those things! I know I was glad of my liberty bodice in the winter as we had no central heating and, in addition, I had to walk to and from school by myself in all weathers from the age of about 5. Thick woollen stockings were worn in winter when I went to Senior school and I hated the suspender belts, but I was so relieved not to have to wear a liberty bodice once I started there at the age of 11...lol...as communal showers were compulsory after a sports lesson. The showers would be classed as child abuse now as we had to strip naked and shower together. It was horrendous as I was so embarrassed and used to get out as quickly as I could, not always clean!
ReplyDeleteI didn't now what a liberty bodice was. We just wore undershirts. I have never heard of a suspender belt but it does sound a lot like our garter belts. I do remember pantie girdles and how nice it was when they invented panty hose and we didn't have to bother with belts and girdles anymore!
ReplyDeleteI never expected U for underwear, Sue!! Good one!
I am thankful for your blog on my Thanksgiving day! :)
Oh my word-I hated my liberty bodice as I don’t like tight clothes. I remember it had buttons with straps as I got older and my long woollen stockings were stretched onto the buttons. I got chilblains nine the less and spent a lot of the day scratching! Catriona
ReplyDeleteNone of these undergarments were part of my USA childhood, or ever. Maybe panty hose for an evening event w a short cocktail dress? The Liberty bodices give me claustrophobia, so restrictive [in the ads.]. My no-bra mom veered the other way and I didn't wear undershirts or slips or sweaters, very cold in midwestern winters. I only got a bra when I became a 32 C+ [D probably, ugh], much to both my parents dismay.
ReplyDeleteI wore a suspender belt all through my college days (yes, they were bad with minis!), and was so glad when pantyhose arrived on the scene. Many years now since I have bothered to use either :)
ReplyDeleteNot something I've ever worn...
ReplyDeleteNever heard of a liberty bodice, but everything else I can remember wearing at one point or another. Not always the best of memories though.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Belatedly, is there a why to contact you? I saw in your post R - for Reading that a book I got from the library ( The Rose Code)" by kate Quinn is one of you book disappointments for last month. Is it worth reading 853 pages?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your time.
Hugs!