Liberty London
Liberty London
Liberty London was founded in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty
who was loaned £2000 by his fiancé of the time, Emma Louise Blackmore’s father
Henry Blackmore. Previously, Liberty worked for over a decade at Messrs Farmer
and Rogers. This money was used to open his store at 218a Regent Street, which
became so successful that Liberty was able to pay back the loan within eighteen
months. His idea for the store was to
sell luxuries and fabrics from all around the world, made and designed by the
world’s greatest craftspeople. Society, when the store first opened, was
fascinated by Japanese and Eastern designs and art and Liberty’s designed had
strong Japanese influence as well as being a part of the Art Nouveau Movement,
resulting in this period being referred to as ‘Liberty Style’ in Italy. In
1924, Liberty London opened a store on Great Marlborough Street which has a
Tudor revival main entrance, constructed from recycled timber of old ships. On
the top of the store designed by Edwin T. Hall and his son Edwin S. Hall, is a
Mayflower design like the one on the ship that brought the Pilgrims to
America. In 1882, Oscar Wilde, who
describe Liberty as “the chosen resort of the artistic shopper”, toured around
The United States of America with a wardrobe full of Liberty Clothes. This
sparked a demand for Liberty in the USA.
“I was
determined not to follow existing fashions but to create new ones”
- Arthur Lasenby Liberty