A Tudor-style London department store in Soho, founded in 1875, famous for its Liberty print fabrics and for backing young designers.
Liberty is a department store in the West End of London. It sells fashion for men, women and children, beauty, homewares and gifts from established and up-and-coming brands, and it is best known for its bold floral Liberty print fabrics, which are used for clothing and furnishings. It is also known for championing young designers early in their careers. Recent collaborations have included Nike, Dr. Martens, Adidas and Manolo Blahnik, which shows how an old name can still make products for new customers.
Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened the first shop in 1875 at 218a Regent Street with three staff and a loan from his future father-in-law, selling ornaments, fabrics and art objects, especially from Japan and the East. The business grew into a centre of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, working with designers such as Archibald Knox, and with Cymric silver and Tudric pewter made for the store from 1899. Oscar Wilde called it "the chosen resort of the artistic shopper". We did not find a modern mission statement from the company in the sources we read.
In the UK, Liberty's home is the Tudor Revival building on Great Marlborough Street, between Carnaby Street and Kingly Street in Soho. It was built in 1924 using timbers from two old Royal Navy ships, HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan, and it has been Grade II* listed since 1972. The store closed its Regent Street section in 2006 and moved everything into this building. Liberty opened regional shops from 1955, in Manchester, Bath, Brighton, Chester, York, Kingston upon Thames, Exeter and Norwich, but closed its twenty shops outside London in 1996 and now concentrates on the London flagship. The company is headquartered in London.
We found no current figures for staff or any published description of working life at Liberty, so we can only say what the history shows: a business built on design, craft and taste. Its print fabrics have been central to the brand since its early years, and it is known for choosing new makers. Independent designers and craft brands, including jewellers such as Monica Vinader and Astley Clarke, have sold through Liberty.
A department store this size needs many kinds of people. There are buyers who choose what goes on the shelves, fabric and print designers, visual merchandisers who dress windows and floors, personal stylists and sales advisers, beauty specialists, event and marketing teams, e-commerce staff, and the finance, stock and customer-service teams behind the scenes. If you like art, textiles, design history or spotting the next big brand, Liberty is an unusually good place to see how those interests become a job.
Website: www.libertylondon.com
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