Spirella#Locations

The Spirella name was used by the Spirella Corset Company Inc that was founded in 1904{{cite web|url=http://www.corsetiere.net/Spirella/History.htm|website=History of Spirella|access-date=11 May 2016|title=Notes on the European Offices}} in Meadville, Pennsylvania, US. It was founded on a patent of dressbone,{{cite journal |last1=Lauffenburger |first1=Julie A. |title=Baleen in Museum Collections: Its Sources, Uses, and Identification |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation |date=January 1993 |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=213–230 |doi=10.2307/3179545|jstor=3179545 }} for bustles, but started corset manufacture in 1904. The company manufactured made-to-measure corsets. Benefits for the company's employees included travel, education and health care.{{cite web|url=http://www.historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1194_the-spirella-company_Meadville-PA.html|website=Historical marker Project|access-date=11 May 2016|title=HM1194}}

File:Spirella_Building_-_geograph.org.uk_-_988178.jpg]]

The UK subsidiary was The Spirella Company of Great Britain. Spirella co-founder and entrepreneur William Wallace Kincaid commissioned the architect Cecil Hignett to design a state-of-the art factory of architectural beauty. The design included embellishments in Arts & Crafts styling. This factory, the Spirella Building, was built and expanded in stages between 1912 and 1920.

During World War II, the Irvin Airchute Company expanded its production of parachutes into the Spirella Building and women working for the British Tabulating Machine Company secretly produced components for the decoding machines called Bombes.{{cite web|url=http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/corsets_and_codes_at_spirella_in_letchworth_1_1634050|title=Corsets and Codes at Spirella in Letchworth|last1=McEvoy|first1=Louise|website=Hertfordshire Life|access-date=11 May 2016}} In September 1957, the company ceased to be under the control of the US firm.{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|date=September 1, 1959|title=THE SPIRELLA COMPANY OF GREAT BRITAIN, LIMITED|page=21}}

The company's most popular corset was the Model 305. Spirella products were not sold in shops. Instead, female staff called corsetiers (or corsetières) were sent to customers' homes.{{cite web|url=http://corsetiere.net/Spirella/Corsetiere/Fitter.htm|title=The Spirella Corsetière|website=Ivy Leaf's ~Archives|publisher=Ivy Leaf|access-date=11 May 2016}}

After an ill-fated attempt to market garments of "Stub-tex", a form of Gore-Tex being used under licence from W. L. Gore & Associates, the company was sold in 1985 to the rival Spencers of Banbury and finally closed in July 1989.

File:Oxford_Circus_Panorama_March_2006.jpg

The Spirella Building was designed to provide workers with a highly productive and pleasant environment that focused on the comfort of factory employees. Referred to as the "factory of beauty", it offered a wide array of employee amenities including "baths, showers, gymnastics classes, a library, free eye tests and bicycle repairs".{{Cite web|url=http://www.letchworthgc.com/first_garden_city/spirella_building|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803073221/http://www.letchworthgc.com/first_garden_city/spirella_building|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 3, 2010|title=The Spirella Building {{!}} Letchworth Garden City|last=www.vohm.com|website=www.letchworthgc.com|language=en|access-date=2018-02-07}} In 1979 it was Grade II* listed.{{NHLE |num=1347670 |desc=The Spirella Building, associated fountain, lamp standards and steps |access-date=15 June 2008}} The Letchworth Garden City Foundation bought the neglected building in 1995, restored the interior and re-opened it for leased office accommodation.{{cite web|url=https://buildingfuturesblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/history-of-the-spirella-building/|title=History of the Spirella Building|website=Building Futures Blog|date=19 August 2013 |access-date=11 May 2016}} It currently houses over twenty businesses.{{Cite web|url=https://www.letchworth.com/what-we-do/our-venues/spirella|title=Spirella Building {{!}} Letchworth|website=www.letchworth.com|language=en|access-date=2018-02-09}}

At its height the company had factories in the US (Meadville, Pennsylvania, New Haven, Connecticut, and Lincoln Nebraska{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egXjuRngPvYC&pg=RA1-PA65|title=The Ladies' Home Journal|date=1917-03-01|publisher=Curtis Publishing Company|pages=65|language=en}} ), in Canada (in 1910), in the UK (in 1910; from 1912 in the Spirella Building in Letchworth) and in Sweden (Malmö) in 1920 and Niagara Falls, New York (in 1917). Their flagship location was Spirella House on Oxford Circus, London.{{cite web|title=A Potted History of Spirella House|url=http://www.njceci.org.uk/resources/spirella-house/|website=NJC (The National Joint Council for the Engineering Construction Industry)|publisher=National Joint Council for the Engineering Construction Industry|access-date=15 May 2016|location=5th Floor, Spirella House, 266-270 Regent Street, London, W1B 3AH|quote=In 1959 a Spirella shop assistant is reported to have described three brassiere sizes “The Totalitarian – designed for suppression of the masses; the Salvation Army – to uplift the fallen; and the Political Agitator – to make mountains out of molehills”.|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513055433/http://www.njceci.org.uk/resources/spirella-house/|url-status=dead}} A factory built in 1910 in Niagara falls, Ontario, eventually became the premises of the Bird Kingdom Tropical Adventure.{{cite web|title=Bird Kingdom A Tropical Adventure|url=http://www.birdkingdom.ca/discover/history|website=Bird Kingdom|date=June 2012|access-date=11 May 2016|ref=History: The Spirella Corset Factory}}

A number of organisations have collected archival examples of documents and objects related to the Spirella Factory. The Garden City Collection in Letchworth includes over forty objects and documents in its collection.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gardencitycollection.com/themes/spirella|title=Spirella {{!}} Garden City Collection|website=www.gardencitycollection.com|language=en|access-date=2018-02-09}} Additionally, collections are maintained by Hertfordshire's Community Archives Network.{{Cite news|url=http://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/category/herts-history/towns-and-villages/letchworth_garden_city/letchworth_places/spirella-factory|title=Spirella Factory|work=Herts Memories|access-date=2018-02-09|language=en}} Archival examples include: the Castle Corset cartoon and an advertisement for the Spirella War Savings Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.corsetiere.net/Spirella/LGC_castle_corset.jpg|title=Castle Corset cartoon|publisher=Corsetiers.net|access-date=15 May 2016}}{{cite web|title=Spirella-ites!: an advertisement for the Spirella War Savings Association|url=http://www.gardencitycollection.com/object-601-38|website=Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation|publisher=Garden City Collection|access-date=15 May 2016|ref=601.33}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Spirella}}

{{Wikisource|Portal:Spirella}}

• [http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/category/special-sections/spirella-corset-company Photograph of Spirella workers in Meadville, Pennsylvania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003132009/http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/category/special-sections/spirella-corset-company |date=2015-10-03 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20040317031417/http://www.spirella.com/ The Ballroom of Spirella's factory in Letchworth, England]
• [http://www.corsetiere.net/Spirella/History.htm Corsetiere.net's History of Spirella]
• [http://www.textilesociety.org.uk/events/event-details.php?textile-event=450 The Textile Society's Report of an exhibition in 2013 on 'Spirella Company - Corset Makers & Corsetieres'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402082458/http://textilesociety.org.uk/events/event-details.php?textile-event=450 |date=2016-04-02 }}
• [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Spirella_Manual_(1913)] The Spirella_Manual (1913)
• [http://www.gardencitycollection.com/themes/spirella The Garden City Collection, Spirella theme of images]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160829064258/http://memories.nebraska.gov/cdm/search/searchterm/Spirella/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/ Historical photos of the Lincoln Nebraska location] Nebraska Memories
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170222122741/http://abandonedonline.net/locations/industry/spirella-company/]

{{Corsetry}}

{{Listed buildings in Hertfordshire|G2*}}

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Category:Corsetry

Category:American companies established in 1904

Category:Clothing companies established in 1904

Category:Meadville, Pennsylvania

Category:Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania

Category:Defunct clothing retailers of the United States