Arthur Lasenby Liberty

Who was Arthur Lasenby Liberty?

Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty was a London merchant, and the founder of Liberty & Co.

Born in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of a draper, he began work at sixteen with an uncle who sold lace, and later another uncle who sold wine. By 1859 he was apprenticed to a draper, but he instead took a job at Farmer and Rogers, which specialised in women's fashions. He quickly rose to the post of manager of the warehouse.

After Farmer and Rogers refused to make him a partner in their business, in 1875 he opened his own shop, Liberty & Co., in Regent Street, London. There he sold ornaments, fabrics and miscellaneous objets d'art from the Far East.

Liberty & Co. initially provided an eclectic mix of popular styles, but went on to develop a fundamentally different style closely linked to the Aesthetic Movement of the 1890s, Art Nouveau. The company became synonymous with this new style to the extent that in Italy, Art Nouveau became known as Stile Liberty after the London shop. The company's printed and dyed fabrics, particularly silks and satins, were notable for their subtle and "artistic" colours and highly esteemed as dress material, especially during the decades from 1890 to 1920.