Special Collections Blog: Special Collections Blog

Newly Listed: the Papers of Betty Williams, Fashion Designer

Showcasing one of our newly listed donations, below you can see some highlights from the Papers of Betty Williams, former DMU student and underwear and corsetry designer, as well as take a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how we process collections.

On sorting through the papers we discovered the collection includes a lovely range of Williams's examination and qualification certificates, pattern designs, and press cuttings relating to her career as a designer and a small selection of fashion books, which will be catalogued separately as a mini library.

Williams in the Leicester Mercury, 1958.                     A selection of materials from the collection

Williams grew up in rural Leicestershire and attended Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School where her needlework skills were awarded with a school prize in 1937. She went on to enroll at the Leicester College of Arts of Crafts (a predecessor of De Montfort University) to study corsetry and dress design in 1942, successfully sitting and passing her exams each year with first class results.

Needlework school prize certificate, 1936-37.                                                Dressmaking certificate, 1944.

Williams completed her course in 1945 and began teaching in the department. She was awarded her Teacher Training Certificate in 1946 and remained at the College assisting with the development of the corsetry programme which is the now internationally prestigious, DMU Contour. 

Prospectus cover fro the School of Corsetry, 1950.

Leading a field trip for students to undergarment specialists and manufacturers, Berlei, Williams discovered they needed a new designer and decided to apply. After a trial period over the summer vacation where she was charged with a project to design a bra, she was made an offer and subsequently spent many years as their Chief Designer.

Front cover from Berlei Staff Magazine, Autumn 1966.                   Advertisement for Berlei undergarments c 1965.

Press cuttings and her designs in the collection offer insight into the activities of Williams as an internationally successful designer who sought inspiration and expertise from a number of fields, including structural engineering. Williams's documents and designs have now all been neatly organised and packaged in our acid-free folders for preservation.

An example of pattern designs from the collection.                                                                                      Neatly packaged and preserved.

The press cuttings particularly like to focus on Williams as a jet-setting designer, hob-nobbing with royalty and travelling the world, which included business trips to Australia, the US, Canada and more. We particularly love the annotation of her scrapbook where she notes 'Nice bitchy comment at the end!' presumably referring to the journalist's quotation and description in the corresponding article: '"Business can be so cut-throat" she sighed, drawing her furs closer over her smart black suit.'

The collection has now been assigned a catalogue reference code and a basic box list is complete. This will be followed-up with a more detailed catalogue at a later date. You can browse the online catalogue here, clicking through the tree to find the item listings: https://de-montfort.epexio.com/records/D/109