The Jenyns Corset

 

 

Of all the manufacturers of fan-lacing corsets, the Australian firm of Jenyns, needs a special mention. This company, one of many famous and long-lived Australian corsetry businesses, lasted for just over a century, right up to the end of the 1990's.

 

The factory's last location was in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. My husband comments that any woman who wore one of these corsets in the tropical heat of the Brisbanian summer, required considerable fortitude indeed. 

 

Sadly, it seems that in 1999, the last corsets were sold, and so another great name passes into history. We were extremely fortunate to be put in touch with a charming Australian woman, who provided some letter-heads that tell a little of the decline of this famous firm. To this day, she still wears her remaining Jenyns corsets, for there is little to touch them.

 

 

 

 

The Jenyns Corset

 But let us look closely at two examples of these powerful and functional garments that were recent acquisitions from an Australian lady. She purchased them at the closing down sale of a corset shop in 1993.

The Jenyns Standard Corset (interestingly, the word Bryant is hand-written on the label)

Big hip, long meant that the front of the garment measured 15", the sides, 19" and the back, where the fan-lacing was placed, 18".

Finished in a pretty brocade, there is no doubt about the serious intention of this corset. It is the antipodean equivalent of the 'standard' 141 series Camp corset.

 Tape measure (oddly enough manufactured in London).  Jenyns loved the word 'reducing' and used it until their demise.

Jenyns Dorsal Lumbar Support

Until I saw this corset, I would never have believed that fan-lacing ever passed across the stomach, but it does here. The reason is to pull the four (!) rigid spinal steels encased in their heavy fabric pockets against the wearer's spine. I tried the corset, which, in all fairness to Jenyns, was not designed for me. However, as somebody who has suffered periodically from a poorly back, I felt qualified to give the corset a 'road test' (as my husband quaintly put it).

This corset is very, very supportive, although it failed to flatten my abdomen quite as effectively as the standard version.  

I found that that it felt natural to lean back ever so slightly into the steels, however, the very long, rigid back, 20", and the relatively short front of 13", revealed something that has always concerned me about these corsets. If one should one dare to bend forward, even to the extent of getting into a car, for example, the top of the corset comes off the spine and is visible to the onlooker as a distinct ridge. Like many women, I need my underwear, however, I do not want its presence advertised either visibly or audibly. Again, I must add that had the corset been designed for me, I would have had the front cut longer above the waist so that the bending manoeuvre would not be as easy.

Oh dear. One's corsets should never draw attention to themselves in this fashion (left).

 

It's a shame since Jenyns have gone to considerable trouble to disguise the straps and webbing that are always a problem with the fan-lacers. The buckles, and neat little loops ensure that the webbing lies close to the corset. Jenyns' unique way of securing the straps by fitting a lace-hole over a small spigot sewn to the side of the corset was innovative and it works. 

 

 Jenyns Side-Lacing Corset

This is an incredibly powerful garment. The front length is sufficient to avoid the perils mentioned above. Note the inordinate number of lace holes running the length of the garment. Jenyns lacked the mechanical pulley effect of Camp and compensated by sheer number of laces! No problem with the corset length here. Short corsets were a problem with the latter-day Camps as inexperienced fitters grabbed what was left on the shelves as the British end of the company slowly went broke. Invariably, the remaining corsets were the left-overs, the odd sizes that had resisted a decade or more of uncomfortable fitings.

Again, the convergent evolution of disparate corset companies becomes apparent in these Jenyns Orthopaedic supports (below).

 

In contrast to Camp's mainstream offerings, Jenyns often managed to insert just a touch of femininity. The two gratuitous panels of satin on the 4477 are there, simply to remind the wearer that although she must don the 'contraption' each day (as the old ladies used to call them), at least there were some pretty female touches. Unlike Camp, Jenyns opts for the front fan-lacing. Despite their similarities, Camp never used front fan-lacing. I wonder if there was a Jenyns patent involved?

On the outrageous 'special' 2900 (left) that measures an alarming 23 inches long, the under-belt, once again, is trimmed in satin. For this immobilising device, Jenyns reverted to back-lacing.

The Jenyns Fashion Corset

I'm not sure if this was what the corset was actually called; the label reads a more prosaic

however, the corset is one of the most beautiful of its sort that I have ever seen. It showed that Jenyns (and Camp) could produce a serious garment and yet make it in heavy grade corset satin with exquisite little touches of lace, and suspender flashes.

The Jenyns Satin Corset

 

This surely must be the flagship of the Jenyns corset company. The corset is made from sumptuous, heavy corset satin of a quality unknown to wearers of  modern foundation garments.

 

Amazingly, Camp (below right) had a similar idea, but the Jenyns elevates the style to a higher plane with exquisite lace details, the apron front and the suspender flashes.

 

These are details that Camp overlooked, although their 'top range' corset is another stunning example of the corset-makers craft. The suspenders on the Jenyns are interesting. The front ones are painted metal with moulded rubber grommets which come from the 70's or 80's, however, the

rear suspenders, have the traditional metal pin in the centre of the grommet; a 50's - 60's feature. The garment is completely original and unmodified.  I suspect, that in the 1980's, when Jenyns was sadly in terminal decline, that the seamstresses used supplies of old stock rather than order afresh. I believe that the corset dates from the mid-1980's. This immaculate, unworn example must have been one of the last ever made.

We are very lucky to have such beautiful pieces in the Ivy Leaf Collection.

At the Melbourne cup in the 1960's and 1970's, many a flat stomached matron owed her remarkably good figure to these wonderful corsets. When jet travel to the Antipodes became more common, a number of these corsets found their way back to the old country as Grandma, returning to Bexhill with fond memories of her offspring and a token Koala soft toy for the mantelpiece, would also be carrying a few years' supply of Jenyns, definitely not for display!

 

The History of Jenyns

The Jenyns corset was developed by Mrs. S.A. Jenyns (before her marriage to H.C. Jenyns). A nurse, particularly interested in female welfare, she designed one of the world's first side-lacing corsets. From Queensland in Australia, she had to take a ship to Britain to register the patent on her invention! Such determination, tenacity and business sense saw the foundation of one of Australia's best-known corsetry firms, that remained for decades, a family run business. Even during the World War II, corsets were made from army material, and H.C. was canny enough to buy up all the available needles on the outbreak of war!

The company flourished for six decades, however, at the end of the 1960's, when corsetry throughout the world suddenly felt the chill wind of change, the German firm Triumph acquired Jenyns as it saw the huge potential of the Australian and Far Eastern markets. Triumph's advertising in the early 1970's, whilst proclaiming its success, spells clearly the beginning of the end:- "now the largest producer of bras in the Australian market." As in Europe, the shelves of the foundation garment shops would cease to groan under the weight of girdles and corset, and ultimately be replaced by an anodyne sea of brassieres.

From the early 1970's. The upbeat message would not last for much longer...

    

     

Jenyns' Hey-Day

The Demise of Jenyns

Jenyns lasted for over a century, however, as with all the corset houses, the gradual decline set in toward the end of the 1970's. In 1969 as mentioned above, Jenyns was bought by Triumph and became The House of Jenyns, Triumph International. The company appears to have continued the traditional Jenyns line but with some diversification into medical products as well.

 

In 1992, I suspect things were not going well and Triumph decided to sell the venture. It was split into a medical products company Jenyns Pty Ltd., owned by Ken, Pat and Julie Jenyns, and a specialised surgical corset business, Jenyns Bryant Surgical Corsetry Pty Ltd. The name Bryant comes from Sister Ann Bryant who negotiated the release of the surgical corset division. Some corsets from this period have the label Jenyns with a hand-written Bryant added afterwards!

  

 

It seems that this move was simply a delay of the inevitable. I have letterheads dated 1989 displaying the logo Jenyns CAMP, suggesting that the successful European company that had managed to struggle on making similar corsets took a part of Jenyns, however, this is not the case. Jenyns simply sold CAMP corsets. Rather like Spirella and Spencer in the 1980's; there was simply no room in a diminishing world market for two firms competing in the same diminishing market. Jenyns' catalogue of 1994 speaks of Jenyns-Camp and features as many pure Camp corsets as Jenyns corsets.

Jenyns and Camp in the late 1980's

The apparent similarity of Jenyns and Camp products as seen from their 1994 brochure. The lacing systems are, however, quite different.

Jenyns brochures were now poorly photocopied and bound lists. Shops ended up stocking whatever sizes remained on the shelves, and these are inevitably the less common sizes. Prices went out of control, and the elderly pensioners could no longer afford their means of support. Old women desperate to replace their ageing underwear would grasp at any, even ill-fitting examples, and a vicious circle of decline was inevitable. The last Jenyns corsets were sold as the century came to an end. We even have invoices from 1998, one apologising for supplying the wrong size!

 

Even today, there's a few die-hard women in Australia, lovingly repairing and caring for their Jenyns corsets in the hope that they'll both see out their time together.

 

 

Letter from a Jenyns Wearer

Your site has brought back many memories from during and after the war years in England. Sad to say, but in Australia where I now live, those days are long gone, although I do know a couple of women who still wear Jenyns surgical corsets. They wouldn't do without them, but on days like today when it is so hot (38 oC Dec 2005) they do suffer. Jenyns have now gone out of business, and at the end were basically surgical suppliers.

One of the ladies is a Miss H., who is 83 years old. We had quite a chat recently and she invited me to visit her, as she had some Jenyns catalogues to pass on. I met up with Miss H. yesterday at her home. She is a very pleasant lady and made me most welcome. When I arrived the front door was open, I rang the bell and she called me in. She was sitting at a large table in the lounge which had on it five or six old Jenyns corsets and she was re-lacing one of them in the hope that she would have at least one that she could use. She had been working for hours on 'the darn thing’ as she put it. She had started wearing corsets just before the war after a riding accident and had worn then ever since.

For such a lady, who has worn corsets for over 65 years, it will be impossible to do without. Sadly, the manufacture of corsets is dying out as the profit margins have long gone. Maybe with a burgeoning older class of 'baby boomers' this loss of knowledge may yet turn out to haunt us. - Ivy.

 

 

 

 

Other Fan-lacing Corsets

Who was it that said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"; certainly not the Patent Office. However, a number of companies used the fan-lacing principle to very good, profitable and long lasting effect, notably Kellogg, Gale and Jenyns (described above). Throughout, I have referred to these corsets as "Camp style", indicating that the pulley principle is involved, or "Jenyns style", meaning the cluster-lacing has no pulley advantage. Sub-derivatives of the "Jenyns style" is the strap that is held by a buckle, and the strap that is secured by a pin (Jenyns).

The Kellogg corset company was formed in 1907 by D.C. Kellogg Sr., who was a leader in the development of 'scientific corsetry' (there's that expression once again).

 

The charming and knowledgeable Lyn Locke wears an original Kellogg, one of the prizes of her collection. This is a seriously long corset of about 21 inches. I have seen only a few fashion corsets of this length and they were all made-to-measure Spirellas. Note that Kellogg has circumvented the Camp patent and used the multiple-lacings-sewn-to-the-adjustable-strap technique, like Jenyns.  Note also the absence of the 'swing' suspenders.

 

Actually, the corset is rather long for Miss Locke. It would have been intended for a lady of at least 5' 6".

 
These 'Mirra-line' corsets belong to the Jenyns style of lacing rather than Camp since no leverage of the laces is employed. The name sounds odd. Is it referring to one's improved image on reflection in the mirror? The Comfort Foundations 'Posture Belt' was another such device.

  

 

 

When I first saw this corset, I assumed it was a CAMP, however, CAMP always had a five-hole former on the lower-lacer and this has but a three-hole. It is manufactured under the name 'Juno", and I've only ever seen this one example.

 

The strangely named "Fisher Burpe" corset, is another "Jenyns style" buckled fastened device.

Other famous brands have tried the fan-lacing principle, notably the Ambrose Wilson V80, and the amazing Controlacing Berlei 

 

“Lady Mary adjusted the straps of her surgical corset with a vigour that reminded Sir Godber of a race meeting” writes Tom Sharpe in his hilarious novel, Porterhouse Blue. These corsets remind me how ridiculously simple fan-lacing is. One goes from bulging abdomen to youthful flatness with a firm pull of the straps.