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In April 2016, an exhibition opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London called
Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear and it stimulated this article!

The picture above is from the exhibition and is an advert for Agent Provocateur, a British lingerie retailer.

V&A advertising for Undressed A Brief History of Underwear

And so to Carlton Ware
The enormous success of Walking Ware, by Roger Michell and Danka Napiorkowska, first made in 1973 at their Yorkshire based Lustre Pottery, and then at Copeland Street from 1976, led Carlton Ware to introduce more and more quirky and amusing ranges.

The 1970s were an innovative time for British ceramics and because of the association with Lustre Pottery Carlton Ware was at the front of the field.

Owner Anthony Wood gave Pam Souch, resident designer at Copeland Street during this time, much more latitude than allowed to previous designers. Pam had original and imaginative ideas and many went into production including the items below.


Carlton Ware Undressed

Tastefully, in a state of undress, the three shapes below were produced in the early 1980s and modelled by John Tyler.

Carlton Ware LADY range

These shapes must have been based on Marilyn Monroe. (Pam, we would love to hear from you - it's been a long time since we met at Copeland Street - Harvey.)

Marilyn Monroe

Carlton Ware CORSET and CAN-CAN mugs

Carlton Ware Underwear
Two mugs were introduced at the same time as the LADY bookends, LADY mirror and LEGS toastrack. These were the CORSET mug, shape 3386 and the CAN-CAN mug, shape 3394.

Shown here decorated in blue, they were also available in pink.

In the interest of balance, we end this article with a picture from the exhibition showing men's undergarments. ❑

Advert showing David Beckham in underwear

Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear ran at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London between April 2016 and March 2017. In the display from the House of Harlot !The 't' was definitely not silent.

© Harvey Pettit 2016


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Harvey Pettit © Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.