Liberty is unlike any department store you'll ever encounter. As described on their website, “Liberty is famed for its directional design, cultural collaborations and inspiring curation. Our dedicated in-house design studio is still at the core of all that we do, hand painting and creating our beautiful prints, and reworking finds from the 45,000-strong archive.” Liberty exudes a homey yet elegant environment as rooms are meant to look like they are straight out of someone's house with antique furniture and fireplaces but also selling high end products.
Liberty's values are strongly placed on keeping its history alive with continuing products that built their foundation like print design, wood carvings, and anything and everything animal-themed. There are miniature glass paintings in the stain-glassed windows taken from the captain's quarters. They have Shields of Shakespeare and portraits of Henry VIII's six wives. Beneath Liberty Clock reads, "No minute gone comes ever back again, take heed and see ye nothing do in vain" from St. George & the Dragon. They also remember the vessel that brought the pilgrims to the New World with the gilded copper weathervane of a golden Mayflower. They have a World War II memorial carved into the wood paneling alongside the staircase to honor the fallen Liberty employees that fought for their country.
Something odd about Liberty that sparked my curiosity was their "Modern Slavery Statement" on their website. Liberty has made it very clear that they are not involved in modern slavery by having an entire section of their website devoted to it. It’s well-known that a lot of companies like Old Navy and Nike have products made by slaves or children which is included under modern slavery. The emphasis they’ve put on advertising that they are not involved in this current problem makes me a little suspicious. Did they use slavery to make products at one point? Probably. Because they have so many products from so many countries, it’s likely that some of those distributers or companies were using slaves to create their products. My thought is that Liberty might have gone through some sort of lawsuit that resulted negatively to the point where they have to check every company for any trace of slavery to make sure they have a clean record. I’ve just never seen an organization clarify the use of non-slavery.
9/10 experience at Liberty. Took off one point for the same reason as Harrod's...I can't afford to shop there! Maybe one day...
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