We have been working hard over the last few years to promote the extensive and unique Fashion Collections held by Leicestershire County Council.

The Fashion Collections are studied by a wide range of people including many students. We started to promote the archives using social media, which has allowed brand new audiences to discover the collections.

We began with a Facebook page and then started using a Tumblr account in conjunction with the already successful Facebook page.

Unlike our Facebook page that promotes the Fashion Collections as a whole our ‘Flossing and Lace’ Tumblr account promotes our corsetry collection, principally the Symington Archive.

Focusing on our unique Symington corset pattern and illustrated presentation box the page began with twelve individual corsets, all cut from the original corset pattern but each having its own theme, mood board and making techniques. The corsets were released once a month with each theme tailored to the time of year.

The account is now used to bring the corsets from the Symington Archive to a wider audience, allowing corsetieres and historians the ability to view, study and ask questions about the corsets, even if they live half a world away.

The Symington Archive is visited regularly by corsetieres and historians from all over the world but using social media to advertise and promote the craftsmanship and engineering of the garments that we look after allows everybody a chance to study and learn.