Like all successful advertising this glass slide image sells much more than just the product - Berlei's 'side fastening wrap-on [corset] for medium average figures'. We are being sold the ideas of beauty, strength, virtue, excitement (she's got her feet in the clouds!) and design, and how all of these ideals come together in the Berlei brand.

The design of the background has strong art deco references. There is something 'Wonder Woman' about the image with the model standing straight and proud - clouds and angular shapes emanating from her. The character of Wonder Woman didn't appear in DC Comics until 1941, so she is ahead of her time. The glass slide would have been used either as an advertisement in a cinema setting or as part of the educational training package for Berlei fitters.

Notes by Beth Taylor