Axfords is a unique company, which mixes Victorian traditions with modern technology . They are a privately owned family business established in 1880. They had moved to their present factory in the centre of Brighton (on England's south coast) 40 years ago. The owner is Michael Hammond and he took over as owner from his mother Jean 15 years ago.
Axfords pride themselves on the quality of their garments, high standard of customer care and the speed of their delivery. All corsets are made in their factory. Unlike most modern garments whose parts are made by different machinists and then sewn together at the end, each corset is crafted from start to finish by one of their highly skilled corsetieres.
 | These are the main parts that make up a corset. Material, steel boning, steel busk, and lace reinforements. Steel boning had replaced whale bone at the turn of the century. |
 | The steel boning are stored in compartments in their respective sizes. |
 | The material is cut from original templates and stored for future production runs. Each set of material are cut from one dye lot and never mixed. Extra material is stored in case one part has a flaw. Suede and leather are cut from skins and hand inspected to ensure each piece is flawless. This results in more waste thus increases the price. |
 | The material is then sent up to the sewing room, where each corset is hand made. |
 | One person is responsible for producing a complete corset. The garment is never passed amongst other corsetieres. If there is a problem with a garment, the person who produced the garment is solely responsible for the end result. It takes roughly a day to produce one corset. |
 | Here is a sewing machine used by a lady who has been sewing for Axfords for over 40 years. She does not want a new machine. |
 | Once the garment is produced, it is sent to the eyelet punch. Only one person is responsible for punching the lace holes and inserting the grommets. It has been done this way for over a century. |
 | Laces are stored according to length and then strung through the finished corset by hand. |
