Berlei

Sydney gave the world Berlei, a bra and corsetry brand. Frederick Richard Burley started the business in 1910 as Unique Corsets and registered the Berlei name in 1917; it became one of the first Australian companies to expand abroad, with subsidiaries in New Zealand and England. Today the Australian brand belongs to Hanes Australasia and sells bras and sports bras, while the separate British Berlei business went into liquidation in May 2026.

A surname made French

Fred Burley, born in 1885, wanted a name for corsets that did not sound like a Sydney tradesman. In his view, "Burley" spelled the usual way was not suited to fine foundations, so he respelled it to sound French, which in the corset trade of the 1910s meant Paris and quality. The respelled name outlived him by more than seventy years.

He was a public figure as well as a manufacturer. In 1923 he founded the Australia Made Preference League, a campaign to buy locally made goods, and served as its first president. For a corset maker competing with imports from Britain, France and America, the cause was not abstract.

Measuring Australian women

Berlei's most cited contribution to the history of underwear is a research project to classify Australian "figure types." The aim was to quantify the shapes of real Australian women instead of relying on a single idealized pattern. It was an early example of the sizing science that bra makers still argue about today, and it gave Berlei a selling story built on fit rather than fashion.

The project fits the era. In the 1920s the rigid corset was giving way to lighter corselettes, girdles and early bras, and a maker who understood the variety of real bodies could claim an edge in a market where garments were now expected to shape rather than constrict. Berlei's girdles were the forerunners of today's control briefs.

Across the Tasman and to Slough

Berlei was among the first Australian companies to expand abroad. It set up in New Zealand in 1923 and in the United Kingdom in 1930, starting there with forty staff. In 1937 it built a modern factory in Slough, west of London, and by 1961 the British company employed 702 people.

The British arm had a harder late century. It called in a receiver in November 1985 and was bought by Courtaulds Textiles. By then the Slough factory of 1937 was already gone, demolished in 1984.

Undercover

Burley died in 1954. His company's early years became the subject of a feature film, Undercover, produced by David Elfick and released in 1983, about the founding of Berlei and the life of its founder. Few lingerie brands have a feature film about their origins.

Berlei today

In Australia the brand is part of Hanes Australasia, the local business of the American group Hanesbrands. Its current range leans on named families: Barely There lightweight bras in A to E cups, Lift & Shape for D to G cups, the UnderState line, and the Electrify and Shift sports bras that have become a large part of its identity. Since 2004 Berlei has partnered with Breast Cancer Network Australia, a link the brand has kept for more than two decades.

Ownership above it has been moving fast. Gildan Activewear completed its purchase of Hanesbrands on December 1, 2025, and in July 2026 Gildan agreed to sell the Hanesbrands Australia business, home to Berlei and Bonds, to BB FIT Investments for about 490 million dollars.

The British story has a different ending. The UK Berlei website now carries a notice that the business ceased trading and entered liquidation on May 14, 2026. A name invented in Sydney to sound Parisian now survives as an Australian brand only, more than a century after Fred Burley respelled it.

Last updated October 28, 2026