No-one who has ever stayed in a British hotel can surely be unaware of the Corby trouser press. I do wonder if there are any other manufacturers apart from Corby who make trouser presses. The three words are synonymous.

The Company

The company of course still specialises in the manufacture of Corby trouser presses and they have now added ironing centres to their portfolio - that's a corby trouser press with an iron and board attached - a brilliant addition to a large hotel room. They also have a fairly wide range of guest amenity products for hotels - things like bathrobes, shower curtains, hospitality trays, hairdryers etc - many of the extras you expect to find in nice hotels.

The Trouser Press Concept

If you wear a suit every day it is great. As a girly, who doesn't therefore always wear a trouser suit, I still love them, for casual trousers and straight skirts too - they can go in flat and the press will remove those crease lines across the top of the thigh that sometimes appear from sitting. In hotel I sometime pop teeshirts in and other things that look a bit sad after they have been in a case - basically anything you can't be bothered to iron, but would like a bit better looking!

The four models range in price from around £79 for the basic model, to £200 for the top of the range "Statesman" model which is elegant in real wood veneer. Actually of the four of them I do think this 7700 is the best buy. It is not much more expensive than the basic model, at £109, but has three timer settings 15mins, 30 mins or 45mins. It is the only one of the four they sell to have a 45min setting, and I find I use that, as 30 is not always enough for stubborn creases, though of course you can always press the button for the second time on the 30 min setting if your trousers are not quite perfect.

This model also comes in a wide range of colours, so you can have something that tones in with your bedroom or hotel room. Whilst trouser presses are useful they are not exactly beautiful, but they do look better toned in. You can have pine, black ash, beech, chrome, mahogany, walnut, white, maple or oak EFFECT. The Statesman is the one that looks loads better as it is actual wood, but it is twice the price, so you'd have to care a lot!

Most of us, whilst using a Corby in a hotel, might not think about having one at home, but if you wear a suit every day, and only have three or four suits to rotate round, as is the case with many men, then one of these at home will stop you needing to iron your trousers often and make them shiny, or dry clean more than you need to just because your clothes are creased, rather than not very clean.