Unhooked!

THE WONDERBRA HOOPLA of the mid-'90s was probably the biggest snow job ever pulled off on lingerie-hungry women. Even though its manufacturer Sara Lee (the corporation which brings you everything from pound cake to Coach leather products) convinced bustline-deficient women that it had invented the Last Word in boob inflation, the exact same bra had been on the market for 20 years. Furthermore, any bra company worth its salt had been selling push-ups years before the Wonderbra publicity fracas, replete with its arrival, in an armored truck, at Macy's in New York City.

According to Katie Kretschmer, editor of BFIA (Body Fashions/intimate apparel), a trade magazine for the intimate apparel industry, here's what really happened: A Canadian company called Canadelle actually invented the Wonderbra in the '60s. Sara Lee later bought Canadelle, and Canadelle then licensed the manufacture of the Wonderbra to Gossard, a firm in the UK. When that license expired, Sara Lee took it back and relaunched the Wonderbra as the first and last word in bust enhancement—even though our sisters to the north had been in the know for decades. But the notion of "lift and separate" is not as old as you might think. In fact, the bra is a 20th-century invention and a damned good example of the "necessity is the mother of invention" maxim. A quick lesson in fashion history helps explain why this item women take for granted was such a late bloomer.

1910: Corsets had long done the trick of pushing up the bustline from below, until fashion started to become less restrictive in the 1910s. As the hourglass and monobosom silhouettes lost favor, the corset became obsolete. The burning question then became: How does a gal fight gravity?

1920: For some, it wasn't much of an issue. By the early '20s the flapper look was in vogue. Women were adopting looks that diminished the differences between the sexes. Long hair was out and the bob was in. The bright young things actually wanted to flatten their busts. In order to squelch nature's inclination for outward expansion, they wore tight-fitting bandeaux, which were essentially strips of fabric, embellished with lace depending on the buyer's budget. (The Boy'sh Form Bandeau, for example, made no bones about its breast-banishing purpose.)

But some forward-thinking New Yorkers were having none of that. Enid Bissett and Ida Rosenthal were partners in an exclusive Manhattan dress shop. In 1922 Bissett believed that the boyish look was on its way out, and she wanted to create an undergarment that would allow dresses to fit better over a woman's bustline. She reshaped a bandeau so that it had two cups separated by a center piece of elastic. Rosenthal's husband William got in on the act (not how you'd think). He put some finishing touches on her creation, transforming it into an attractive garment shaped to support the breasts' natural contours. Voila! The first Maidenform brassiere.

These early bras lacked the seams and construction that shape and support in the manner to which women have become accustomed. They were made from relatively ethereal fabrics—silk chiffon, cotton net, and lace—that do little in the way of molding and shaping when compared to today's Lycra-enhanced fabrics.

The notion that a bra could provide uplift was not introduced until William Rosenthal (who, as president and chief designer of Maidenform for decades, was recognized as one of the bra industry's consistent design innovators) received a patent for the first seamed uplift brassiere in 1927. This novel garment featured a three-seamed cup, which created more uplift and definition to each breast.

1930: By the '30s the notion of two naturally separated breasts was the norm, and cotton, considered the far more supportive fabric, was commonplace. In 1935, the Warner Company introduced the cup system.

1940: The notion of uplift reached its zenith in the late 1940s with the introduction of a highly constructed bra, which has been dubbed the bullet bra, torpedo bra, cone bra, etc. You know, the spoked bra you find in vintage stores or in grandma's attic. Call it what you like, it created the bust silhouette from the late '40s and through much of the '60s.

Anyone who thinks bra design is simply a matter of prettily assembled laces and fabrics should take a look at the highly engineered design of a bullet bra. Due to its spokelike construction and reinforced rows of concentric lock stitching, this style produced the thoroughly artificial breast shape associated with the hubba-hubba stars of the period: Lana Turner, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe. No, their boobs really weren't that perky—it was the bra. Perhaps it's just coincidence, but consider the fact that this missile-like garment was designed and worn during the Cold War, creating an at-the-ready silhouette similar to the shape of a radome (otherwise known to civilians as the nose of a plane). The result: in your face sexuality, literally and otherwise. These breasts were impossible to ignore, declarations of highly stylized femininity, and most likely an extension of the period's fascination with the shapes and contours found on cars and planes.