Push Up Bras

The first bra was created in 1914 by a New York debutante preparing for a dance. With the help of a maid, she strung two handkerchiefs together with pink ribbon and fitted herself with the first bra. Since then, the bra has evolved as women and their self-perceptions have changed.

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, women in the U.S. primarily stayed at home to focus on raising the children. Well-rounded figures were popular, and fashion focused on the traditional hourglass female shape personified by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield. Frederick's of Hollywood, a specialty retail operating chain of women's intimate apparel throughout the U.S., introduced the first push-up bra, the Rising Sun, in 1948.

Once called padded bras this is the category that the world famous Wonderbra falls under. These bras lift the breasts and add shape them with extra padding. Some more innovative push up bras use silicone inserts or water sacks to imitate the fullness of a natural breast. They are said to "lift and seperate" creating a full cleavage look on breasts of all sizes. These bras always offer lots of support and the more expensive ones are fully adjustable.

Introduced to the American public in May 1994, the Wonderbra, with a suggested retail price of $26, began selling at a rate of one every 15 seconds, and stores could not keep the bras on their racks. First year sales for the Wonderbra were approximated at $120 million, making it one of Sara Lee's top 30 selling products. Women lined up outside store doors in order to buy the coveted bra, and by year's end, the Wonderbra had grown from a mere lingerie item into a "vital fashion accessory and cultural icon." The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) honoured Wonderbra "for creating a phenomenon never before experienced in the industry." Ethel Klein, president of EDK Associates, a New York-based marketing firm specializing in women's fashion, stated, "Wonderbra has become sort of like Kleenex, in that it's the product name that defines the category. It's the brand name associated with the product." John Dixey, the British managing director of Playtex (division of Sara Lee and marketer of the Wonderbra), commented, "the Wonderbra has made it into the Collin's Dictionary. It has become an icon which is just as powerful as Levi's jeans." By the end of 1994, the Wonderbra was named one of Fortune's products of the year and was recognized by several other magazines including Advertising Age and U.S. News and World Report.

The Wonderbra itself was first designed in the 1960s but it wasn’t until the launch of the ‘Hello Boys…’ billboard campaign in 1994 with model Eva Herzigova that it took off in sales. The sum of more than 34 separate working parts, the Wonderbra can make the cleavage look deeper through adjusting straps while also making the breasts look fuller through the specially designed padded cup.

Dubbed ‘sensational’ by women the Wonderbra has come to signify the standard by which other push-up bras are measured by.