Herstory

"Bras must give her physical and emotional comfort to fit her life. For as we are seeing in these fittings, full-figured women have special concerns about bras fitting their lives. Just a few weeks ago, in bra fittings in New Orleans for example, we learned more about why full-figured or BBW women search high and low for bras that really fit. A beautician doesn't want to fall out of her bra while working at the sink, washing hair. A woman working on Wall Street told us how she needs a bra to "contain her" to avoid problems with male co-workers.

...This is what I mean about bras fitting lives. The comfort is more than physical, but emotional as well.

But the physical support of a bra cannot be overlooked.

So many women -- women I've met and seen -- have bras which show physical strain and pain! There are red marks beneath the bust from where the bra has been cutting into them. Indentations and red marks from bra straps. Backs and shoulders are hurting; headaches too. This is not necessary!

A properly fitting bra supports a woman, smooths the back so there is no flesh over the bra back or "wings" over straps. There are no marks left. And it will not hurt. Yes, with a larger bosom there are extra challenges to engineer bras to carry so much weight. But at Curvy Couture we love challenges!"

The most significant innovation in lace since John Leaver and Joseph Jacquard developed the two machines which would be called the Leaver's Lace Loom, giving the world Leavers Lace.

Creating molded lace was no small thing to do either.

It took the combined efforts of Empreinte, a German moulding expert, and a Swiss embroiderer 18 months and 40 prototypes to create the technology to design a seamless cup of molded guipure lace.

We love this 1950s bullet bra ad from Formfit - "For a Sweetheart of a Figure".

The Formfit Company was established in 1917 with headquarters in Chicago as a maker of women’s “foundation garments” – mainly corsets and girdles.

It was one of the largest, if not the largest manufacturers of such products in the world. At their Chicago headquarters they had a building a block long and eight stories high which housed manufacturing, shipping and sales.

Later they also became known for other types of lingerie, particularly bras and briefs.