It was in 1914 that Mary Phelps Jacob set women free—from the prison of the corset. With a little help from her lady’s maid, this ingenious New York socialite stitched together two handkerchiefs and a long pink ribbon to fashion the world’s first-ever brassiere. (Jacob later sold her patent for $1,500—to a company that went on to make $15 million off her invention.) The rest, as they say, is history—a history that’s amply, titillatingly documented by designer Cheree Berry in Hoorah for the Bra.
The 20s’ flat-chested flappers, the 50s’ bullet-bosomed bombshells, the eye-gouging cones of Madonna’s Blonde Ambition–tour bustier: this provocative pop-up book reveals it all. Hoorah for the Bra tells a tale that doesn’t sag and presents a cast of characters—mail-order moguls, brassiere-torching women’s-libbers, sweater-clad movie stars—who never let you down!
