Exquisite Form is an American
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials ...
brand for women's intimates, particularly
bra
A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment that is primarily used to support and cover breasts. It can serve a range of other practical and aesthetic purposes, including enhancing or reducing the appe ...
s and
shapewear
Kim Kardashian in Shapewear-dress
A foundation garment (also known as shapewear or shaping underwear) is an undergarment designed to impermanently alter the wearer's body shape, to achieve what some view as a more fashionable figure. The func ...
for
full-figured women. The brand is owned by Vanity Fair Brands, a division of
Fruit of the Loom
Fruit of the Loom is an American company that manufactures clothing, particularly casual wear and underwear. The company's world headquarters is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Since 2002 it has been a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
Products manu ...
.
The brand began in 1945 with the founding of Exquisite Form Industries Inc. in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. Its principal products at the time were brassieres, garter belts and girdles.
History
The company was founded in 1945 in New York City. It was founded with the help of its head designer Lillian Hunau, who also had a special wiring and bust shaping patent which began featuring in bras the following year. 1945 was also the year Exquisite Form became one of the first major brassiere companies to advertise in
Ebony Magazine
''Ebony'' is a monthly magazine that focuses on news, culture, and entertainment. Its target audience is the African-American community, and its coverage includes the lifestyles and accomplishments of influential black people, fashion, beauty, an ...
.
With the growth in business came growth in marketing. By the end of the 1950s, Exquisite Form's advertising budget grew to over $2 million for television advertising. By 1959, the company was doing product placement in movies with a multimillion-dollar campaign for the movie
Happy Anniversary.
Rudi Gernreich and the "No Bra"
Austrian-born American fashion designer
Rudi Gernreich
Rudolf "Rudi" Gernreich (August 8, 1922 April 21, 1985) was an Austrian-born American fashion designer whose avant-garde clothing designs are generally regarded as the most innovative and dynamic fashion of the 1960s. He purposefully used fashio ...
preferred that his designs should be worn braless. In October 1964, Gernreich collaborated with Exquisite Form to create "No Bra". The
bra
A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment that is primarily used to support and cover breasts. It can serve a range of other practical and aesthetic purposes, including enhancing or reducing the appe ...
was made of sheer fabric without underwires or lining of any kind. Unlike contemporary bras, his design allowed breasts to assume their natural shape, rather than being molded into an aesthetic ideal.
It was a soft-cup, light-weight, seamless, sheer nylon tricot and elastic bra only available for small-breasted women. It came in three sheer colors: powder puff, black, and white, and in sizes 32 to 36, A and B cups. It had a single hook in the back.
The No Bra was a big departure from the sculpted, bullet-shaped bosom of the previous decade. It was quite similar to the original bra of the 1920s and like the first modern bra invented by
Mary Phelps Jacob
Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the first recipient of a patent for the modern bra, an American patron of the arts, publisher, and the "literary godmother to the Lost Generation of expatriate wri ...
, two handkerchiefs attached to a band and tied around the chest. Gernreich's no-bra was little more than that. Both the 1920s and the 1960s celebrated the stick-like figure of adolescence, and with that meant small, flat breasts.
His minimalist bra revolutionized brassiere design, initiating a trend toward more natural shapes and soft, sheer fabrics.
The retail success of the No Bra was followed in 1965 with the next design, a "no-side" bra to accommodate dresses with deep armholes. It had a narrow stretch band around the torso that allowed women to wear open-sleeved garments without displaying a bra band. The sheer cups were cut part of the bias and part of the half-bias. He also produced a "No Front"
maillot
The maillot (; ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 3rd Ed. (2003)) is the fashion designer's name for a woman's one-piece swimsuit, also called a tank suit. A maillot swimsuit generally consists of a tank-style torso top with high-cut legs. However, ...
design with a deep, plunging front for slit-to-the-waist necklines, and a "No-Back" long-line version that was anchored using contoured stretch-waistband that allowed a woman to wear a backless dress.
Fully Product Line
In 1970, Exquisite Form registered and launched their trademark "Fully" line of bras, focusing the brand on more full-figured products.
Acquisitions
Bestform Group
In 1996, following bankruptcy of Exquisite Form Industries, the Bestform Group purchased the Exquisite Form label.
VF Corporation
In 1998,
VF corporation
VF Corporation (formerly Vanity Fair Mills until 1969) is an American global apparel and footwear company founded in 1899 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The company's 13 brands are organized into three categories: Outdoor, Active and Wor ...
bought the Bestform Group, including the Bestform, Exquisite From and Lily of France brands. This bolstered their portfolio of intimates brands that, at the time, consisted of only Vanity Fair and
Vassarette
Vassarette is a brand of women's underwear owned by Vanity Fair Brands, a division of Fruit of the Loom. Until 2010 the brand was owned by the Northwestern Knitting Company, which became Munsingwear. Their lines include brassiere, bras, Hosiery, ...
.
Fruit of the Loom
In 2007, in a cash deal valued at $350 million, Fruit of the Loom purchased the entire Vanity Fair Brands intimate apparel division from VF Corporation.
References
External links
*
{{Berkshire Hathaway
Clothing companies established in 1945
Lingerie brands
1945 establishments in New York City
Berkshire Hathaway