User:Mattnad/wonderbra draft

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The Wonderbra is best known in the United States as a push-up brassiere ("bra") style re-introduced to the U.S. market in 1994. The name has a much longer history with multiple uses and contexts. This article will explain the origins of the "Wonder-Bra" trademark in 1935, the development of the "Wonderbra" brand from the 1950s to 1980, and the origin of the particular push-up, plunge style known as "The Wonderbra" that became famous in the 1990s.


Overview[edit]

A Canadian Wonderbra branded plunge, push-up bra - c. 1975

Although most Americans recall “The Wonderbra” as the push-up plunge bra that debuted in 1994, Wonderbra actually has a long and distinguished international history that dates back to 1935 when Israel Pilot first used the name in the U.S. [3]. Pilot patented the first commercial "Wonder-Bra" design in 1939-1940. Pilot’s patent innovation, called the “diagonal slash,” permitted greater stretching without the need for elastics. Also in 1939, Moses (Moe) Nadler, founding President and principle owner of the Canadian Lady Corset Company (Canadian Lady), originally licensed the Wonder-Bra trademark and patent for the Canadian market. Moe and his son later acquired the worldwide rights to the brand. Over the following 30 years in Canada, the original Wonder-Bra grew into a leading brand of women’s undergarments.

By the 1960s Canadian Lady became best known by consumers, the apparel trades, and the media as Wonderbra, the company. The 1960s also brought to Canadian Lady the challenges of feminism, miniskirts and the sexual revolution. In those years, women started rejecting societal constraints which included highly structured undergarments like girdles. Canadian Lady adapted with sexier bra designs that emphasized natural shapes. Instead of being hidden as “unmentionables,” Wonderbras became more visible icons of female sex-appeal. In 1961, as part of this evolution Louise Poirier designed the Model 1300 plunge push-up bra under the close direction of Moe Nadler. This bra became one of the best-selling models for the Canadian company and is virtually identical to today's "The Wonderbra".

In 1964, Moe Nadler died, and his son Lawrence (Larry) Nadler inherited majority control of the company.[1] In 1968 Canadian Lady changed its name to Canadelle Ltd. and was sold to Consolidated Foods (now Sara Lee Corporation). From 1969 to 1980, Larry Nadler ran Wonderbra as its president & CEO. Larry Nadler was a Harvard trained MBA and brought modern marketing strategies and tactics to an age old industry.[2] Not only did Wonderbra become the leading intimate apparel brand in Canada, it was also one of the most profitable. By 1980, sales exceeded $30 Million (up from $12.6 Million in 1972).[3]

In 1991, the push-up model of Wonderbra became a pop-sensation in the U.K. It had been sold there under license by the Gossard division of Courtald's Textiles, and had been a steady seller among their line of other Wonderbra-branded apparel. Then sales took off. A Gossard spokeswoman attributed the sales growth to a change in fashion towards a more voluptuous look and a favorable article in British Vogue. Sara Lee Corporation decided not to renew the license to Gossard. Sara Lee instead took a year to redesign the bra (which was still being made and sold in Canada) before the 1994 US launch.[4]

Since 1994, the US Wonderbra has expanded from the single push-up design into a brand with many models of bras and panties. Unlike the 1970s Canadian branding which emphasized fashion, romance, and sex-appeal, the U.S. brand now stresses the functional push-up qualities of the bras. In 2006, Sara Lee spun off intimate apparel subsidiaries. Now Wonderbra is controlled in the U.S. by HanesBrands Corp. out of Salem, Massachusetts, and in Europe by Dim (owned by Sun Capital).

Original “Wonder-Bra” Design[edit]

Before the Second World War broke out, elastic materials were rationed and unavailable for clothing. Israel Pilot designed an improved cup with a diagonal slash, shoulder strap attachment. This innovation provided more comfort and freedom of movement for the wearer. He also coined the "Wonder-Bra" trademark in 1935.

Israel Pilot's 1941 US Patent #2245413 [4] allowed for greater shoulder strap elasticity by cutting the fabric on the bias. The photographs show the original patent sketches and close-ups of a bra made in the US by D’Amour. The model is wearing a rare 1950s version of this original Wonder-Bra design.


Original 1941 Patent 1950 "Wonder-Bra" Diagonal Slash / Label

Canadian Corporate History: 1939 - 1980[edit]

File:Canadian-Lady-Logo.jpg
Canadian Lady Logo - c. 1964

In 1939, Moe Nadler founded the Canadian Lady Corset Company. He created a small sewing shop in the heart of Montreal to make a well-fitting, good quality bra in the mid-priced range (from $1.00 to $1.50 retail). As part of this effort, he traveled to New York and met with Israel Pilot and licensed the Wonder-Bra trademark and diagonal slash patent. [5]

During the wartime years, Canadian apparel manufacturers were subject to quotas on materials. Elastics were unavailable which affected the comfort and design of women's underwear. The diagonal slash offered a better fitting brassiere without elastics, and became a competitive advantage. [6]

From 1939 to 1955, Canadian Lady marketed several lines of intimate apparel including girdles, corsets, slips, swimsuits, pantyhose and brassieres under the Wonderbra brand. The Company also created sub-brands to target different socioeconomic & lifestyle segments of the consumer market. In contrast, the U.S. market for Wonder-Bra stagnated while the brand was owned by Israel Pilot’s companies. In 1952, Canadian Lady launched Petal Burst with anticipation of tough negotiations with D'Amour — Israel Pilot's U.S. company — around the expiration of the patent in 1955. This new line also adapted to a new fashion trend towards a pointed bust, inspired by Christian Dior's "New Look". The Petal Burst by Wonderbra line was successful and delivered 50% of bra sales by 1957. [7]

The post-patent negotiations were lead by Moe Nadler. D'Amour no longer had leverage with a patent, but still made demands that Canadian Lady stop using the designs, and return the pattern templates to them. Moe Nadler ignored this demand and instead successfully acquired the Canadian, European, and Asian rights to the Wonderbra trademarks. This allowed the company to move forward into the 1960s with the brand intact. By the mid 1960s Canadian Lady was exporting and licensing the Wonderbra line to Western Europe, Australia, South Africa, Israel and the West Indies. [8] In the 1970s, Canadelle acquired the remaining worldwide rights to the trademark.

Development of the Push-Up Bra: 1960 - 1961[edit]

In the late 1950s Moe Nadler started taking trips to Europe find new styles and bring them to the Canadian market. In 1960, Wonderbra introduced a lacy half push-up bra described in Europe as "Pigeonnant" (meaning pigeon-breasted in French). In 1961 Nadler directed Louise Poirier to develop a deeply plunged, laced push-up design, numbered the 1300. Under the Wonderbra brand, this bra became the most popular style for years in Canada. Canadian Lady licensed these models, among others, to Gossard in 1964. It was this Wonderbra style 1300 design that became first a U.K. success in the 1990s, a European sensation in 1993, and then the "One and Only Wonderbra" that was finally launched in the U.S. in 1994.

Canadian Product Innovation: 1964 - 1980[edit]

Source: Canadian government industry statistics. N.B., during the period sales figures were compiled by Industry Canada, panties were considered "lingerie," rather than so-called "foundation undergarments" and are not part of this data set.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the majority of women were still wearing highly structured undergarments. Girdles were considered the ladylike norm and represented close to 40% of industry sales by volume. Yet there were changes happening in society that would affect the intimate apparel business. One important force was the feminist movement — cultured by thought leaders like Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer — that questioned the mores that defined women’s roles and appearance. Other factors were changes in fashion trends; pantyhose and the rise of the miniskirt rendered the girdle unattractive and obsolete to a generation of women.[9] While the intimate apparel industry fretted about bra-burning as a precursor to the decline of all foundation garment sales, women reserved their animosity for their girdles. The Canadian 10-year sales data for foundation undergarments, from 1960 to 1971, vividly demonstrates the shift in tastes.

It was against this backdrop that the Canadian Lady Corset Company had to act. In 1964, Moe Nadler passed away and his son, Larry Nadler inherited control of the company. Larry Nadler had formal business training and applied it to better understanding the social dynamics affecting women's perception of undergarments. He commissioned market research that identified women's feelings about intimate apparel. Women did not hate their bras. Rather, they saw bras as a means to feel and look beautiful, to be fashionable and sexy, and to attract men. While women sometimes went bra-less, they were making a fashion choice and not a political statement. Canadian Lady's management knew that girdles were out, but bras would remain an essential part of women's wardrobes. So during the 1960s, while competitors were cutting back on their bra marketing and diversifying into other products, Canadian Lady aggressively pursued bra market-share.[10]

Later, Larry Nadler identified an age-based bifurcation in the market. Younger women (aged 15-20) regarded their bras as an enhancement to their sexuality but were not interested in a heavily structured garment. Nadler learned that women wanted 'less bra', not 'no bra.' In 1974, they introduced a new line of brassieres for teens called Dici (by Wonderbra), and invented new hot fabric molding technologies to shape the cup. These bras were seamless and simply designed with less support than the typical bra of the period. The company designed special packaging in the shape of a dice (with holes). [11][12]

Canadian Advertising: 1966 - 1979[edit]

In 1966, Canadian Lady made several important changes to their advertising strategy. They introduced television advertising and changed the emphasis from the product to the brand. Ads attempted to build consumer awareness of the single brand name: Wonderbra. Market research showed that women did not want girdles advertised on television — girdles were seen as armor against sex, while bras provided a means of attraction.

Our Montreal office got the Wonderbra account. This was a Canadian company which held down the Number Two position in women's garmentwear. One of our copywriters came up with the line: "We care about the shape you're in." Larry Nadler, who headed the family business, was a risk-taker. He loved the line and so did we. We had it set to music and prepared a television campaign around it. The CBC turned it down, not because of the line, but because we had the audacity to show a woman in a bra. CTV had no such qualms, which proves how arbitrary the world can be. Eventually, the CBC recanted [sic] and ran the campaign. .... The result of the campaign - not just in TV, but other media as well - moved Wonderbra into a solid, first-place position in its field.[13]

—Gerry Goodis, former CEO, Goodis Advertising

The company also used pricing to promote Wonderbra as a luxury product with the highest price of any mass-merchandized brand. This strategy also provided greater profits in a very competitive industry. The goal was to have women see their Wonderbras as a cosmetic — a beauty enhancer — rather than a functional garment. Playtex, the leading brand at the time, promoted the ease of care and durability of their girdles and brassieres.

Beginning in 1967, the advertising focused exclusively on Wonderbra brand brassieres.[14] In 1968, Nadler hired Goodis Advertising to develop the new campaign. The Wonderbra ads were based on fashion and emotional appeal. The ads were revolutionary for North America in that they included a man. In various ads, the man would appear as fashion photographer (in a fashion shoot) or fashion buyer (at a fashion show). The story-line suggested an attraction or budding romance between the man and the women. The voiceover and jingle featured a man's voice and the commercial showed an actual woman's torso naked except for a bra. All other television ads before this era showed brassieres on a manikin or a dressmaker's dummy to promote the functional features of the product. Every Wonderbra advertisement contained versions of the musical theme - "We care about the shape you're in. Wonderful, wonderful, Wonderbra". The 1979 television campaign included a commercial directed by Richard Avedon which won a silver award for best commercials shown in Canada.

The Dici by Wonderbra television advertisements started in 1974. The brand was positioned to young women as a more natural alternative to the heavily structured bras worn by their mothers. The animated ads featured the iconographic dice shaped packaging. A bra exited the box like a bird, then metamorphosed into a dove and flew away. The tag-line reinforced a spirit of freedom and nature: "Let it be Dici. Dici or nothing."

Canadian Business Performance[edit]

From 1972 to 1977, the company doubled its wholesale revenue from $12.6 million to $24.9 million.[15] By 1979 Canadelle dominated with 30% of the Canadian market and $27 Million in sales. Playtex (later acquired by Sara Lee) was second. [16] By 1980, Wonderbra's sales were over $30 Million wholesale ($76 Million in 2006 dollars) in a country with only 10.3 million women and girls older than 13.

Reintroduction to U.S. Market: 1991 - 1994[edit]

"I've got a couple of those Gossard Wonderbras," said Kate Moss in an interview in the January Vanity Fair. "They are so brilliant, I swear, even I get cleavage with them."[17]

— Kate Moss, 1994 quote from New York Times

Around 1991, Gossard was selling the Wonderbra lines under licenses that were to expire in January 1994. At the time, the plunge style model was a good seller in the U.K. market. Gossard planned to renew their license and had an option to do so under the existing agreement. Instead of simply renewing the agreement, Gossard executives decided to negotiate better terms with Sara Lee.

Soon after the negotiations started, something unexpected happened. In 1992, the plunge style became a hit with British women and sales took off. Between 1991 to 1993, U.K. sales of that Wonderbra style quadrupled to $28 million, accounting for 12.5% of the $225 million U.K. branded bra market. Several factors might have contributed to this boom including "an article in British Vogue on the return of the padded bra, a Vivienne Westwood-inspired fad for corsetry and that Gaultier driven yearning for underwear as outerwear."[18] With this surge in sales, Sara Lee decided not to renew the license with Gossard.

The Playtex Division of Sara Lee was given the responsibility of introducing the "The Wonderbra" style to the United States. Although the model was already being manufactured in Montreal by Canadelle, Playtex executives decided to take a year to redesign the bra for the U.S. market. They scheduled a late 1994 national launch for the bra. During this period, Gossard introduced to Americans their Ultrabra, with a design similar to the push-up Wonderbra model.[19][20] Other competitors, including Victoria Secret's Miracle Bra quickly followed while Playtex retooled the design.

The U.S. Wonderbra rollout included events with Supermodel Eva Herzigova in New York's Times Square. The U.S. print and billboard advertising showed models wearing only the Wonderbra. Underneath read slogans such as "who cares if it's a bad hair day" and "look me in the eyes and tell me that you love me."[21] The $25 Million campaign worked in conjunction to the ongoing media interest in the bra. Although Playtex promoted the authenticity of their "One and Only Wonderbra", the rapid introduction of competitive products meant that the overall U.S. market benefitted from a 43% increase in push-up bra sales by the end of 1994.[22]

In the U.K., the (Sara Lee) Wonderbra achieved a huge profile for its racy Hello Boys campaign - a series of outdoor ads, showing women modeling Wonderbras, with the eponymous caption. Urban myth attributed a number of car accidents to (male) drivers being distracted by the advertisements.

The U.S. Wonderbra advertising campaign also generated mild controversy for the objectification of women's breasts. Ultimately, this narrow focus on breast enhancement meant that the American introduction of The Wonderbra would become a fashion accessory for woman among their broader arsenal of clothing. Since the 1994 re-launch, and an absence of continued advertising support, the line has gradually faded from the public consciousness.

Popular Culture[edit]

In the United States, the debut of the Wonderbra garnered a large amount of attention. It has become a pop culture icon, as it has been referenced in late-night TV monologues, and it is even in songs like Rammstein's "Amerika":[image caption]

We're all living in Amerika
Coca Cola, Wonderbra!
We're all living in Amerika
Amerika, Amerika!

Wonderbra women[edit]

Since its inception in 1994, there have been Wonderbra Women chosen to be its spokes-model.

Current Licensing Structure[edit]

The Wonderbra trademark is the property of Canadelle Limited Partnership of Canada, which (since September 2006) is a wholly owned subsidiary of HanesBrands Inc. HanesBrands Inc. owns the license to sell and distribute apparel products under the Wonderbra trademark in all countries other than in the member states of the European Union, as well as several other European nations and South Africa -- in these places, Sun Capital Partners owns the license.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Thomas, Sheila, The Montreal Gazette, "Nadler: leading 'corsettiere' (he makes bras)", December 20, 1972
  2. ^ Wilson, Robert, The Montreal Star, "Sales are shapely", November 6, 1972
  3. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, “Researching the Formation of Strategies: The History of Canadian Lady, 1939 - 1976” (with James Waters), in R.B. Lamb (ed.) Competitive Strategic Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1984), p.76 ISBN 0131549723
  4. ^ Bowes, Elana, Ad Age, "Playtex, Gossard gird themselves for battle of bras", October 11, 1993
  5. ^ Style - for the Canadian Women's and Children's wear trade, "Diagonal Slash Feature of Brassiere's Design", July 20, 1964 p. 37
  6. ^ Style - for the Canadian Women's and Children's wear trade, "Diagonal Slash Feature of Brassiere's Design", July 20, 1964 p. 37
  7. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, “Researching the Formation of Strategies: The History of Canadian Lady, 1939 - 1976” (with James Waters), in R.B. Lamb (ed.) Competitive Strategic Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1984), p.66 ISBN 0131549723
  8. ^ Style - for the Canadian Women's and Children's wear trade, "Export Trade Grows", July 20, 1964 p. 37
  9. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, Mintzberg on Management, (New York: McMillan Inc., 1989), p. 126 ISBN 0029213711
  10. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, Mintzberg on Management, (New York: McMillan Inc., 1989), p. 127 ISBN 0029213711
  11. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, Mintzberg on Management, (New York: McMillan Inc., 1989), p. 127 ISBN 0131549723
  12. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, “Researching the Formation of Strategies: The History of Canadian Lady, 1939 - 1976” (with James Waters), in R.B. Lamb (ed.) Competitive Strategic Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1984), p.67 ISBN 0131549723
  13. ^ Goodis, Gerry, (with Gene Okeefe) Goodis: Shaking the Canadian Advertising Tree, (Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1991), pp. 163 - 164, ISBN 155041013X
  14. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, “Researching the Formation of Strategies: The History of Canadian Lady, 1939 - 1976” (with James Waters), in R.B. Lamb (ed.) Competitive Strategic Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1984), p.70 ISBN 0131549723
  15. ^ Mintzberg, Henry, “Researching the Formation of Strategies: The History of Canadian Lady, 1939 - 1976” (with James Waters), in R.B. Lamb (ed.) Competitive Strategic Management (New York: Prentice Hall, 1984), p.76 ISBN 0131549723
  16. ^ Gray, Alan D., Financial Times of Canada, "Bra makers back from the brink", September 3, 1979
  17. ^ Prager, Emily, New York Times, "Underwire Wars," January 16, 1994
  18. ^ Bowes, Elana, Ad Age, "Playtex, Gossard gird themselves for battle of bras", October 11, 1993
  19. ^ Bowes, Elana, Ad Age, "Playtex, Gossard gird themselves for battle of bras", October 11, 1993
  20. ^ Prager, Emily, New York Times, "Underwire Wars," January 16, 1994
  21. ^ Moberg, Matthew et al, "Sara Lee: Wonderbra", University of Michigan Case Study, (University of Michigan, 1999)[1]
  22. ^ Moberg, Matthew et al, "Sara Lee: Wonderbra", University of Michigan Case Study, (University of Michigan, 1999)[2]

External links[edit]

  • Official Wonderbra website: [5]
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