IDA ROSENTHAL (1886-1973) founded The Maiden Form Brassiere Company with her husband, William Rosenthal. Their company was the largest, privately held intimate apparel business in the United States. With William as designer and technical innovator and Ida as business executive and ingenious promoter, their enduring partnership revolutionized the intimate apparel industry.

After immigrating from Russia, the Rosenthals settled first in Hoboken, New Jersey, and turned Ida's dressmaking talent into a bustling business. In 1918, they moved their company to Manhattan, where Ida's talent was soon discovered by Enid Bissett. She invited Ida to become a partner in Enid Frocks, an exclusive dress shop. This venture required Ida to forgo her loyal clientele and invest her life's savings, but the gamble paid off. Finding that the flat-chested, boyish look of the era did not reflect the true shape of their customers' womanly bodies, they designed an undergarment with two cups for the breasts separated by a piece of elastic and sewed it into their dresses. Customers loved the fit, and the company made a handsome profit. They named their brassiere Maiden Form to emphasize their rejection of the boyish style.

When Bissett left the company, the Rosenthals continued their unique collaboration and founded the

e Company in 1930. William introduced innovative brassiere designs while Ida drew on her business and advertising savvy to create a mass market for their product. They adapted the mass production methods of industry to the manufacture of intimate apparel, standardized bra sizes, pioneered full figure and nursing bras, and launched aggressive advertising campaigns. Their bold "I Dreamed" ad campaign coincided with women's postwar return to the home and capitalized on their yearnings for independence and achievement.

Maidenform ad, 1960s.

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Behring Center.