How Idochka from Minsk dressed American women in beautiful lingerie, and her husband invented a push-up
'06.02.2018'
Source: jewish.ru
They dressed women in bras: Ida Rosenthal came up with two cups of different sizes, her husband William - super push-up for breast augmentation. Together, they created a multi-billion dollar business from scratch in a workshop in Manhattan.
About how a fragile woman from scratch created a multi-billion dollar business and was able to save it even during World War II, releasing parachutes instead of bras, says Maria Kramm, a journalist jewish.ru.
Future business woman Ida Rosenthal was born on 9 on January 1886, in the small town of Rakov, not far from Minsk. The family lived on the income from the shop, which was kept by the mother of the family, Sarah Kaganovich, while her husband, Abraham, was studying Torah. Kaganovichi brought up her seven children in a strict Jewish tradition, but Ede was always crowded in her native shtetl, and in 16 years she went to Warsaw to learn sewing. In 1904, she met her future husband, William Rosenthal, who, like her, advocated political and social equality for women. Soon the couple joined the Bund Jewish Socialist Party and came to the attention of the local police. To avoid being drafted into the army and, as a result, participating in the Russian-Japanese war, Willie fled across the ocean, and soon his bride followed him. In 1906, the couple got married, and a year later their first child Lewis was born.
In order to support her family somehow, Ida bought a battered Singer sewing machine and started earning tailor-made clothes.
She took on the most sophisticated outfits and for ten years earned a reputation as a skillful and responsible seamstress. Forces were spent not in vain - in 1918, the family, which then already had two children, moved from Hoboken to New York.
Rosentali settled in Manhattan, where they lived much more solvent citizens, and at the beginning of 20's Ida got a job in the atelier Enid frocks in midtown. Her employer, Enid Bissett, treated the seamstress rather as a companion than as an ordinary worker, she discussed all the problems of the atelier with her and consulted on important issues.
At the beginning of the 20th century, dramatic changes took place in fashion - in Paris, the fashion house of the reformer Paul Poiret opened in 1903. Fashion designer proclaimed: "Down with the corsets!". And the ladies willingly agreed with him, removing from themselves a morally obsolete thing that had not gone out of fashion for five hundred years. Paul introduced the fashion for tunics, kimonos and dresses of a shirt cut, but, depriving the ladies of the corset, did not offer them anything in return.
As a result, the dresses created by the designer favorably emphasized everything, but not the chest. In 20-ies, in contrast to the pretentiousness of the Victorian era, androgyny came into fashion at all. Women who finally received the right to elect and be elected, work outside the home and study on a par with men, wanted to completely change their wardrobe.
The emancipated girls drove cars, listened to jazz, did not hesitate to smoke, and wore case-dresses, putting on underwear under them in the form of a slimming strip of fabric that made the chest flatter.
Despite the fact that the primitive ancestors of the bra existed in Europe and the United States at the end of the 19th century, Victoria would have no “secrets” if it were not for the efforts of Enid, Ida, and William. Entrepreneurs were not going to make a revolution in the world of underwear at all - the idea, which later brought them millions, came quite by accident.
Ida and Enid simply decided that underwear, which more resembles a towel, can in no way decorate the decollete area, and created the first bra with two cups. At first, the novelty was sold only together with the dresses, and the outfits were bought at the time, despite the impressive price.
When the queues began to line up behind the revolutionary product, Bisset suggested to William and Ida to become companions. In 1922, the three of them opened a company Enid Manufacturing Co., focusing on the production of bras. Oddly enough, ideas about improving this detail of the wardrobe promoted William.
It was he who suggested making cups of various sizes and marking them with letters of the Latin alphabet. And in the middle of 20's, William patented the shape of a special design that visually made the chest bigger.
While her husband was developing new models, Ida brilliantly performed the work of a manager. Advertising, communication with suppliers, revenue management - she was a born diplomat and financier. Thanks to the talents of the four Rosentali about the linen, which received the name Maidenform, soon learned thousands of women. At the same time, the companions opened the first bra shop in New Jersey, and William's sister proposed a brilliant idea at the time. According to her idea, one seamstress was supposed to make the backs of bras, the other - the straps, and the third - the cup. Of course, due to this, the production rate has increased several times.
Mark Maidenform over time, it became only more popular: the stories about it spread from mouth to mouth, and advertising sounded literally from each receiver. However, in 30, a black stripe began in the life of the Rosenthal: when the Great Depression began, Enid Bisset left the company, but most importantly, Ida and Willy lost their eldest child, the son of Lewis. However, they did not abandon the development of the company, and soon the demand for linen significantly exceeded the production capacity.
After leaving Bisset, only the spouses Rosenthal remained in the business, but he became truly family only in 1938, when her daughter began to help Ida and William with work. “I received the profession of a teacher, but in my heart I understood that I didn’t want to teach anyone,” Beatrice later told. “I have always admired my mother, because she was one of the few women who were engaged in business at that time.”
Ida wanted her daughter to study business from scratch, so she sent her to production, but the relationship with the sewing machine from the girl did not work out right away. Fortunately, the mother soon saw that Beatrice controls other people's processes much better than she sews herself, and transferred her to the advertising department.
But if the 30s were a time of positive change for the company, then in the 40s, Rosenthal had a hard time - as soon as the United States entered the war, sales began to fall. That is why in wartime under the brand Maidenform not elegant bras were produced, but parachutes and special mini-vests for pigeons. These were a kind of "pockets" that allowed soldiers to parachute along with trained birds, and after landing behind enemy lines, send information to the headquarters with pigeons. But despite the fact that Rosenthal didn’t have time for lace and satin, they still didn’t stop improving their main product.
In 1942, Ida patented a clasp with hooks and eyelets on her back, and a little later she and her husband developed a bra model for nursing mothers. Largely due to these innovations immediately after the end of the war Maidenform regained the status of the main company for the production of underwear.
But the real explosion of the brand’s popularity occurred in 1949, after the launch of the “I Dreamed ...” advertising campaign, the heroines of which saw themselves in various roles, but always in bra Maidenform. Then the famous hit chansonettealso known as "bullet bra". It became the best-selling model in the world — over the next 30 years, they bought a bullet more than 90 a million times.
At the company, everything was stable until William died - in 1958, Ida, who was then in 70, had to take the presidency Maidenform. Soon she gave up this place to her son-in-law, but she still continued to work: in 1963, Mrs. Rosenthal flew to Moscow and studied Soviet light industry for almost a month. Subsequently, Ida told American reporters that women in the USSR still wear bras, which in the United States stopped selling before the war.
In 1966, Ida suffered a stroke, after which she completely retired, and 28 in March, 1973, was gone. Beatrice, who in those years lost not only her mother, but also her husband, showed an iron character: she continued to develop new products and devoted herself entirely to work. Considering her family as living proof that a good idea can bring millions, she always advised women not to be afraid to start a business, as her mother was not afraid to do. “If you want to start your own business, start right now,” Beatrice explained. “We are all born as entrepreneurs, scientists, people of art — the only question is who we allow ourselves to be according to fate.”
