Tag Archives: bullet bra

Recently, the Miss Teen USA pageant has been in the news for removing the swimsuit segment of its competition. This makes sense – seeing as the pageant is put on in order to award scholarship money to prospective students, and is for girls aged 14-19!

The swimsuit round of beauty pageants has been an intrinsic element of each event since their inception almost one hundred years ago in 1921, when the first Miss America pageant was held and advertised as a ‘bathers revue.’

The Miss America contest has always been upheld as a celebration of female empowerment and sisterhood, which seems baffling today when women are more likely to feel empowered by education and progressive values than what they look like in a garter belt. During the 1950’s however, pageants and the “Miss…” title were used to advertise products and concepts from National Hot Dog Week to the atomic bomb.

Atomic bomb, you might exclaim! I promise I’m not making this up. Nevada was keen to emphasise its modernity and advances in the nuclear arena during the 1950’s, and so Miss Atomic Bomb was born – combining two of the state’s calling cards – nuclear bombs and showgirls - because what doesn’t say “take a trip to Vegas” like atomic warfare and scantily clad females?!

There were countless seemingly bizarre efforts to cash in on the ‘sex sells’ bonanza; such as the 1954 Miss Magic Marker pageant, 1968’s celebration of librarians – Miss Archive, 1935’s illustrious Miss Idaho Potato, the West Side Fur Company’s 1960 Mink Queen contest and Miss National Catfish Queen of 1954.

All of these pageants had the same basic attributes in common – young female hopefuls, some thinly disguised product placement, and a heavy focus on strutting the stage in little more than underwear.

Zion Meat Company’s infamous Sausage Queen pageant in 1955 was held to celebrate National Hot Dog Week. Geene Courtney won the contest, and had the honour of being strung with raw sausages arranged artfully around her girdle. In a similar vein was the 1952 Frankfurter Queen – sponsored by the Hebrew National!

Occasionally pageants aimed to further an idea or promote a concept, as opposed to simply marketing sausages or fur pelts. Miss Psywar was one such pageant. Psywar, or psychological warfare, was not a new concept. The wartime efforts of the 1940’s needed not only covert psy-ops in order to beleaguer enemies, but also some good old fashioned morale boosting for the folks at home. So, the Miss Psywar pageant was born. Not much is known about it, besides the fact that it took place in Washington state in the 1940’s, and the little that can be gleaned from the surviving photographs – showing young women in in bullet bra style swimsuits, standing around horn loudspeakers!

And it wasn’t just the shady world of psychological warfare that had its own beauty contest – the NSA even had a pageant which ran in the 1950’s and early 1960’s – perhaps the National Security Agency is not all about brains, as evidenced in this photo below, showing smiling women in corseted dresses! Again, very little is known about this pageant – besides the fact that contestants represented numbers as opposed to states – and that it was held annually. It seems the NSA is not keen to share many more details of its dark history!

And for our final foray into the world of downright strange beauty pageants of the past, I’ll leave you with this photograph showing a young girl posing in knickers with a bag over her head – which at first glance looks rather questionable, but is actually a shot from the 1930’s Miss Lovely Eyes pageant!

When you think of silver screen sirens of the 1940's, more often than not your mind will trip over sultry beauty, perfect eyebrows, lipstick that never seems to smudge, and perhaps an uncanny knack for making cigarettes look sexier than a dog eared Pall Mall has any right to look. They were lauded for their beauty and leading roles, and their popularity determined by their ability to ‘play the game’ with studio bosses, the media and the ever-fickle public eye.

Women gracing the screen were expected to look pretty and offset the raffish charm of their leading men, and yet many iconic actresses from the era have fascinating back stories that weren’t granted the column inches guaranteed by a sex scandal, a celebrity marriage or the glitterati rumour mill. Jayne Mansfield is a case in point – the blonde bombshell commonly touted as a ‘working man’s Marilyn Monroe’ saw mainstream success in the 1950's due to her impressive chest-waist-hip measurements and breathy, baby-voiced roles; and yet was purported to have had an IQ of 163, as well as having spoken five languages.

The trend continues today – with celebrity gossip rags gleefully reciting the academic achievements of actresses such as Emma Watson and Natalie Portman – as though the possession of a great set of cheekbones automatically means that their owner has the mental faculties of a breezeblock.

My favourite of these closet intellectuals is Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr. Hedy is an interesting character on so many levels. She is stunningly beautiful, she has a fantastic name (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), she made ballsy career choices, and she happens to have been the inventor of a form of radio guidance technology still used today.

Born in 1914 in Vienna, Hedy was beginning to make a name for herself over in Europe before Hollywood ever got to grips with her. She was the leading lady in a scandalous 1933 German film called Ecstasy, which made headlines due to the fact that Hedy spends a large proportion of the film running around naked – and – potentially – was the first non-pornographic film to depict the female orgasm. She ran away from her husband shortly afterwards and hid out in Paris, where she met MGM boss Louis B Meyer, himself scouting Europe for new talent - who, I imagine, lit a cigar and told her that he’d make her a star.

Hedy’s film career in America was illustrious, with starring roles opposite Clark Gable, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Charles Boyer. She starred in Samson and Delilah and was labelled “the most beautiful woman in Europe” by director Max Reinhardt.

However, the reason that I am such a huge fan of hers isn’t just because she shrugged off controversy to act in films such as Ecstasy, or that she is the type of person to flee her husband and set up in the bohemian enclaves of Paris of the 1930's – but because simmering away underneath her beauty was a formidable brain capable of inventing technology that has made modern day advancements such as WiFi even possible.

At the beginning of World War II, Hedy implemented a radio guidance system to be used for Allied torpedoes. It utilised frequency hopping and spread spectrum technology – more on that here – and, although it wasn’t used during the wartime effort, the US Navy rediscovered her invention during the 1960's Cuban Missile Crisis and incorporated it into their repertoire. The advances that she made are still used today; in WiFi, CDMA, and Bluetooth technology.

Throughout her acting career, Hedy was typically cast as the exotic seductress, and would often slink across the screen like a cat, but have very few lines. She reportedly felt unchallenged by acting, and started inventing as a means of relieving her boredom. She invented a new and improved traffic light, and a tablet that dissolved in water to make a fizzy drink. The tablet idea flopped and apparently tasted terrible. She also had two babies during the course of her Hollywood hey-day, which solidifies her in my mind as some kind of Wonder Woman.

Her torpedo radio guidance system idea was artistically inspired by piano rolls, and although it showed signs of promise at the time, the military weren’t keen to take on ideas by civilians during the war. It was only later that the Navy adopted her ideas.

Her later story is just as fascinating. She professed to have made – and spent – thirty million dollars over the course of her career. She was arrested for shoplifting twice, the charges being dropped on both occasions. Andy Warhol made a short film about her in 1966 – called Hedy – and her autobiography was reviled by a judge as “filthy, nauseating and revolting.” She later sued the ghost writer for fabricating anecdotes – however I’d love to think that some of them were true – namely that when fleeing her husband in the 1930's, she hid out in a Paris brothel, having sex with a customer to avoid detection. She later allegedly hired a maid who strongly resembled her, and drugged the maid, stealing her uniform in order to escape in disguise.

Hedy combines intrigue, exoticism, intellect and a devil-may-care attitude that makes her, for me, one of the most compelling characters of Old Hollywood.

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For as long as I can remember the fashion for bras has been focused around a full and rounded shape with plenty of uplift. Underwiring, padding and keeping your breasts hoisted high has been the order of the day since I got my first training bra. In the 1970s (and earlier) a pointier silhouette was favoured, rather than strapping their breasts up to their sternum women would favour a bra that placed them at the top of the ribcage. It's only us retro and vintage aficionados who have always known the appeal of a pointier cup, in our beloved bullet bras and vintage lingerie. However, things are set to change. A pointier breast is soon to become widely spread, and is already rather in vogue. In fact, anyone with any style know-how has already ditched the full padded rounded bras that we should have left in the 90s and is falling firmly in love with balconettes, bullet bras and bralettes. In fact, anything with minimal padding is the coveted look.

From the brand new Court Royal range at True Corset. The Marlene Bullet Bra and Coco Garter, both in black.

A touch of youth

It is argued that young women have long favoured a more rounded cup as it adds a touch of maturity, while older women feel they are losing a little uplift and fullness and so also tend to opt for something with padding and a bit of lift. However, when you think about it, younger breasts tend to be more conical. A well-padded rounded bosom can often look a little matronly! Opting for a more natural look or even enhancing the conical aspect, could give a much more youthful and beguiling effect.

A pointier breast shape looks more youthful

Enter the bullet bra

Women who love corsetry, burlesque and the seduction associated with lingerie are rarely drawn to overtly natural styles. However, the natural conical shape of the breast when exaggerated and enhanced with a little theatre is the concept behind the bullet bra. This 1950s style offers a great silhouette and is dripping in sex appeal, whether worn as bedroom apparel or underneath your clothes. To make the most of the slinky silhouette you might like to wear your bullet bra with a waist cincher to really emphasize your curves. For steamy nights in then a seductive matching garter belt is a hot choice.

The brand new True Corset Rosa Garter Belt in black from the Court Royal collection

A more sensual shape

There is a softness to a rounded cup that is almost apologetic. The pointed shape has a haughty tilt to it, unapologetically feminine and with a coquettish focus on the nipple. With the whole 'free the nipple' movement and a strong message across the board that it is the female nipple that exudes sexuality rather than the breast itself, it makes sense to pull the attention down to the peak of the breast if you are looking to enhance your sensuality.

Audrey Tautou is the ultimate French beauty with an appealing and natural silhouette

Doing it French style

In France, women never lost sight of the appeal of a pointier breast and have long worn their bras with a more natural and conical shape. French women are vigilant about avoiding back fat, so keep their back straps loose and often opt for bras without padding. French bras will tend to have wider back straps to avoid the issue of potential back fat bulges, very much in the style of a bullet bra. Many French women will even omit a bra altogether.

The Marilyn Bullet Bra in black from True Corset

The appeal of a bullet bra

Vintage lovers will only need to catch a glimpse of a sexy satin bullet bra before they start thinking about the iconic curves of Marilyn Monroe. Her voluptuous curves were unforgettable, yet the shape of the breasts was certainly more conical than round. The bullet bra doesn't just create an enviable silhouette that whispers of vintage sophistication and a deep-rooted sensuality. The bullet bra is also immensely comfortable as it provides a great deal of support, it covers the whole breast which means there are no unsightly bulges creeping over the top of the cup, the wide back strap eliminates any hint of back fat and the meticulous design and structure means your posture is immediately improved, no-one can slouch in a bullet bra they are far too uplifting for that!

To really show off your new pointy breast shape then slip a clingy sweater over the top and make like Marilyn.

Marilyn is the perfect example of the appeal of a more conical bra shape

As the trend for a more conical and natural breast shape grows, we want to lead the way with a far more dramatic, theatrical and show stopping interpretation. Vintage lovers don't follow fashion fads, we lead the way and when it comes to bullet bras it's the breasts that are at the front of the game.