Word: gossard
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...Gossard soon ran into one ideal figure that he hadn't bargained for: the boyish form of the '20s, when many a flapper discarded her corsets entirely, and some even wore tight bindings to flatten out their bosoms. Some corsetiers folded under this frontal assault. Not only did the Gossard company survive (Founder Henry retired in 1923) by turning out the flimsiest excuses for girdles, but it even bought out six competitors to form Associated Apparel Industries, Inc., then the biggest outfit in the business...
...Wobble. Though the Associated combine was liquidated after the crash, Gossard continued to make money, helped by the economies of Production Man Savard and Paris dressmakers' rediscovery of curves. Gossard also helped develop a lightweight, two-way stretch fabric called powernet (used by all big corset and girdle makers today), and got a long lead by using it first. Says Savard proudly: "The fattest kind of woman doesn't wobble when she wears powernet...
Despite the materials shortages of World War II, Gossard kept its sales up by such new products as the high-backed "curvette" for women war workers, to ease the strain of long hours in factories. When the New Look came in and dressmakers talked blithely of the "natural bust," perhaps without a brassiere, Gossard quickly added: "The natural rounded bust, but with an uplift...
Noticeable Trends. Gossard has not only had to keep up with the changing fads of fashions but with the changing American female figure. In teen-age girls, Gossard has found a "very noticeable trend" towards bigger busts, smaller waists and bigger hips. And the company also has to fit figure variations in different parts of the U.S. Said Savard: "New York women have bigger busts. Dallas women are either taller or else they wear corsets down to their knees...
...told, Gossard is selling more than 500 foundation items in "The Gossard line of beauty," including strapless bras and bodices and "mystifiers" (trade name for falsies). This year it expects to gross more than $10 million, and net more than its 1948 peak of $632,000. President Savard is convinced that the American woman is now sold on sensible foundation garments, fights shy of fads that try to squeeze her in or make her figure what it isn't. What she wants, said Savard, is "freedom with control...