The Wonderbra is a type of push-up underwire brassiere that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s. Although the Wonderbra name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1935, the brand was developed in Canada. Moses (Moe) Nadler, founder and majority owner of the Canadian Lady Corset Company, licensed the trademark for the Canadian market in 1939. By the 1960s the Canadian Lady brand had become known in Canada as "Wonderbra, the company." In 1961 the company introduced the Model 1300 plunge push-up bra. This bra became one of the best-selling Canadian styles and is virtually identical to today's Wonderbra.
In 1968, Canadian Lady changed its name to Canadian Lady-Canadelle Inc., was sold to Consolidated Foods (now Sara Lee Corporation), and later became Canadelle Inc. During the 1970s Wonderbra was repositioned as the company's fashionable and sexy brand, and became the Canadian market leader.
In 1991, the push-up Wonderbra became a sensation in the UK, although it had been sold there since 1964 under license by the Gossard division of Courtaulds Textiles. Sara Lee Corporation did not renew Gossard's license and redesigned the push-up style for the reintroduction of the Wonderbra to the U.S. market in 1994.
Since 1994, the Wonderbra has expanded from the single push-up design into a full-range lingerie fashion label in most of the world. In most countries, the brand emphasizes sex-appeal. In its native Canada, however, the brand promotes the functional qualities of its products—a departure from the strategy that made Wonderbra the top-seller in the 1970s.
Original "Wonder-Bra" design
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 on existing bra design provided more comfort and freedom of movement for the wearer. He also coined the name "Wonder-Bra" in 1935.
Israel Pilot's US patent 2245413, granted in 1941, allowed for greater shoulder strap elasticity by cutting the fabric so that the weave has the greatest stretch (cutting on the "bias"). The photographs show the original patent sketches and close-ups of a bra made in the U.S. by D'Amour. The model is wearing a rare 1950s version of this original Wonder-Bra design.
History
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 City and met with Israel Pilot and licensed the Wonder-Bra trademark and diagonal slash patent. In Canada, the trademark lost the hyphen, and became "WonderBra," and "Wonderbra" at the U.S. reintroduction.
During the wartime years, Canadian apparel manufacturers were subject to quotas on materials. Elastics were unavailable, affecting the comfort and design of women's underwear. The diagonal slash offered a better fitting brassiere without elastics, and became a competitive advantage.
From 1939 - 1955, Canadian Lady marketed several lines of intimate apparel including girdles, panties, slips, swimsuits, and brassieres under the Wonderbra brand. The Company also created sub-brands to target different socioeconomic and 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.
The post-patent negotiations were led by Moe Nadler. D'Amour no longer had leverage with a patent, but still demanded that Canadian Lady stop using the designs, and return the pattern templates. 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. In the 1970s, Canadelle acquired the remaining worldwide rights to the trademark, and licensed Giltex (a Canadian pantyhose manufacturer acquired by Sara Lee in the 1980s) to use the Wonderbra brand on hosiery in Canada.
Development of the push-up bra
In the late 1950s Moe Nadler started traveling to Europe to find new styles to bring 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. Canadian Lady licensed these models, among others, to Gossard in 1964. It was this Wonderbra Model 1300 design that became first a UK success in the early 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, 1964 to 1980
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. The 1960s also brought to Canadian Lady the challenges of feminism, fashions and the sexual revolution. The feminist movement—cultured by thought leaders like Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer—questioned the mores that defined women's roles and appearance. Changes in fashion trends, such as pantyhose and the rise of the miniskirt, rendered the girdle unattractive and obsolete to a generation of women. 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 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 died and his son, Larry Nadler inherited control of the company. Larry Nadler was a Harvard-trained MBA and brought modern marketing strategies to the industry. 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.
Later, Larry Nadler identified an age based bifurcation in the market. Younger women (aged 15 to 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 die (with holes).
Brand development
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 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.
- Gerry Goodis, former CEO, Goodis Advertising
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