I first discovered Jane Russell when watching Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes at a very early age. It is down to this day one of my favorite
movies of all time. While watching the film, my mother tells me that Jane
Russell was so beautiful that she was allegedly the Muse that inspired the invention of the first ever
push-up Bra! This completely fascinated me; imagine, being
someone’s muse!
Howard Hughes was the man who was so inspired by Ms.
Russell's beauty, and bountiful ‘assets’ that he took it upon himself to invent
a bra for her. Either that, or he felt the film screen did not do full justice
to her very large bust, and set about trying to accentuate Jane’s greatest
asset for his upcoming Western, The Outlaw. Howard Hughes, being not only a film producer, but also an aviator and aerospace engineer, was eager to put his engineering skills to work. Hughes added rods of curved
structural steel that were sewn into the bra below each breast. The rods were
then attached to the bra's shoulder straps. The arrangement allowed the breasts
to be pulled upward and made it possible to move the shoulder straps away from
the neck. The design allowed for any amount of bosom to be freely exposed.
Unfortunately Jane did not take well to the
idea. She is famed to have described the bra as a ‘ridiculous’ contraption!
Which she only wore for a few minutes, and then promptly went back to wearing
her old bra, straps tightened, back on set. Howard Hughes was none the wiser.
The Outlaw was indeed a very big success,
cementing Jane Russell as a Hollywood legend. It did not hurt that the film was
shrouded in scandal, and controversy, which had it banned from release to the
big screen for years due to the ‘risqué’ images of Jane with he assets on show.
When the film was eventually released, everyone knew who Jane Russell was. She
became a household name.
The one thing I really love about Jane Russell, is although
she was a sex symbol of the time, she always owned her own sexuality, without
letting it ‘own’ her.
Until Next Time…
For more Vintage Inspiration, check out my Blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment