by Pat Jacobs

Created on: February 18, 2010

After World War II, lingerie designers celebrated their liberation from wartime restrictions with a lavish use of color, sheer fabrics, and lace (In the 1950s, printed and colored underwear were successfully marketed. New fabrics like Dacron and nylon debuted. There was increased use of rayon.)

Women missed and wanted glamour again that had been deprived in the war; enter the conical bra, the height of 1950s underwear fashion.

The Bullet Bra (featuring exaggerated pointing or cone-shaped cups) and Push-Up Bra (by Frederick's Of Hollywood) all debuted during this decade. Women now appeared to have breasts that almost reached their necks!

Panties became more colorful and decorative.

Hollywood and the movies also influenced undies: "Sweater girl" Lana Turner's bras helped to make her an anatomical wonder (Legend has it that Jane Russell's bras were designed by Howard Hughes) and the T-shirt (Named because of its shape and design) became popular.

T-shirts were previously worn as strictly underwear, but Marlon Brando ("A Streetcar Named Desire", 1951) and James Dean ("Rebel Without A Cause", 1955) remade this item into an icon of cool (for men only at this time).

As the '50s went on, Elizabeth Taylor in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” (1958) made a fashion statement (and probably scandal) wearing a custom-made-slip through most of that movie.

Slips were also featured in "Psycho" (1960) with Janet Leigh in a white bra and slip, than later as a decamping embezzler in a black ensemble.

Frederick's Of Hollywood and Maidenform became nationally prominent during this decade. Frederick’s was created by Frederick Mellinger (he claimed to have invented the first push-up bra) in 1946.

He started out with a racy catalog which quickly became popular, then branched out into a chain of more than 175 stores. You could say that Frederick’s was the Victoria’s Secret of its day.

For two decades (1949-1969) Maidenform had one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever. They converted everyone’s worst nightmare-appearing undressed in public-into an effective way to sell bras.

The ads featured models in everyday or fantastic situations, elaborately costumed but wearing only a Maidenform bra above the waist, with the slogan “I Dreamed I (whatever action the bra conveyed was inserted here) In My Maidenform Bra”. For example, “I Dreamed I Painted The Town Red In My Maidenform Bra.”

A typical late '50s underwear ensemble might consist

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