If you’re wearing a bra right now, you can thank a Jewish immigrant named Ida Cohen Rosenthal for helping make it the garment we know today.

The story began in 1922, when Russian-Jewish immigrant Ida Rosenthal was working as a dressmaker at Enid Frocks, a Manhattan dress shop owned by Enid Bissett. It was the era of the flapper, and contemporary fashions favored a flat, boyish silhouette. Bras of the time, similar to what we might call a bandeau today, were designed to flatten rather than support the breasts. Ida and Enid thought that this look was unflattering and uncomfortable, so they began tinkering with undergarments that provided a more natural silhouette.

The result was a cupped brassiere that enhanced, rather than erased, the natural shape of the body. 

The bras were meant to be secondary to the dresses that the two sold in their shop, but customers loved them so much that they shifted their business model to focus primarily on the bras. 

By 1925, Ida’s husband William had joined the team, and the three opened a factory in New Jersey. They named their new company Maiden Form, a cheeky counterpoint to the “boyish form” of bandeau bras. 

The Smithsonian describes Ida as an innovative businesswoman who helped launch aggressive advertising campaigns, making Maidenform, as the company is now known, the first American lingerie company to advertise. She served as treasurer, president, CEO and eventually chairman of the board. When William died in 1958, Ida took over as president, leading the company at a time when it was still unusual to have a female corporate leader.

Ida and William are often credited with inventing the nursing bra, too, and during World War II, their factories manufactured special vests for soldiers that included pockets for homing pigeons.

And if Maidenform’s famous advertising campaigns are any indication, Ida was not afraid to have a little fun with her product. Beginning in 1949, the company’s famous “I Dreamed” ads featured women wearing nothing above the waist except their Maidenform bras while doing things like shopping, working and even running for office. Despite the initial scandal of showing women — gasp! — without shirts, the campaign lasted for two decades and became one of the most recognizable advertising campaigns in American history. Fans of “Madmen” might recall the season two episode titled “Maidenform,” in which a rival company turns to Don and crew to try and recreate the “I Dreamed” ad series. 

Behind this bra empire was a Jewish immigrant story.

Born Ida Kaganovich in 1886 in what is now Belarus, she was the eldest of seven children. Her father was a Torah scholar and scribe, and her mother ran a small general store. She worked as a dressmaker while she was in school and became involved in radical socialist causes. In fact, some sources cite potential legal trouble stemming from their political beliefs as a catalyst behind Ida and William’s immigration to America. 

After they married in 1905 and watched their company blossom over the ensuing decades, the Rosenthals remained deeply connected to Jewish causes. They supported organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal, a precursor to the Jewish Federation that helped Jews escape Europe after Kristallnacht in 1939. NYU houses a collection of the family’s Judaica and Hebrew books, and the Smithsonian has a whole Maidenform archive, which speaks to the family’s personal and professional influence on 20th century America.  

Ida Rosenthal died in 1973, but the company she helped create continued as a family business for decades. It has been bought and sold a few times and today is a member of Hanes (like, the underwear) — still creating shapewear for people of all shapes and sizes. 

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