Maidenform 7969

Sometimes I don't know whether to be offended or fascinated. Or amused. Or just plain baffled. This is an actual magazine ad in Maidenform's I dreamed I was... series. I happen to remember with greater clarity the Mad Magazine send-up of this ad campaign. Picture the woman to the right in track star garb rather than her cowgirl get-up, crossing the finish line first with the caption I dreamed I was way out in front in my Maidenform bra! If floozy lawbreaking cowgirl is your little fantasy, go on ahead and switch back. Maidenform's I dream campaign contained many other images of women, in firefighter wear, at the circus, turning the tide of opinion on a jury, even a Cleopatra type on a barge. All without the constraints of clothing on their upper torso, just clad in their trusty Maidenform. The first in this series ran as a half page magazine ad in September of 1949 and continued for over twenty years. Contemplating the era in which these images appeared in print, meaning that they ran concurrently with news footage of women burning their bras in support (sorry) of feminism, seems to be the ultimate of ironies of this past century. I must confess that I am a fan of a certain Maidenform bra, style 7969. It fits like it was designed just for me and I own it in a number of colors. Sigh, if only they had style names like they did back in the 50's and 60's. Chansonette. Arabesque. Counterpoint. Overture. Varietta. I've never had a dream about 7969, but I might if it bore a more interesting name. One thing's for sure, they may have had fancy names but you won't find me wearing one of those pointy, unnatural looking contraptions. I'll take the less stylish sounding numerical moniker that has a more natural, feminine curve to its design. Which makes me wonder if the same designers are responsible for those pointy toed women's shoes. I smell a conspiracy of discomfort and cruelty!