A tribute to the era of the Bullet Bra

I have saved the newspaper cutting on the left for years, I simply love the caption "I scream cones." The comment is quite heart-felt, and by today's standards, these high-waisted girdles and heavily structured and pointed brassieres would be called corsets by a generation unused to such devices.

The doyenne of the bullet bra was undoubtedly Jane Russell. Discovered by Howard Hughes in 1941, he inflicted one of his many engineering failures upon this lady in the form of an under-wired brassiere to enhance her already voluptuous features. It was so uncomfortable that she chose to wear her own bra in the film 'Outlaw' with some judicious padding.

Comments from Bob Hope and Howard Hughes helped launched a generation of pneumatic bosoms that would last until the mid-1960's. Miss Russell was, however, a very sensible women who, like many before her, had heeded her mother's advice on the importance of foundation garments. When asked in her 60's, to what did she owe her enviable shape, she simply gazed at the reporter and breathed the word

 "Underwear!"

Bullet bra and girdle; almost mandatory wear for the 'sweater girl' of the 1950s and 60s.

Of course, one could have the same effect in long-line. Even mothers might like to achieve the bullet bosom!

One of the most famous exponents of the pointed bosom was the English actress 'Sabrina'

(born Norma Ann Sykes; 1936 - 2016) who sported the vital statistics 42 - 19 - 36 as is very obvious from the photographs.

Her statistics can be compared with those of her pneumatic peer group:

Sabrina                        42-19-36          5ft 6in

Jayne Mansfield           40-21-35          5ft 6in

Diana Dors                  37-25-38          5ft 6in             63kg    10 stone

Marilyn Monroe          36-24-34          5ft 6in             54kg    8.5 stone