Natural Look is Back

The Argus (Melbourne), Page 10
Friday 24 February 1956

Is this the beginning of another flat chested era for women?

Or will men and women always prefer Sabrina's ample-bosomed look?

LIKE all good things, the Bosom Age seems to be coming to an end. For 16 years busts have reigned supreme as the most accentuated part of a woman's anatomy. But the charm of 'the "big-bosomed look" is slowly palling and women -- and men -- are once more showing a preference towards a natural bustline.

How DID the Great Bust Age start, anyway? It began 16 years ago when a cameraman in Hollywood threw an apple on to the floor, Jane Russell, a 19-year-old starlet stopped to pick it up. Her test photos frankly revealed the splendid curves of her 38 inch bust. From then on she never looked back. Bust became beauty. The Bosom Age had begun.

But now its coming to a close and many people beauty and fashion, experts, who offered their views on the subject yesterday.

DANE MASTERS, MODEL AND CHARM SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: "BUSTLINES have become so big that they couldn't be less attractive, and its film stars, like Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, who make them look so distorted."

MODEL GRETTA MIERS WHO ALSO RUNS A CHARM SCHOOL: "I'VE never liked a over-emphasised bust. A flat chest? A tragedy.
"A woman should always strive to keep her natural bustline as shapely as possible and should never, on any account, flatten or accentuate it."

LEADING FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER, HELMUT NEWTON: "WHATEVER the fashion "line" of the moment, Australian clothing manufacturers will always want to see a well-developed girl wearing their dresses.
"BUT the sweater girl has no place in fashion modelling except, perhaps, for decollete gowns, when a bigger bust is important, "And with the trend towards the flat look of the flapper days, it looks as though busts will become less pronounced fortunately."

MAXWELL GIBB, WHO CONDUCTS A MANNEQUIN SCHOOL: "GIVE me a tall, slender girl any time, and thanks to the long fashion line, there'll be more of them this year.
"But unfortunately, the big bust will always have a certain popularity because there will ALWAYS be men who like it."

Does the rise and fad of the Great Bust Age depend on the fashion designers?