With Hoorah for the Bra, Cheree Berry’s cup runneth over
By Matthew Halverson
Photograph by Matthew Halverson
If there’s one indisputable fact in this Victoria’s Secret–commercials–in–primetime era, it’s that the bra is criminally underexposed. “But how could that be?” you ask. “I can’t turn around without seeing one.” Because for all of its brazen exhibitionism, its billboard-hoggin’, catalog-spread loungin’ and display window-posin’, it remains an enigma, a marvel of form and function that doesn’t reveal its innermost secrets easily and is rarely explored in anything more than a purely observational manner. It is the great white shark of the garment world: fascinating for its deceptive complexity, often the subject of late-night television shows, yet rarely seen in its native environment in broad daylight.
So it’s for that reason that the Current salutes Cheree Berry for presenting us this month with Hoorah for the Bra: A Perky Peek at the History of the Brassiere (2006, Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Not only has the graphic designer–cum–author compiled a history of the brassiere so complete so as to strip bare its very essence, but she’s done so in a way that gives an added dimension to her subject: She made a pop-up book. By employing a format suitable for 6-year-olds, Berry has acknowledged—and catered to—the innocent immaturity of even the most sophisticated adult who can be reduced to fits of tittering at the mere mention of an over-the-shoulder boulder-holder.
From the dainty doily that served as support in the early 20th century to the target-stitched bullet cones of the ’40s to the anything-goes mentality of the ’90s, Berry’s underwire exposé examines the evolution of the bra in 3D, doing for the history of this most intimate of undergarments what the Wonderbra did for the underwhelming bust: It lifts and augments what was previously lacking.
And for those more interested in removing bras than burying their noses in a book about them? Berry has included a bra-clasp closure. We’d give her an A, but for some reason a double-D seems more appropriate.
Berry will sign copies of Hoorah for the Bra during a cocktail reception beginning at 8 p.m. on November 3 at the Des Lee Gallery. Call 314-621-8735 for details.
