Kestos is a British lingerie[1] brand founded in London in 1925 by British designer Rosamund Lilian Klin, (1899-1949) the wife of a Russian artist living in London.[2] Kestos' major innovation[3] to the feminine underwear in the 1930s was the development of the two separate cups model.[4][5] Rosamund Klin, director of the Kestos Corset Company, started experimenting with a pair of hankies, just like Caresse Crosby[6][7] back in 1913. Kestos' bra was the first commercially produced brassiere that had two distinct and defined cups[8] and "the Kestos" became a generic trademark bra.[9][10][11] Kestos was distributed in the US,[12] UK, Canada, Australia, France as well as some other European countries[13] and was popular through the 1930s, 1940s and into the early 1950s. The Copmpany went into liquidation in 1967 prior to the death of the Chairman Leo Klin (1877-1967).[14]
References
Bibliography
- Uplift: The Bra in America, Jane Farrell-Beck, Colleen Gau, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002 - Health & Fitness - 264 pages
- The Garden Book, Brian Castro, Giramondo Publishing, May 1, 2005 - Fiction - 324 pages
- The encyclopaedia of fashion, Georgina O'Hara Callan, H.N. Abrams, Oct 1, 1986 - Design - 272 pages
- The Story of Lingerie, Muriel Barbier, Shazia Boucher, Parkstone International, May 8, 2012 - Design - 272 pages