Ida Cohen Rosenthal 1886-1973

Ida Cohen Rosenthal immigrated to New Jersey in 1904. With little money in her pocket, she bought a Singer sewing machine on the installment plan and became an independent seamstress.

Ida’s sewing business boomed during World War I, and soon she and her husband William, along with business partner Enid Bisset, opened a custom dress shop that they called Enid Frocks. The popular flapper style of the day favored a flat-chested look that women achieved by wearing uncomfortable bandeaux. The Rosenthals disliked the way their dresses fit the women who had artificially flattened chests. Bissett improved the effect of the clothing by creating a fuller-figure brassiere. 

Initially, Enid Frocks included a brassiere in the purchase price of a dress. As demand rose, brassieres began to be sold separately. Bisette and the Rosenthals gave up dressmaking altogether in 1930 and renamed their company Maiden Form Brassiere Company. By the end of the 1930s, department stores across the country and around the world were stocking Maidenform bras.

While William focused on design – inventing standardized cup sizes, maternity and nursing bras and adjustable straps – Ida ran the business, negotiating with unions and introducing assembly-line production. A marketing genius, she began an aggressive print and radio ad campaign, making Maidenform the first intimate apparel company to advertise. In 1949, Ida came up with the now-famous “I dreamed I... in my Maidenform bra” campaign, depicting women wearing bras in a range of unexpected settings (e.g., driving a chariot); it ran successfully for 20 years.

Ida took over as president and chairman of the board after William’s death in 1958. She continued working until she suffered a stroke in 1966. In addition to her work in leading the company, Ida was involved with a number of Jewish causes, including the Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal. In 1943, she established Camp Lewis for the Boy Scouts of America in memory of a son who died in 1930.

Source: Jewish Women’s Archive, “Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia”

TOBY ROSSNER (tobyross@cox.net) was the director of media services at the Bureau of Jewish Education from 1978 to 2002.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This is the 10th in a series on the history of Jewish women entrepreneurs.