Women’s History Month & Me

Two things have occurred recently that bring me to the page today: March being Women’s History Month and the Smithsonian Museum of American History contacting me about my role in that history.

Really?! Well, yes — but it is so very nice to have the Smithsonian recognize it!

“…the sports bra revolutionized women’s sports more than any other development besides Title IX.”

And one of my claims to fame, as they say, is that way back in 1977 I invented the very first sports bra (it was called a Jogbra at the time), and founded the Company that marketed and sold it. Of course, I was only 10 years old (kidding, kidding). Many years later we sold our entrepreneurial success to a big corporation.

Since there are so many urban — and suburban — legends about how this woman’s Horatio Alger story unfolded, I think the occasion of Women’s History Month and the Smithsonian’s active recognition of the sports bra’s influence in said history is an opportune time to tell the early history of the birth of an idea and its transformation into a thriving business that facilitated the entry and performance of women in sports.

The 1970s were the beginning of the fitness “revolution” in this country. At the time I was in the vanguard of those who were “jogging.” Logging about 30 miles a week I found myself with an annoying and private problem: uncomfortable and sometimes painful breast movement while running. One day my sister telephoned me, complaining of a similar concern and distraction, asking me if I had any solutions. I told her of wearing a bra one size too small, of wearing nothing, of cutting runs short. We bemoaned our predicament. Then she quipped: “Why isn’t there a jockstrap for women?” We laughed uproariously. “It would just be on a different part of the body,” I said between laughter hiccups. Today she claims I went on to say “I think I’ll do that, make one of those.” I don’t remember. What I do remember is after the call, sitting down and thinking that it wasn’t such a silly idea; why not a “jock bra?” What functions would such a garment have to fulfill to make me and my sister happy, comfortable? I sat down with pencil and paper and made a list.

Polly is my childhood friend who grew up to become a successful costume designer (6 Emmys to date). In our 8th grade sewing class she got an A and I flunked. She and I would try to cut gym classes together. Neither of us liked the silly gym uniforms they made us wear back then; we were artsy, not athletic. Field hockey!? Yuck! So imagine her surprise when in my 20’s I became a jogging fanatic. Which she discovered when she took a costume design job in my town and rented a room in my house for the duration of the job’s run.

So it was up the stairs I went to Polly on that early summer day. “Pol, can you make me a bra for jogging? Here’s what it would need to do.” She rolled her eyes at me. She explained that bras were engineered, not just designed and draped, as they had to support as well as cover. I didn’t take no for an answer, and so embarked our summer of making prototypes.

We weren’t having luck. One day, my then-husband decided to crash our design meeting and cheer Polly and me up. He came in the room wearing his jock strap over his head and around his chest upside down, declaring loudly “Here’s your Jock Bra, ladies!” We laughed and laughed. I took it from him and imitated what he’d done, pulling the jockstrap over my head, its cup embracing one of my breasts. Stunned, I looked at Polly. “Polly. Look — the straps could cross in back. Two cups. Wide rib band… might work!”

And the first working prototype was born the next day when Polly sent her assistant, Hinda, to buy 2 jockstraps. Polly cut them up, sewed them back together, cup next to cup, and I went running in it later that day, with Hinda jogging backwards in front of me to see how much I bounced. So, yes. For all those people who ask me if it is true that the first sports bra was two jockstraps sewn together, the answer is: yes.

My report on that prototype: best yet. But the fabrics were awful. One of my most important design criteria was that the bra not chafe. Polly booked a flight to New York to shop better fabrics for our new baby, asking Hinda to watch over the costume shop (and her job) while she was gone. We were excited. Returning about a week later, Polly had a then revolutionary new fabric in hand: poly/cotton/lycra. She’d also found acceptable elastics and thread, no easy task I learned. Who knew there was more than one kind of thread? Polly sewed up a final prototype and I went for a run. What I did know: it was a winner.

The summer was drawing to a close. Polly finished her job and decamped back to home in Manhattan. Hinda went off to teach in South Carolina. I had my prototype, the precious prototype. What next? I called my brother-in-law, my sister’s then husband, for business advice. He contacted one of those “we’ll market your invention” companies and signed a contract with them. I got all huffy. He wasn’t me! He had no authority to sign the contract! He’d given them money. He got all huffy. Oh dear. I paid him back the money and tore up the contract. Thanksgiving that year was a bit sticky. I could have left all this bit out of my story, but I think that it is important to note mis-steps as well as good steps. Life and progress ain’t all roses.

An attorney friend suggested I incorporate, using the share issuance as a way to acknowledge Polly for her help. But I knew Polly would not want to leave her path and go into the Jog bra biz. She’d said so. And Hinda had been very enthusiastic. She hadn’t been cutting gym classes growing up. And she was a skier. And she knew how to sew! So I incorporated and issued myself, Polly and Hinda shares in the fledgling business.

At this point one might say “and the rest is history”… stock ownership kerfuffles, seizures, pregnancies, Brandi Chastain, Playtex Apparel, Sara Lee, Champion Sportswear and all. That is, alas, missing out on some of the most important and dramatic parts, not the least of which is the significant role that Hinda came to play. Or the personal growth that occurs in learning to run a business; all the great employees who grew with us — such stories! Learning to operate within a partnership; to run a women-owned business selling women’s products in a male-dominated industry: sporting goods. To learn what it takes and what it means to sell a business that was “your baby.”

Or what happens to and for three women over the course of three decades as the result of one idea — the right product at the right time. But this is a blog, not a book…so

Happy Women’s History Month!

And here’s a challenge for my readers: Does True Beauty show up in this tale?

February 8, 2015

Practicing True Beauty in Everyday Life – Compassion

Beauty Practice:

Practice Feeling Compassion

Compassion is specifically about the ability to feel another’s experience of suffering. This Beauty practice is purposely not expressed as “practice being compassionate” as I don’t know if one can be compassionate until one has really felt compassion on a somewhat regular basis. Can one routinely choose a behavior, have an emotion one has not experienced? Studies of the brain show that compassion doesn’t always come naturally, but that it can be learned. So we must exercise the “compassion muscle,” learn compassion, in order to use it with ease and regularity.

Compassion is the root expression of awareness of the universality of the ability to experience pain — no matter its origin or reason; no matter species, race, intelligence or preferences. Compassion is the Great Leveler, the Great Unifying Knowing. The Dalai Lama has been widely quoted as saying:

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

What does this have to do with Beauty? If we can objectify an Other, disassociate ourselves from “Them,” it is easy to find fault, ugliness, un-beauty. Once, however, we can truly feel compassion, we can practice being compassionate…from a place of sincerity, without artifice. We glimpse into the “oneness.” Compassion allows us to be able to see/feel there, into the experience of an other. We enter the possibility of experiencing harmony between the other and ourselves — and it is harmony that begets True Beauty.

Compassion is the basis of all morality, and I posit, the basis and beginning of one’s awareness of True Beauty.

February 1, 2015

Cultivating Awe

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger,who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein

Practice Being in Awe:

Life and living is full of surprises. There is a great deal of folk wisdom about this: “Expect the unexpected,” “Life is what happens while you are making other plans,” “Different strokes for different folks,” are just a few that come to mind.

And still we plan. And have expectations — of ourselves, of others.

The unexpected comes in different flavors: the generic “surprise,” “amazement” is laced with a bit of disbelief and may herald the new. “Wonder” is fraught with mystery and is a term often found in religious hymns and texts. We do not seem to expect wonder to become known, yet it often has a positive vibe. Is it an enduring state?

Then “awe.” Awe, like wonder, is a more sustainable and positive state, not just a mere response to the unexpected. Awe connotates a respect and reverence for its object or being. Delight and fear both may accompany awe in a strange yet desired concoction, but I feel awe is mostly delight and respect; like the feeling one might have if playing with a goddess — a sacred playmate.

“Awesome, man!”

To be at some point on this spectrum of Wonder – Awe is to be like a child again, and that can be a good and truly beautiful thing.

Years ago, Dr. David Simon, author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being said something to me that stuck and has served in many situations. It was a conversation in which the difficulties and nasty stuff of living was being discussed in the context of trying to maintain one’s spiritual path. He said: “Look, disagreeable stuff happens; it always does. Right? And when it does, you can choose to be offended by it, or you can choose to be amazed about it.” I thought about that for awhile. I realized that when something occurred that I didn’t want or expect (“disagreeable stuff”) — something that surprised me on some level — it was easy to automatically respond with feeling offended. I jumped to negative judgment! Here was the alternative to stay in neutral surprise. To cultivate my child-like wonder rather than my gotta-be-right critic.

Anyway, this is a sharply edited version of why/how the cultivation of AWE is a powerful Beauty Practice. Suffice to say, wonder and awe facilitate the recognition of the True Beauty in a thing or situation. Being offended or repulsed does not. So if this synopsis is resonating with you, you might start cultivating being “awe-ful” by:

1) Identify some small thing that habitually “puts you off.” Approach this thing and try seeing/sensing it anew, as if for the first time. Can you move back to being amazed by it? (Think snake, bad driver, or licorice) How long can you stay there?

This practice is not about coming to like snakes or licorice, but merely changing your response to them. Rather than “ick!” and a possible rise in blood pressure, one may experience wonder and perhaps some mild curiosity. (“Does licorice come from a plant?”)

2) Where is the wonder in your life? Spend some time with and in wonder. For me this might be time watching the ocean or the sky. Or both!

3) Find an old tree. Really perceive it. Think of all the years it has been rooted in that spot. Can you feel awe?

4) Watch, or help, a child doing his/her homework. Remember that wonder of learning?

An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified… ~Thomas Moore, “The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life“

December 30, 2014

The Way of Beauty Blog in Review

I started this blog just last September (2014). I hope I’ve made a few salient points, and entertained a bit along the way. I started off by making the distinction that The Way of Beauty — book, blog and actual practice — is about COSMOLOGY NOT COSMETOLOGY!

You all suffered through my Manifesto for True Beauty, where mere “glamour” was slammed and our modern obsession with it (think Kardashians) instead of true beauty was challenged. As the weeks rolled by we looked at shifting the paradigm in our culture, examined creating a “Way,” the importance of the natural world and its beauty, not to mention delved into mankind’s interactive magic with said natural world: Shamanism.

I also took a shot at clearing up the relationship between Art and True Beauty… though there is far more that might be said about that, I’m sure. I am wishing I might find someone to help elucidate the way in which Science and True Beauty are supportive. I tried as best I could in two blog bits, but know there are far more connections than I feel capable of making between the two at the moment.

Throughout it all, it is my hope that I’ve been able to begin to instill in others the nature and ready availability of True Beauty and its importance to us not just as individuals, but as a species. Going forward I am going to focus on the Beauty Practices through which we can infuse our everyday lives and activities with Beauty and grace.

Promote True, Deep Beauty in your self, your surroundings, and your understanding of our universe. Practice makes perfect, right?

November 9, 2014

Party Hearty!

True, deep Beauty is reflected in the life force that is present all around us – it’s a joyous, sometimes riotous party given by the entire Universe. We’re always invited, though too often we don’t attend. “Attend,” pay attention to… .. Look up, look around! Look out your window – there’s a gorgeous party going on!

November 2, 2014

Natural Beauty

Beautiful Hawaiian Sunrise - photo by Lisa Lindahl — Hawaiian Sunrise

The natural world is often a human being’s first introduction to and relationship with external beauty – the True Beauty without. In our current urban-central, agri-business world, unfortunately too many people develop only a “nodding basis” with the natural world. Sadly, it is no longer a central reference point for the culture.

Yet our instinctual need for relationship with the natural world and its beauty will out…we create gardens. We plant pots. “Gardening” has become a giant industry. Last I looked it was ranked the #2 hobby of American households. And everywhere I have traveled around the globe I’ve noticed the ubiquitous window boxes, flower pots, community plots.

True Beauty is all around us. The first, basic Practice of Beauty is to actually see. To practice turning off what I call our sensory “auto-pilot” and really see/perceive what is around us. We take short-cuts. That intersection we pass by everyday — when was the last time you really looked at it? Or the tree in the front yard?

Try it! How many colors of green do you see outside? Any pink in that grass? And purple in that tarmac? Practice seeing. You’ll find the habit eventually goes far beyond the merely visual.

Natural beauty is True Beauty. Eternal. We yearn for it, and create it as we able.

October 26, 2014

What is meant by “The Way…”

So, here I am going on about The Way of Beauty. Lou asked me what the heck that was about… so here goes:

The ancient Chinese developed Taoism from “Tao” meaning “path” or “way,” specifically in reference to their ancient studies of the Universe and its ways, or paths — meaning its processes and methods. Taoism is considered to be the Religion of Heaven and Earth, of the Cosmos, the World, and Nature in the broadest sense.

So, Lou — and anyone else who was wondering — it is with that thought tradition in mind that I put forth this Way of Beauty.

The Way of Beauty is about cultivating a daily-living practice of beauty awareness. The reason to do so is rooted in the belief that Beauty — its creation, cultivation and discovery — is an important and centralizing principle of our universe.

The Way of Beauty is simple. It requires no esoteric tools or objects. To practice it requires only an attitude and awareness shift. It is something that is done every day, a practice, a habit. And it will effect one’s choices on every level.

We can make Beauty a verb, as well as a noun and an adjective. The time is now to Practice Beauty. The Practices of Beauty are outlined in my book, “The Way of Beauty.” Of course, sometimes they get articulated here, on the blog…

There are some time-honored practices that speak to and support the Way of Beauty. Meditation is one. Being still and present in the midst of our busybusybusy environment is another. Maintaining a healthy physical body (exercise) is yet another. None of these “practices” are new. But their connection with Beauty has been diminished, even forgotten. I am here to remind us. As we go on here, I will tie Beauty theory back into specific Beauty practices. Stay tuned!

A caution: At the same time that we return to Beauty we must avoid the temptation to idolize it in those ways that stultify and narrow our understanding and practice of it. This is the very trap that the ancient Greeks fell into, and is echoing in our Hellenistic cultural roots. It is the tendency that has, in great part, gotten us into our current dismaying blind and paralytic relationship with Beauty today. The nature of true Beauty is its surprising, refreshing, and elastic daily discovery…kinda like a good blog!

October 5, 2014

A Manifesto for True Beauty

A Few Bold Philosophical Statements

All contemporary crises can be reduced to a crisis about the nature of beauty.

~ John O’Donohue

Polarizing dualities can’t exist and luscious diversity may unashamedly bloom in a Universe where True Beauty is a primary paradigm and one of humankind’s guiding references.

This is true for me.

The ancient Greeks revered Beauty. “The teleology of the Universe is directed to the production of Beauty” declares the father of process philosophy, Alfred North Whitehead. “Beauty prompts action” says author James Hillman; “Beauty must replicate itself” states Harvard’s Professor of Aesthetics and author, Elaine Scarry.

“So what?” my friend and Chief Executive Skeptic, Lou, argues. “How is beauty relevant at all in a world burdened with wars, starvation and an-increasing gap between the uber wealthy and the rest of us – not to mention the truly poor?” This is said to me with a look that is a masterful mix of disdain and immediate dismissal; nothing more to be said or thought on the subject. For Lou, like many others, beauty is trivial, non-essential and its pursuit is a shallow endeavor. I say otherwise. I say we are out of touch with True Beauty.

Yes, in our modern times Beauty has become caricatured, trivialized and marginalized to an extreme and ridiculous point. It is confused with appearances, relegated primarily to the visual. Meanwhile the mass media elevates and enshrines bad news, violence, and coarseness. Elegance, graciousness are derided as hallmarks of the “elite” (odd, since neither of these need to cost anything!), while mediocrity and baseness are somehow socially desireable.

Throughout our recent cultural past, the lowest common denominator has become the highest thing to aspire to. Or, as one beauty philosopher put it, “It has become the habit of our times to mistake glamour for beauty.” (O’Donohue).

From Cosmetology to Cosmology

True Beauty (capital “B”) is a paradox that is far more complex – and simple – than (dare I say?) meets the eye. Most significantly, healing our relationship to Beauty will in turn heal much of the pathology that our culture is currently suffering. When talking about this Beauty we are talking cosmology, not cosmetology.

Cosmology, from the Greek, originally meant “to order the universe.” The term has evolved and broadened to reference the order and deep inner workings, relationships and patterns of almost any system. I attended a conference on “The Cosmology of Health,” for instance, that had speakers from every aspect of the health field. So when we address the cosmology of Beauty, we are observing all its aspects, influences and relationships. The patterns of True Beauty are everywhere, once we start noticing. Our deeply industrialized human community has come to trivialize and obscure this all-pervasive aesthetic force .

The Way of Beauty is this: To consciously practice the pursuit and cultivation of Beauty beyond surfaces and appearances, to recognize and honor its presence as well as actively engage in Beauty’s creation, preservation and return in prominence in our global culture. Indeed, practicing Beauty as presented here is to be in synchronicity with the healing of our planet and the physical and spiritual evolution of our universe and its inhabitants. To this end I have outlined practices (an overused term these days in certain circles), things one can do to be in and of True Beauty.

“Again, why? Why is be-yoo-tee the big thing? Wouldn’t it make more sense to help out the planet if we just stop making wars?” Lou has re-entered my space and in his usual impatient way, gotten to his version of the nitty-gritty. He exaggerates the word “beauty” and is making silly faces at me. I stick my tongue out at him, playfully, and ask him how he proposes to stop all the wars that seem to spring up like toxic mushrooms all over the globe. He has no answer, and admits to his hyperbole.

I respond, “I don’t know either, Lou, that restoring True Beauty to a more prominent place in human consciousness will quell our propensity to go to war. But I do know that understanding True Beauty will help at least! Anyway, be patient, please. See what you think when I’ve made the rest of my case.” He snorts and leaves the room; I turn back to my keyboard.

Timeliness is a factor here. The concept of Beauty’s essential centrality and importance is not new. Previous civilizations’ coda have revolved around Beauty. It needs, however to be remembered and reinstated into our cultural mores, now. For what is new is the current urgency for this reinstatement. Although the core and universal nature of aesthetics has been promulgated in the past, NOW it is critical to bring Beauty forward again, into global consciousness, as an integral guiding principal with its power to unite and heal. We have only to look around our crumbling institutions and old patterns to see that this is so.

” …from the soul viewpoint beauty is a necessary part of ordinary life.” ~Thomas Moore

September 28, 2014

Cosmology not Cosmetology

B E A U T Y

C O S M O L O G Y

not

Cosmetology

In our culture today aesthetics are trivialized. Glamour has replaced true beauty. We revere the illusory and, too often, ignore that which is truly beautiful. Think Hollywood vs. the Atlantic ocean; television vs. sunset. What do we pay more attention to?

I am not immune, not “above it all”. Not at all. Television is often my drug of choice. But in a proverbial “dark night of the soul” — mine — I asked myself, what really matters in this life? My answer: true, eternal Beauty. Not those things that are a matter of trend, taste, or style. But eternal Beauty.

And that is what this blog is about: the exploration of the aesthetic, and how it effects our lives.

Well, and on occasion other not clearly related observations. I do tend to go off on tangents sometimes…

Cosmology is the order of things…

While Cosmetology is about cosmetics, appearances,

creating an illusion, perhaps

True Beauty is eternal.

It is the compass that directs one to harmony.