• June 12, 2000
• Vol. 53
• No. 23

Robustier

Tired of Bras That Hurt More Than Enhanced, Designer Michelle Mone Created the Silicone-Filled Ultimo

Michelle Mone's bra was killing her. She was at a dinner in Glasgow in 1996, wearing a little something to enhance her cleavage. "It was so uncomfortable," says the size-36B former model, "I had to go to the bathroom and take it off." What the world needed, Mone realized, was a bra that would build bustlines painlessly. So, she says, "I started experimenting with old bras filled with everything from socks to bags of water."

The result, launched in the United States last month: the Ultimo, which does more for female bosoms than anything Scottish since the young Sean Connery. "We are beating our sales projections by 25 percent," says Barbara Lipton, a vice president at Saks Fifth Avenue, which sold 2,500 Ultimos in the first three weeks. The Ultimo gets its lift from built-in silicone bags that, says Linda Wells, editor-in-chief of Allure, "allow women to have a little more oomph without having to go under the surgeon's knife." The bra "pulls your breasts together if you're small," explains Mone. "If you're large, the silicone supports the breasts."

The daughter of factory worker Duncan and Isabel, a home-care assistant, Mone, who grew up in Glasgow, dropped out of school at 15 to model. She was 19 when she met stockbroker Michael Mone, now 33, whom she married in 1992; they have three children, ages 7, 4, and 11 months. And with $1.85 million a year in sales, Mone finally has what she always wanted: a bra that supports her comfortably.