While I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology a favorite weekend activity was to browse through the then old and musty shelves of Strand Bookstore for used and rare books on fashion and lingerie. At that time, when I wasn’t busy with a business I also averaged about one book a week… I miss those days! One of my goals for the new year is to start making time for myself and to read again, and also to share some of my favorites since I know a lot of our readers and fans are just as wild about lingerie as me!

So my first review I thought to keep in mind the playfullness of brands and review a fun and playful book, and that is “Hoorah for the Bra – a perky peek at the history of the brassiere”.

If you’re into the nitty gritty advice or laborious historical facts this is not a book for you, instead this is a fun tongue in cheek POP-UP book about the history of bras- yes, you read that right, it’s a Pop-up book! Now imagine my surprise as I perused the shelves at Strand and came across a lingerie title I had never seen before, I saw the little bra hook clasp holding the pages together and a little smile came on my face, and I opened the clasp (gave me one of those moments I think guys go through where they try to open it one-handed and I can’t remember if I succeeded or not) to find the most amusing graphic pages with pop-ups that made cute reference to boobs and brassieres without actually having a set of pop up boobs… well at least not til the next to last page where there is a set of wine glasses over a pair of wonderbra boosted boobs with a little tab that says pull- ok I take the bait, and the pull tab makes the two glasses tilt in and TOAST! *CLINK* I nearly laugh out loud, and reading the line below “Cheers to the Brassiere” – if i had been drinking coffee I would’ve almost snorted out my nose! I am not sure if its intended to be so funny, but there is something so amusing to me about the concept of pop-ups that I adored so much as a child being attached to a book about something most adults blush to talk about!

For nostalgias sake alone I say this book will make you feel like a kid again, the fact that you can interact with it by pulling, turning, and peering into the pop-ups… well no 3D tv, no technological advancement can replace those things that we can touch and feel and hold in our hands, at least in my point of view. I still love the feeling of turning and folding the pages, and even the SMELL of a book with age.

The happy bonus I got from discovering this book at Strand? I realized it was autographed by the author on the inside cover… yeah, pretty sweet if you ask me. So what if its addressed to Rena… or Kena and not me?! I find even more amusement when I read dear Cheree Berry (can we talk about how fun her name is to say out loud in your head?) sign her name below XOOX with two little dots inside the O’s – yes, a little boobie kiss!

So if you’re looking for a fun coffee table book for your lingerie store, a cute little conversation piece for your mantle, or a fun way to introduce your pre-teen to bras I think this is the perfect book for you!