Beauty is big business in the United States, with American women estimated to spend an average of $15,000 on makeup products alone during their lifetimes. But how did that $460 billion industry come to be? Historian Vicki Howard traced part of its roots to Maidenform, the lingerie company that “helped define postwar commercial beauty culture”—and whose working women both embraced and challenged changing conceptions of beauty in the workplace.

Source: This Lingerie Company Transformed Postwar Commercial Beauty Culture | JSTOR Daily