Source: OC Register
Summer 1955 – December 1956
LOCATION
Main Street USA – Intimate Apparel stood on the eastern side of Main Street, a few storefronts down from the central hub. To find the shop, visitors walked along the right-hand side of the street, climbing the steps to the porch to find the little doorway tucked in the shade. This porch and entryway remains today, though the door is no longer accessible and the retail space has been absorbed by other shops.
EXPERIENCE
Details:
- Merchandise – bras and underwear
- Unique Features – in-store exhibit explaining the history of bras
Most 21st century park guests would probably not believe it, but Main Street once had an underwear shop! Intimate Apparel sold exactly what the name suggests – bras, underwear, corsets, and other underclothes. Visitors entered the shop from the raised porch, and family members not shopping often found themselves waiting in the shaded seating area.
CLOSURE
The reason for Intimate Apparel’s closure is pretty simple; when their sponsorship ended in 1956, H-M Company opted not to renew, and left the park. For a while the interior space remained vacant, until the Ruggles China & Glass Shop next door expanded.
TRIVIA
This shop has the only genuine porch space on the street, and no one really agrees on why! Some claim it was for modesty, keeping window displays obscured from the main walkway. Others say it was a waiting area for husbands while wives shopped for bras. And others still say there was no deliberate reason for the porch’s location; it fit in the space and looked nice.
Intimate Apparel had an official sponsor: the H-M Company, better known in the 50s as the “Wizard of Bras”.
Interesting to read about places like this that predated even my first visit in 1958 as a five year old. Probably Intimate Apparel was also somewhere near Silhouette Studio? That’s the only memory I have of Main Street on that visit.
You’re exactly right! The Silhouette Studio was right next door – to the right if you were facing the shop front.