9. Bra Stuffing Was A Serious, Lucrative Business
The Bunny club uniforms came with only two bust sizes: 34D and 36D. If you are unfamiliar with bust sizing, both of these sizes are for very small rib cages with huge breasts. Bra sizing is the contract between your rib cage size and the size of the fullest part of your chest, so a 34D means a vast difference between the rib cage and chest size. Since many women aren’t born with that large of breasts, bra stuffing was an essential part of wearing the Playboy Club uniform.
Women would use numerous different items, including socks, kleenex, and crumpled dry cleaning bags, to fill out the cups of their uniforms. When Gloria Steinem infiltrated the Bunny club, she was given a uniform two inches smaller than her body everywhere except her chest. Her Bunny mother gave her a plastic dry-cleaning bag to fill out the chest area. Bra stuffing and using multiple layers of bras are among tricks still used by dancers, “booth babes” and other performers. The Bunnies also used their extra bra cup space to stash their tips, which led to their bras being known as “the vault.”