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History
The
Bali brand traces its beginning to 1927 when women’s
foundation garments were designed to project a flat silhouette.
Sara Stein, who worked for a bra manufacturing company, saw
the opportunity to deliver a better garment - a product that
would appeal to women, yet be functional in construction and
fit. Using a small Singer sewing machine tucked in the corner
of her small Brooklyn apartment, Sara started to sew a different
type of brassiere. Her husband, Sam, a sales clerk with Weber
and Heilbrunner, a well-known roaring twenties men’s
furnishings store, sold these to stores in the area. The name
of the budding enterprise was Fay-Miss, a play on the word
“famous.” First year sales were $10,000 – very
impressive for a part-time venture in the late 1920’s.
In 1935 Fay-Miss acquired a new name: Bali Brassiere Company.
The
Steins were not solely interested in cutting and sewing brassieres
for commercial profit. Their concern for quality, fit, performance
and comfort were key to the company's growth. By 1940, Sam
and Sara Stein were considered the innovators of the foundations
industry. They introduced the first bias cup brassiere, and
the first all-cotton brassiere. Each was designed to be comfortable
and enhance shape.
In
1969, with Sam and Sara nearing retirement, the Hanes Corporation
of Winston-Salem, North Carolina acquired the controlling
interest in the Bali Brassiere Company. One decade later,
Hanes Corporation was acquired by Consolidated Foods Company
out of Chicago, which in 1985 changed its name to Sara Lee
Corporation. In 2006 the spin-off of Hanesbrands Inc. occurred
and the Bali brand became one of the significant brands in
their intimate apparel portfolio which also included *Playtex®,
Wonderbra®, Barely There® and Hanes Her Way®.
More
than 80 years after the company's founding, Bali ® intimates
still adheres to the original concept of designing and producing
flattering, comfortable garments for women.
1927
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quoted from balicompany.com
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