Measuring the impact of silicone-implant bras

By BILLY ADAMS herald correspondent

The world's media was in a spin. It had just seen the movie Erin Brockovich and — more specifically — had spotted Julia Roberts flaunting a cleavage which bore no relation to her 34B breasts.

Forget Clinton, Serbia. This was real news. Had she or hadn't she? If so, what? And why? Gossip columnists and show hosts were desperate to find out.

"She's had surgery," some declared. Others were more confident: "They're obviously falsies."

When the truth came out American women went wild. Roberts had been wearing the latest in bust-boosting bras — and they wanted one.

Cut to a small office in the grey and rainy city of Glasgow, Scotland, where a story that would seem beyond even the imagination of Hollywood's most ludicrous scriptwriters is unfolding.

The main character is an only child from a working-class family, who leaves school at 15 to help support her father who has just been confined to a wheelchair. She has no qualifications, but learns the business the hard way, climbing from rock bottom to the top in a very big company.

Then she is made redundant, but bounces back by inventing a unique, bust-enhancing bra that looks destined to make millions. This throws her into a David and Goliath confrontation with the big boys of the lingerie industry.

Then, just as the battle is starting, her bra helps one of the world's most famous actors to revive a flagging career.

For more colour, add the fact that our hero is a striking blond former catwalk model, not to mention a mother of three small children, and the plot seems complete.

Far-fetched? Sure. But completely true.

For someone at the centre of such an astonishing tale, Michelle Mone seems very relaxed.

"When I saw Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich I had no idea Julia was wearing my bra," she says. "I knew it wasn't a boob job so I thought it must have been a better bra than mine."

When Roberts revealed her secret, Mone's Ultimo bra became an essential accessory that was almost impossible to get. It was available only in Britain, but women everywhere had decided that what was good for Roberts was better for them.

More than 2000 Roberts wannabees were on the waiting-list when the bra was launched in America at Saks Fifth Ave.

Painted nails were chipped and egos deflated as the Ultimo sold out. Rarely had the exclusive Manhattan department store seen such a frenzy.

But don't suggest to Mone that Roberts was the main reason for her product's success.

"Of course the Julia Roberts thing was great," she says, "but the Amer-icans had been excited about the Ultimo long before that movie came out. It was the icing on a cake that had already been baked."

In the fiercely competitive world of bras, Mone is a superconfident newcomer, or naive upstart, depending on which vested interest you're listening to. The figures, though, seem to speak for themselves.

When it was launched last year every Ultimo was whisked off the shelves of Britain's department stores on the first day. Billed as a natural alternative to surgical implants, the bra's gel-filled pockets push the wearer's breasts inward and upward — making for a monster cleavage and an instant army of dedicated fans.

The gels are the same as those used by orthopaedic surgeons in knee operations. Mone says that when the gel is adapted for breasts the Ultimo looks, moves and even feels like the real thing.

Move over the Triumph Wonderbra and Bendon's Super Bra, fronted by Elle MacPherson, the Ultimo is now the underfashion world's latest must-have.

Rival firms say it's more like bumping into a whoopee cushion. But fashion critics have been impressed and the Ultimo has stood out in most bra polls.

By the end of next month it will be available in almost every United States department store and Mone plans to launch the bra in other world markets, including New Zealand, where it should be available early next year.

Such has been the success of the Ultimo that several of the big Amer-ican underwear companies, who were not at all keen on a young pretender moving in on the $10 billion ling-erie market, have offered to buy Mone out.

The young Scots entrepreneur refused, determined to continue her own remarkable "rags to riches" story.

Mone was brought up in a tiny tenement flat in Glasgow's East End and left school at 15 without any qualifications because her Dad, who had a spinal disease, had to give up work. The tall blond became a model but was fired from jobs when she insisted on telling the organisers how to better promote their products.

Eighteen months after taking up a job "making the tea" at the Canadian brewer Labatts, she was made head of the Scottish sales team at the age of 21. Three years later, with the company structure changing, she took a redundancy package and decided to set up her own business.

For a woman who had snubbed teen magazines for business books at school, and pinned posters of Richard Branson instead of George Michael on her bedroom wall, it was the beginning of achieving a lifelong dream.

On holiday in America she spotted an ad for cleavage-enhancers designed to fit inside a bra She tracked down the manufacturers, intent on winning a contract to sell the product in Europe. Despite having no experience in the field, she succeeded.

But Mone had bigger plans. She had worn a Wonderbra on a night out and found it too uncomfortable. She thought she could do better, and set about designing her own version. Three years later the Ultimo was ready.

It is the latest addition to a push-up bra market which has exploded since Wonderbra launched its Hello Boys campaign on an unsuspecting world six years ago.

Eighteen months ago Mone was based in a small office with just one employee. But no one dares to laugh these days when she confidently declares she can beat the major players in lingerie .

"No one has really taken on the big boys for 30 years," Mone says. "It could have been them who came up with this bra but it was me. I designed this because I am a woman and I know what women want.

"When a lot of the big corporate companies design bras they say, 'This wire is too expensive,' and so on. Mine is a personal design, and that's why people think it's the best. Until now cleavage bras have been uncomfortable and heavily padded. Women wanted a more natural look, and that's what I've provided."

Today Mone has an office with 20 staff near the centre of Glasgow. The secret of business success, she says, is hard work and focus. She has no spare time or hobbies, but that doesn't seem to bother her.

Married to a stockbroker, she does her best to find time to be Mum to three young children. "I don't normally get to bed until about 2 am and then I'll be up during the night feeding Beth and looking after Declan, who gets scared of the dark," she says.

"Last July was really stressful. We were coming up to the launch of the bra, we were building a new office, and I went into labour with Beth during a meeting with people from the States.

"I said I would be back soon, and though I was 20 hours in labour I was back at that meeting within 48 hours. It was just mayhem. But I had to get back. Lots of people were relying on me."

Mone's success has not been all plain sailing. This year a former employee launched a $1.6 million compensation claim, claiming he had been wrongly dismissed from Mone's MJM International and that he had played an essential role in developing the bra.

Mone is fighting the claim, insisting that the design is her own.

Whatever the outcome of the case, the Ultimo is set to cause a stir on more fronts. Bikinis, a full range of women's lingerie and even men's underwear — without the VPL (visible panty line) — are all in the pipeline.

Three years ago Mone's company was worth nothing. This year, after an investment from Scottish sportswear tycoon Tom Hunter, it will turn over $33 million with predictions of $325 million in three years.

Such progress has earned her many business awards and, at 28, she is now one of the most recognisable faces in Britain's fashion world.

"But this is only the beginning," she declares. And with that kind of start there are few who would argue with her.