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Which bra was the world's largest?

David Pescovitz at 10:45 am Tue, Nov 15, 2011

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The British company Varnish recently hung a massive bra across a London skyscraper to draw attention to the "Wear It Pink" Cancer-awareness campaign. Photo above. Guinness World Records awarded it "World's Largest Bra," but famed prankster Joey Skaggs is calling bullshit on that. In 1969, Skaggs made a 120-foot-long bra and hung it on Wall Street as a commentary on many men's obsession with large breasts. Video above. From HuffPo:

"There was a woman named Francine Gottfried, who was an office worker on Wall Street who had very, very large breasts," Skaggs told HuffPost Weird News. "When Francine would go out to lunch many Wall Street workers would point, stare, whistle and hoot."

Skaggs says he finally was able to show his support for Gottfried -- and all women -- on Valentine's Day 1969, when, with the help of friends, he tied one end of the bra to the outstretched arm of the statue of George Washington in front of the U.S. Treasury building on Wall Street.

After stretching the bra across the front of the building and tying the other end to a column, Skaggs waited to see the reaction to his work.

It wasn't good.

"When the flood of workers going to lunch saw what was happening, they became enraged," he said. "Hundreds of men attacked the bra and ripped it to pieces."

"Joey Skaggs: World's Largest Bra Record Should Be Mine"

 
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David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • daneyul

    >> Which Bra was the world’s largest?

    Bra-zil, of course.

  • Brainspore

    REPORT: Wall Street Dominated by Giant Boobs

  • MrRocking

    Bit literal that Skaggs bloke…

  • ChicagoD

    I feel like this headline was VERY misleading. Now I’m disappointed.

  • Teller

    For once you might’ve signed in ChicagoDD.

  • http://twitter.com/sarah_no_cal sarah_no_cal

    Is there anyone not aware of breast cancer by now?

  • Guest

    If the purpose of a bra is to support boobs… then all the lobbyists on K Street lined up end-to-end.

  • InsertFingerHere

    I’m often wary of claims superceeding what has been properly documented & vetted in record books.  

    Was this a real bra in 1969 or some rough fabric and cups sewn together?  The object has to be reasonable enough within it’s function & scale that you could imagine a pair of really huge knockers settled nicely in there.  Like two of these:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7ZWJJdPV8

    Does Guinness do penis size?    They would need hard proof in their hands to be able to grasp the enormity of the subject.

    But you gotta know there’s a 400 foot bra that nobody knows about yet, playing basketball somewhere deep in China.

  • wizardru

    And by ‘hundreds of men’, he means about 8-10 guys, judging from his 8MM film segment.  The linked article suggests that he’s exaggerating, but mostly indicates he didn’t do a very good job, since this was the second time he did it. 

  • daneyul

    “When the flood of workers going to lunch saw what was happening, they became enraged,” he said. “Hundreds of men attacked the bra and ripped it to pieces.”

    That description sounds more fake than most of the boobs these bras pay homage to.

  • ardensky

    http://images.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Francine+Gottfried

    • http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill

      I did that same search. These are some of the creepiest news photos I ever saw. It’s guys standing around the subway exit waiting for Ms. Gottfried to arrive. Which was such an event the NY Daily News was there to lens it.

      • ChicagoD

        What the hell was going on there. I mean, she’s an attractive woman etc etc but that is crazy. There has to be more back story than “hey there’s that one chick with big bewbs. Get a couple of hundred guys and we’ll all check her out.” I feel like if this was “normal” Mad Men has missed a real story line with Christina Hendricks’ character.

        • MooseDesign

          That’s what happens when banks go bust.

  • ardensky

    oopsy-dupesy

  • E T

    Is it a bra if it doesn’t fit any breasts?

    • Brainspore

      Is it a bra if it doesn’t fit any breasts?

      Whaddaya mean? You could fit THOUSANDS of breasts into that thing!

  • InsertFingerHere

    And yes, THAT is the World’s biggest bra, a movie prop.

  • MooseDesign

    I can see it now, Joey Skaggs being dragged kicking and screaming out of the Guinness World Records screaming, “don’t taze me bra!”

  • JhmL

    Somewhere there’s a very pissed off braless 50 Foot Woman.