{"id":5831,"date":"2026-08-18T14:17:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calysta.eu\/julie-newmar-catwoman-and-shapewear-inventor-before-spanx-and-skims\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T14:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:17:55","slug":"julie-newmar-catwoman-and-shapewear-inventor-before-spanx-and-skims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/julie-newmar-catwoman-and-shapewear-inventor-before-spanx-and-skims\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Newmar: Catwoman and shapewear inventor before SPANX and SKIMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie Newmar just turned 93 on 16 August. She is best known for playing Catwoman opposite Adam West in the 1960s Batman television series. What is less known is that she is also the inventor of five US patents concerning brassieres and pantyhose.<\/p>\n

For her brassiere work, she used two kinds of protection. Design patents D235,389 and D235,390, filed in March and April 1974, claimed the ornamental designs. Utility patent US3,935,865, filed that November, claimed the functional structure: a band below the breasts, cups linked to at least two spaced cords over each shoulder, and closure cords. The specification explains that the band provides a stable base, while the paired cords divide the load and allow it to shift as the shoulders and back move, especially during activities like dancing or athletics.<\/p>\n

Julie Newmar\u2019s first pantyhose patent, US3,914,799, filed in September 1974, starts from a different problem: fabric that compresses the abdomen can also \u201cflatten and denaturalize the wearer\u2019s derriere\u201d. Her solution was a central elastic shaping band running from the crotch towards the waist. The band had substantially greater elasticity than the surrounding fabric and fitted between the buttocks to produce what the patent calls a \u201ccheeky relief\u201d. US4,003,094 was later filed as a continuation-in-part, a mechanism specific to US practice for building on an earlier filing. This second pantyhose patent retains the shaping mechanism and adds that a panty portion is made of a stretchable knit fabric of a blend of nylon and elastomeric fibers.<\/p>\n

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Julie Newmar did not invent shapewear: corsets came long before her. But those earlier garments were mostly rigid. Her pantyhose patents instead apply different elastic forces in different zones of a single stretch garment to achieve the shaping effect.<\/p>\n

The same principle remains central to shapewear today, and major brands have patented their own versions. In 2000, the year she founded SPANX, Sara Blakely filed a patent application for a garment combining different types of yarn to provide shaping support while leaving the lower legs bare for open-toed shoes or sandals (granted as US6,276,176).<\/p>\n

This shaping function even has its own classification subgroup: A41B2400\/38, on \u201cshaping the contour of the body or adjusting the figure\u201d. Classifications are used by patent offices worldwide to sort patents into technological fields. That subgroup did not yet exist when Julie Newmar filed her applications, and today it includes over 2,000 patent families, with a clearly rising long-term trend.<\/p>\n

One recent example of a patent classified under this subgroup is US10,806,190, which names Kimberly Kardashian West and SKIMS co-founder Jens Grede as inventors. It relates to an asymmetric garment providing shaping support while remaining hidden under a dress or skirt with a high slit.<\/p>\n

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Long before shapewear became a billion-dollar industry with its own patent classification, Julie Newmar was already inventing in the field and patenting it. She even managed to obtain a granted patent claim with the phrase \u201cto produce cheeky relief\u201d for the buttocks. On her 93rd birthday, that inventiveness and wit are worth celebrating too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julie Newmar just turned 93 on 16 August. She is best known for playing Catwoman opposite Adam West in the 1960s Batman television series. What is less known is that she is also the inventor of five US patents concerning brassieres and pantyhose. For her brassiere work, she used two kinds of protection. Design patents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":5825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[131],"tags":[337,147,149],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=5831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5825\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=5831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=5831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calysta.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=5831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}