Figure Flattery

Now for some swell news: Cleavage is back, and so is its best friend--the push-up bra.

You may think this figure reformer went out with Queen Elizabeth in the 1600s, Marie Antoinette in the 1700s and Jayne Mansfield in the 1950s--and it did. But, it’s back, and Lynn Stegen, owner of The Booby Trap in Encino, claims the pushy bra is bigger now than ever.

“The way clothes are right now,” she says, “there’s a big emphasis on the breast. . . . With everything off the shoulder, it’s a wonderful look,” she said. “Femininity is really being emphasized right now.”

Why? Some think it is because of singer-actress Madonna, who started a fashion trend of underwear as outer wear--and the corresponding emphasis on the breast.

Whatever the reason, the bras are hot properties at Stegen’s store, where they sell from $17.50 to $19.50. She said she hears customers who try them on exclaim, “I didn’t think I had this much!” They don’t, really. Push-up bras make women’s breasts seem larger by displacing them with foam padding. The padding fills out the bottom of the bra, while the breasts spill out the top. Voila, there’s cleavage.

One proud push-up bra owner, a financial analyst from Burbank, said she finds her bra is a big hit with men. “They always tell me they have trouble looking me in the face when I wear it,” she said without a blush. Her version has a Velcro adjuster that gives her the option of minimum or maximum push-up. “I always opt for maximum push-up,” she chirped.

Despite all the bra-ha-ha, the financial analyst has found that the bra does have its problems. “If you wear it with a shirt with a collar, you look like an idiot,” she says. “Your breasts look like they’re pushing up through your neck.”

And when she wears it with the appropriateplunging blouse or dress? “You have to wear all this concealer for the blemishes on your breasts because they show so much,” she admits.