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Cone Bras

Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are wearing cone bras in their new videos. From Madonna to Howard Hughes, Rebecca Dana traces the origins of fashion’s longest-running practical joke.

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Luca Bruno / AP Photo,LUCA BRUNO
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Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana showed a modern interpretation of the Gaultier corset as part of their Spring 2010 collection.

Luca Bruno / AP Photo
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Gaultier too reinterpreted his original masterpiece, created for Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour, for a recent collection.

Pierre Verdy / Getty Images
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British designer Louise Goldin picked up on the underwear as outerwear trend as well, doing a small-n-pointy version of the traditional cone.

Chris Jackson / Getty Images
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Madonna wears one of the first Gaultier cone bras during her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour.

Gill Allen / AP Photo
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1950’s pin-up Betty Page was an early and enthusiastic cone-bra wearer, sporting the dangerous underwear for much of her career—until her conversion to Christianity in 1959 and went off to work for Billy Graham.

Getty Images
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Legend has it that Howard Hughes designed the first version of the push-up bra for Jane Russell to wear in The Outlaws. But Russell denied ever wearing his creation.

AP Photo

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