Polly Smith | |
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Born | Montclair, New Jersey, U.S. | November 10, 1949
Other names | Polly Palmer–Smith |
Alma mater | Moore College of Art and Design New York University |
Occupation(s) | Inventor, costume designer |
Employer | The Jim Henson Company |
Awards | Emmy award, BAFTA (1989), National Inventors Hall of Fame (2022) |
Polly Smith (born November 10, 1949) [1] is an American inventor and costume designer. Smith was the costume designer for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street .
In 1977, Smith co-created the "Jogbra", the first sports bra, working alongside Lisa Lindahl and Hinda Miller. [1] She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2022. [2]
Polly Palmer Smith was born November 10, 1949, in Montclair, New Jersey. [1] Smith attended Montclair Kimberley Academy. [3] Her mother made quilts and her grandfather was an illustrator. [4]
She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1971) in fashion design at the Moore College of Art and Design, and a master's degree (1975) in costume design at New York University. [4] [5] [6]
In 1978, Smith joined The Jim Henson Company. [7] She was a costume designer on The Muppet Show and Sesame Street . [8] Her design for Miss Piggy was featured in an exhibition on Women Designers in the USA. [9] [10] [11] She received 7 Emmy Awards for her work on Sesame Street. [1]
In 1977, Smith was working with Lisa Lindahl on costumes for the William Shakespeare festival in Burlington, Vermont. Lindahl was a keen athlete, and experienced discomfort when running in a regular bra. Together they came up with the design for a sports bra, and worked with Hinda Miller to source the materials and conduct a test run. When Smith visited New York for work, she returned with new fabrics – elastics and Lycra – and created a bra for Lindahl's measurements. Lindahl and Miller co-founded Jogbra, Inc.[ citation needed ]
In 1989, she won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for her costume work on the television series The StoryTeller. [1]
When asked about their contributions to the design of the sports bra, Smith commented, “Lisa was the idea, I was the fabrication, and Hinda was the driving force behind making it happen. And this is one of the things we all agreed on — [that] it couldn’t have happened if one of us had been missing — because it needed all three.” [12]