Who invented playboy bunny

In celebration of Black History Month we're looking back at groundbreaking moments in fashion, beauty and beyond.

There are plenty of firsts, little-known facts and milestones that deserve to be highlighted -- so we're doing just that!

Her curve-hugging creations were worn and loved by a host of Hollywood's biggest starlets during the s and 50s, including Joyce Bryant, Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Mae West. The Pennsylvania-native's key role in glamorizing these women caught the attention of Playboy's Hugh Hefner and he commissioned Zelda to design the first-ever Playboy Bunny costumes.

And history has proven, the low-cut, skin-tight, sexy outfits are an iconic symbol of seduction and allure, forever ingrained in pop culture. She spent 18 years with the dance company and retired at the age of From dressing Hollywood darlings, Playboy Bunnies and ballerinas, Zelda's legacy is long and enduring -- a fact that she was certainly proud of.

In the s the Playboy logo was even adopted as the military aircraft insignia for the Navy VX-4 fighter-evaluation squadron. Not limited to a for-profit enterprise, the Playboy logo made its mark on charitable causes as well. In December , Hugh Hefner published the very first edition of Playboy. Within a matter of weeks, the magazine had sold over 50, copies.

Interestingly enough, though, Monroe never actually signed a contract to appear in the magazine. Before Marylin Monroe became a household name, she was a struggling actress in desperate need of cash. To earn a little money, she posed nude in for photographer Tom Kelley.

By , Monroe was one of the most famous actresses in all of Hollywood. At the time, the first edition of Playboy was a truly groundbreaking entrance into the market, bringing controversial, sexual topics and photographs into center stage for the first time in American history.

As history now shows, though, the first edition of Playboy was published at the perfect time, and Hugh Hefner was able to both ride and help usher in a wave of sexual liberation that would make Playboy one of the most successful publications of all time.

Hugh Hefner was born on April 9, , in Chicago, Illinois. There, he was raised along with his younger brother by his parents Glenn and Grace Hefner, who were reportedly fairly strict Methodists. At an early age, Hugh Hefner demonstrated an exceptional IQ of , but his genius-level intelligence only translated into modest academic success.

In high school, Hugh Hefner founded a school newspaper as well as his own comic series he called School Daze. Both publications were a success, and Hefner realized that he had a talent for producing publications that people enjoyed reading. However, by the time Hugh Hefner graduated high school, people were far more concerned with the war than they were entertainment publications, and Hugh Hefner himself answered the call of duty by enlisting as a noncombatant in the U.

Army toward the end of World War Two. Within a couple years of graduating, Hugh Hefner married Millie Williams and began working as a copywriter for Esquire. Unemployed, Hugh Hefner decided that the next step in his career path would be to return to the roots he established in high school and start his own publication. Hugh Hefner put together the first issue of Playboy in his home and published it in December using a nude photo of Marylin Monroe that he had purchased the rights to.

The magazine was a near-instant success. During the same time period that his magazine was taking off, though, Hugh Hefner was also plagued with problems at home, and he and his wife were divorced in A newly single man, Hugh Hefner began to adopt the lifestyle that Playboy was built around. For the rest of his life, Hugh Hefner surrounded himself with beautiful women, eventually becoming somewhat infamous for marrying and divorcing women that were many years younger than he was.

However, Hugh Hefner also used his wealth and platform to promote a number of charitable causes, including the restoration of classic films and donations to various cinema courses. With the passing of the Editor in Chief of Playboy , Hugh Hefner , we remember him as the leader of the sexual revolution with a blonde bombshell always by his side. The Playboy empire has been built up by incredible marketing strategies, one of the most memorable being the Playboy Bunny.

With the founding of the Playboy Clubs in , Hefner recognized the need for a showgirl-esque uniform for his waitresses, to create a one-of-a-kind experience. The uniform would be a variation of the Playboy rabbit mascot, complete with bunny ears, a bow tie, a collar, cuffs and a fluffy cottontail. It was also the first commercial uniform to be registered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

While everyone knows the costume and has been to at least one Halloween party with a Bunny impersonator, not everyone knows the fashion designer behind the Bunny. Enter Zelda Wynn Valdes, who was handpicked by Hefner to complete the task of creating the costume. Notably, Valdes was an African American woman who opened the first black-owned boutique in Manhattan, in Her design aesthetic was exactly what Hefner was looking for, something sexy, feminine and figure-hugging—a real statement piece.

Hefner and the Playboy Club Director of Promotions, Victor Lownes, enlisted Valdes to create a look that would remain a staple of the Playboy Enterprise, one that communicated the exclusivity of the club, the patrons and the Bunnies.