2023 FEMMY Awards: 30 Years of Intimate Solutions

The “30 Years of Intimate Solutions” 2023 FEMMY Award goes to Fashion Forms and will be accepted by Founder and CEO, Ann Deal!

For the Hollywood community, the Academy Awards are the highlight of the year. For Ann, they were the start of a multimillion-dollar idea.

Inspired by watching celebrities walk the red carpet in daring ball gowns, Ann saw the need for a lingerie solution that would help women wear plunging necklines, backless dresses and other revealing looks with confidence. She went into business in her garage with a backless, strapless adhesive bra in 1993. It was an immediate hit and the first in a long line of Fashion Forms products to revolutionize the intimate apparel industry.

For the past two decades, Ann has enhanced the lives—and curves—of women around the world. With her signature Southern charm and a keen understanding of the symbiotic relationship between lingerie and fashion, she has turned Fashion Forms into the leading producer of specialty bras and accessories in the U.S., Canada and Europe. The company holds 14 patents and 18 trademarks for its innovative designs, and its products are sold in more than 9,000 stores worldwide.

Offerings include trendsetting bras such as the Original Water Bra and Go Bare Backless Strapless Bra as well as Strap Solutions, breast petals, and fashion tapes. The company also produces a variety of water push-up pads and silicone bra inserts that provide a natural, non-surgical lift.

Originally from North Carolina, Ann was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. As a child she made a game of selling the most Girl Scout cookies in her troop, discovering that if she had fun and shared her enthusiasm, she would reach her goal. As a teenager she set her sights on a career in business despite being told that young ladies could be one of three things: a secre-tary, nurse or teacher. She earned a spot in a top retail training program in Atlanta and began her career as a buyer for Rich’s department store, where she perfected the skills of assessing exactly what her customers desired.

By the time she moved to California in the early 1990s and went into business for herself, Ann had a deep sense of what the lingerie industry needed in order to evolve with changing styles—and she met that need with a game-changing product line that continues to
set trends.

To accommodate her growing business, Ann moved her headquarters to Austin, Texas, in 2015. Ann is deeply committed to giving back and actively supported numerous local and international nonprofits in her coastal town of Ventura, California, and looks forward to doing the same in her new home in the heart of Texas. When she’s not on the road working and scouting trends, she enjoys perfecting her golf swing and exploring the lakes of central Texas.