Olga

Olga is an American lingerie and nightwear brand founded in California in the 1940s by Olga Erteszek, a Polish emigre designer, and her husband Jan Erteszek. It became known for full-skirted nightgowns and bras built into sleepwear, was sold to Warnaco in 1984, and is now marketed as Olga by Warners, a line of fuller-figure bras and panties owned by Basic Resources since late 2023.

Few American lingerie companies were so plainly identified with one woman. Its long-running advertising line said it outright: "Behind every Olga, there really is an Olga."

From a corsetiere's daughter to California

Olga Erteszek was born Otylia on June 15, 1916, and grew up as the daughter of a corsetiere, which put the trade in her hands early. When Germany invaded Poland, she and Jan fled east, traveling through Russia and on to Japan before securing American visas. They reached California in 1941.

The start was small and practical. Olga worked in a sweatshop sewing girdles and bras. She also sewed a dozen or so lace-trimmed garter belts, and Jan, who had been a criminal lawyer, sold them to a store buyer. That first order turned into a company.

The designer in her own advertisements

Jan Erteszek ran the business side, and he insisted that Olga herself appear in the brand's advertisements. That choice set Olga apart from labels named after a founder who had long since left. The woman whose name was on the tag was also the face in the ads and the designer at the drafting table, and the "Behind every Olga" slogan made a selling point of that.

Twenty-eight patents and the sweep of a nightgown

Erteszek was a technical designer as much as a stylist. She held 28 patents, which Wikipedia notes as the women's record. Her nightgowns were cut with what has been described as a full, flowing skirt width and a generous sweep, which meant a lot of fabric falling from a fitted bodice. One of her designs, the Built-In Bra Nightgown, put real bust support inside a gown, so a woman did not have to choose between a structured bra and a soft nightdress.

That idea now looks obvious, since shelf-bra camisoles and padded slips are everywhere. In mid-century American sleepwear it was an engineering problem, and the patents show she treated it that way. The label worked across the line between full-cup bras and the nightgowns worn over them.

Warnaco, PVH and Basic Resources

In 1984 Warnaco bought Olga's company for 28 million dollars. Olga Erteszek died of breast cancer on September 15, 1989, at her home in Brentwood, California.

Inside Warnaco, Olga became one of the core trademarks of its intimate apparel group, alongside Warners. When PVH, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, acquired Warnaco in 2013, it took Olga with it. Ten years later, in November 2023, PVH sold the Warners and Olga brands to Basic Resources, Inc.

Olga by Warners today

The old olga.com address no longer resolves. The brand now lives inside the Warners website, which is operated by BR Intimates LLC, as Olga by Warners. Its own page says the label was established more than 75 years ago and aims to help women look their best and feel confident in their curves.

The range is narrower than in Olga Erteszek's day. It is built around bras for fuller figures in sizes 36C to 44DDD, sorted into minimizer bras, underwire and wireless styles, plus panties in bikini, brief, hipster, thong and hi-cut shapes from S to 3XL. The full-skirted nightgowns that made the founder's reputation are not part of the current line, which leaves Olga, after eight decades, as a bra brand sold under another brand's name.

Last updated October 7, 2026