Ultimo

Ultimo is a Scottish lingerie brand founded in Glasgow in 1996 by Michelle Mone and her then-husband Michael, best known for the Ultimo bra, a cleavage-enhancing bra with silicone gel pads. The bra launched at Selfridges in London in August 1999 and turned Ultimo into one of the most publicized British lingerie names of the 2000s. The brand passed to the Sri Lankan apparel group MAS Holdings between 2013 and 2014, and in April 2018 Ultimo announced it would stop trading in the UK.

The story is short, loud and more complicated than its press releases suggested at the time.

A silicone idea from a Florida holiday

Mone grew up in the East End of Glasgow and worked as a model before running the Scottish sales and marketing team for the brewer Labatt's. After she was made redundant, she and her husband set up MJM International Ltd in late 1996.

The product idea came from discomfort: she found the cleavage-enhancing bras she wore uncomfortable. On a holiday in Florida she came across a silicone product and secured the European manufacturing rights. After about three years of research, design and development, the company patented the Ultimo bra, a push-up bra that used silicone gel pads to give shape and lift with a softer, more natural feel than foam.

It arrived in a crowded field. The Wonderbra had made push-up bras a mass-market obsession in Britain in the mid-1990s, and Ultimo's pitch was that gel could do the same job with more comfort.

Selfridges, Saks and a parade of models

The launch at Selfridges in August 1999 was followed by Saks Fifth Avenue in New York in May 2000. Ultimo was never shy about publicity. Its campaigns used a run of famous faces, including Rachel Hunter, Penny Lancaster, Kelly Brook, Helena Christensen, Mel B, Gemma Atkinson, and Kimberly and Ruby Stewart, the daughters of Rod Stewart.

Mone also claimed that an Ultimo bra had been worn in the film Erin Brockovich. The film's makers denied it. It was an early sign of a habit of overstatement that would follow the company.

The Miracle Body, George and Adore Moi

The range widened through the 2000s:

• September 2003: the Ultimo Miracle Body, a backless bra that was also frontless, for low-cut and open-backed dresses.
• April 2004: "Michelle for George," a cheaper line for the supermarket chain Asda.
• September 2006: Adore Moi, a range made for the department store Debenhams.
• October 2007: the first standalone Ultimo shops inside Debenhams, which reached twelve locations in the UK and Ireland by June 2008.

By then Ultimo was sold through Selfridges, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Next, Grattan, Littlewoods, Figleaves and ASOS, among others, as well as Asda's George line. Shapewear and backless dress solutions joined the bras.

Turnover claims and the books

The public image was of a fast-growing, highly profitable business. The filed accounts told a more modest story. The company reported a turnover of about £8.4 million by 2011 but was not making a profit. Reporting on the accounts also found that Mone had borrowed £600,000 from the business, and that turnover and staff numbers had been exaggerated in public statements between 2007 and 2009.

None of that stopped the product from selling. It did mean that Ultimo's success was always smaller than its publicity.

The MAS Holdings years and the end of UK trading

In 2013, MJM International's assets moved into a new company, Ultimo Brands International Ltd, set up as a 50/50 joint venture between Mone and MAS Holdings, the Sri Lanka-based lingerie group. In November 2014 Mone sold 80 percent of her stake to MAS, and in August 2015 she resigned from the boards of both MJM International and Ultimo Brands International.

Under MAS, Ultimo continued for a few more years. In April 2018 the company announced that it would cease trading in the UK. Its old British website no longer resolves, and the web address ultimo.com now belongs to an unrelated maintenance software company.

The gel-padded bra that launched the brand outlived much of the publicity around it. The museum holds 20 Ultimo pieces, the remains of a Glasgow start-up that put silicone cleavage on the British high street.

Last updated October 7, 2026