Meet the breast dress. This important piece of feminist history had humble origins. In the late 1970s, artist Anne Gauldin made plaster casts of breasts of members of her art collective. These molds were painted with latex, and then sewn onto a pink dress in the style of a 1950s diner uniform. Gauldin and artist Jerri Allyn co-founded the performance art group The Waitresses. The group often used humor to raise awareness and champion social change. In these colorful performances, they explored the multiple stereotypes of the waitress—as maternal nurturer, servant, and sex object—while communicating the bleak realities of sexual discrimination and wage inequality. Pictured here, the breast dress was worn by the character of Great Goddess Diana, a symbol of fertility and sustenance. She appeared during The Waitresses’ first series of performances, “Ready to Order,” held in different Venice restaurants in the spring of 1978. Gauldin was inspired by the Diana at Ephesus, and other anc...