Ancient Greece
Bra Beginnings. Women in ancient Greece bind lilies breasts with a piece of cloth or о leather strip—a strophium bat, interestingly, wear it over their tunics.
1500
Scent of a Woman. To perfume their rarely washed clothing, ladies wear a scented pomander or sachet between the breasts, о reminder of which is seen today in the embroidered rosette at the center of some bras.
1863
Start of Support. The first patent for о breast supporter, which was designed as an alternative to the corset, is issued to Luman L. Chapman.
1889
Bra du Jour. Herminie Cadolle, founder of the famous French company Cadolle, is often credited with creating the bra. She displayed an early version at the 1889 Paris Exposition. Called the bee-eater, or “well-being,” it is still attached to a corset in the back, but is the first undergarment to present the revolutionary concept of supporting the breasts from above, rather than from below.
I904-I905
Bonjour Brassieres. The term brassiere is introduced in the United States but refers to something more resembling о camisole stiffened with boning than a modern bro. Until the mid-1980s, the lull word brassiere appears in ads, though the word bra is part of the vernacular.
1914
Debutante’s Debut. With the help of her maid, New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob (who later changed her name lo Caresse Crosby) invents a brassiere by piecing together two handkerchiefs and a ribbon. Innovative for its lack of a midsection, it is short and soft and separates the breasts naturally. It flattens the breasts for the fashionable flapper style, popular into the mid-1920s. She receives a potent for her creating, but it is not commercially successful, partially because only those with small, firm breasts can pull it off.
1927
Cleavage Is “It” . In the silent movie It, Clara Bow plays a salesclerk with her sights set on the son of a department store tycoon. After accepting an invitation to join him for dinner at the Ritz, the original “It Girl” takes a pair of scissors and cuts décolletage into her dress. This girl knew where to draw the line… and how to show off her assets!
Late 1920s
Maiden form (then Maiden Form) breaks away from the flapper ideal of making breasts flatter and starts producing bras that flatter. Through the ’30s, bras lift and separate, featuring new designs that enhance how women look in their outerwear. Bias-cut gowns (like the one modeled here by Claudette Colbert) in slinky fabrics require shaping underneath, and some of the most popular bras provide a very modern “uplift.”
Early-mid 1930s
Measures of Success. Finally, someone realizes that the measurement of the bust and the size of the breasts require two separate scales. Form Fit makes small, overage, and full cups in each band size in 1932. Then, S. H. Camp and Company assign letters A through D—to breast sizes (now known as cup sizes). Soon, major bra manufacturers are following this formula. During the same period, multiple fasteners and D rings appear to adjust bond sizes and shoulder straps, so wearers can decide how snug to hold or how high to hoist.
1939
Point Taken. The Belle Poitrine, with its circular rings of stitching that create a pointy, cone-shaped silhouette, is invented, turning breasts around the country into the pointer sisters.
1943
Torpedo Tits. At the start of filming the movie The Outlaw, producer and airplane designer Howard Hughes is troubled that the bras worn by the buxom Jane Russell don’t properly fit her ample proportions. He designs the Cantilever bra, based on the engineering principles of bridge making, for her to wear in the movie. Women, subsequently, are on a mission lo re-create the “missile” effect on their own chests. (In Martin Crosse’s 2004 movie the Aviator, Leonardo DiCaprio, playing Hughes, notes that “the length of the actual cleavage is five inches and one-quarter.”)
1949
А Girl Can Dream. Maiden form launches a cutting-edge, long-running advertising campaign showing a bra-clod model taking on various “dream roles.” Many ads suggest roles for women that ore quite controversial for the time, such as “I dreamed I won the election … in my Maiden form bra.”
1950s
Sweater Girls. This is the age of voluptuous screen stars with ample cleavage. Marilyn Monroe (top), Gina Lollobrigida, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot (middle), Anita Ekberg, Lana Turner (bottom)… If you’re young enough not lo know what these ladies have in common, here’s a modern-day hint: Pamela Anderson. Less-endowed women start boosting their busts with all forms of padding and stuffing. Unfortunately, in the throes of passion, some are embarrassed when it is discovered that tissues and socks are behind a buxom bosom, hence the advent of the term “falsies.”
1960s
Pill Poppers. The contraceptive pill is introduced, liberating women’s sexual behavior and turning the fashion focus toward something other than just breasts. Young women start wearing more form-fitting clothing (bikinis, tight jeans) and begin to show their midriffs. Despite the downplaying; of breasts, bust measurements increase almost an inch over the next two decades.
Late 1960s
Bra Ban. The women’s movement brings rebellion against restraint, celebrated in port by bra burnings. Nevertheless, most women continue to wear some sort of bra, however minimal, throughout the decade. Designers heed the need and start creating more comfortable, flexible styles. Most significantly, Rudi Gernreich introduces the “No Bra Bra ,“ о soft, skin tone garment that went well with unstructured styles and sheer fabrics.
1970
The Emperor’s New Clothes? One of the most popular bras is the Kloss Glossie, a bra made of such sheer, stretchy, glittery material that it appears not to exist. Sheer is definitely in, a function of the free and unfettered look inspired by the women’s movement as well as by advances in textile technology.
1970s
Move Over, Newton. When feminists stage a protest outside Frederick’s of Hollywood, its founder, Frederick Mellinger, famously responds that “the law of gravity will win out.” Indeed it does, as breasts will always need some form of support. Stalled in 1946, Frederick’s is responsible for bringing sexy, sheer black lingerie to the white cotton underworld of America.
1977
Running Mates. The fitness craze creates a demand for more seam-free, contoured shapes underneath formfitting clothing. The first sports bra is made when two women lake a pair of jockstraps, cut them apart, and sew them together. They call their creation the Jog bra.
1980s
Undress for Success. Oomph makes a comeback with push-up bias and demi cups. Women now operate in the corporate world and hold their femininity close to their chests, wearing all forms of frills and lace underneath those tailored suits. Glamour returns, from luxury incarnate La Perla to Victoria’s Secret’s sensuously sexy silks and satins.
1990s
The Wonder Years. What is often not known about the Wonder bra phenomenon is that this padded, under wire push-up bra had been introduced in Britain thirty years earlier. Relaunched in 1994 with a major media blitz, it is so popular that production can’t keep up with demand. In the years that follow, a slew of competitors rise to the challenge, amplifying that famous cleavage line.
2000s
The Bra-volution Continues. If I have any say in it, women will continue having bio breakthroughs as television shows, magazines, and newspapers spread the news that almost every female knows next to nothing about the single most important garment she wears.
Tags: bras history, fashion, women