The beginning:
Women in ancient Greece would bind their breast with a piece of cloth or a leather strip-but, interestingly, would wear it over their tunics.
1500’s:
To perfume their rarely washed clothing, ladies would wear a scented piece between the breasts, a reminder of which is seen today in the embroidered rosette at the center of some bras.
1863:
The first patent for a breast supporter, which was designed as an alternative to the corset.
1904-1905:
The term brassiere is introduced in the United States but refers to something more resembling a camisole stiffened with boning than a modern bra. Until the mid-1930’s, the full word brassiere appears in ads, though the word bra is part of the vernacular.
1914:
With the help of her maid, New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob 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 in the mid 1920s. She receives a patent for her creation, but it is not commercially successful, partially because only those with small, firm breasts can pull it off.
1927:
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 into her dress. This girl knew where to draw the ling……and how to show off her assets.
Late 1920s:
Maidenform (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 in slinky fabrics require shaping underneath, and some of the most popular bras provide a very modern “uplift”.
1930s:
Finally, someone realizes that the measurement of the bust and the size of the breasts require two separate scales. Form Fit makes small, average, 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 band sizes and shoulder straps, so wearers can decide how snug to hold or how high to hoist.
1939:
The Belle Poitrine, with its circular of stitching that create a pointy, cone-shaped silhouette, is invented, turning breasts around the country into the “pointer sisters”.
1949:
Maidenform launches a cutting edge, long-running advertisement campaign showing a bra-clad model taking on various “dream roles.” Many ads suggest roles for women that are quite controversial for the time.
1950s:
This is the age of voluptuous screen stars with ample cleavage. Marilyn Monroe, Gine Lollobrigida, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg, and Lana Turner. If you’re young enough not to 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 full bosom, hence the advent of the term “falsies.”
1960s:
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 2 decades.
Late 1960s:
The women’s movement brings rebellion against restraint, celebrated in part 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,” a soft, skin tone garment that went well with unstructured styles and sheer fabrics.
1970s:
When feminists stage a protest outside Fredrick’s of Hollywood, its founder Frederic Mellinger, famously responds that “the law of gravity will win out.” Indeed it does, as breasts will always need some form of support. Started in 1946 Fredrick’s is responsible for bringing sexy, sheer black lingerie to the white cotton underworld of America.
1977:
The fitness craze creates a demand for more seam-free, contoured shapes underneath formfitting clothing. The first sports bra is made when 2 women take a pair of jockstraps, cut them apart, and sew them together. They call their creation the Jogbra.
1980s:
Ooomph makes a comeback with push-up bras and demi cups. Women now operate in the corporate world and hold their femininity close to their chests, wearing a forms of frills and lace underneath those tailored suits. Glamor returns, from luxury incarnate La Perla to Victoria’s Secret’s sensuously sexy silks and satins.
1990s:
What is often not known about the Wonderbra phenomenon is that this padded, underwire 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
Bras are constantly evolving. Now, there is a size for every woman of every age, at every stage of life. But, women will continue having bra breakthroughs, and unfortunately some won’t. The bra is the single most important garment she wears!
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