Throughout history, women have devised methods to enhance, hide, show off and support their breasts. The bra that we know today is the culmination of thousands of years of variations. Take a look – you’ll be amazed at how far we’ve come!
Ancient Civilizations
Ancient Egypt
Servant women usually left their breasts uncovered. Some wealthier ladies might wear a tube-like dress that could be tied over one or both shoulders or more usually, below the breasts.
Ancient Greece (Minoan Civilization 2700BC to 1450 BC)
Here we see the first references to a covering or restraint for the breasts. Wall paintings in Knossos on the island of Crete show Minoan lady athletes wearing something akin to our modern-day bikini. This wasn’t everyday wear. Athletics was big in Greece and we know that ladies in Classical Greece wore a binder called an apodesmos to flatten their breasts while they took part in sports.
Ancient Rome
For a civilization who enjoyed their orgies, the Romans surprisingly paid little attention to breasts. Loose tunics were the style and it was common for women to want smaller breasts. Youngsters wore a binder called a fascia to restrict growth. If this didn’t work, they wore a different flattening device called a mamillare or strophium.
China (Ming Dynasty 1368 – 1644)
Rich women wore a garment called a dudou. This was almost like a girdle but had the inclusion of cups for the breasts.
Middle Ages (usually dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the start of the ‘Early Modern Period’ in the 1500’s / 16th century)
During this period, it was very unusual for women to offer their breasts any support or to restrict them. Woman wore straight bodices and high collars that simply covered their shape.
The preference was for a full figure, which was a show of health. Rarely, a fabric binder was used but in Strasbourg in 1370, a proclamation was issued by the Holy Roman Empire (who ruled Strasbourg at that time) saying “No woman will support the bust by the disposition of a blouse or by tightened dress.”
The Renaissance (1500’s – 1600’s)
Rich women did not breast feed their babies as it was believed it could ruin their figure. The infants were farmed out to wet nurses and the wealthy ladies showed off their firm breasts by showing their décolletage (the French word for cleavage produced by a low-cut neckline that leaves the neck, shoulders and parts of the breasts exposed). In Renaissance times, it became a status symbol to have a great one! Breasts were enhanced by the waist-cinching corsets of the time, that pushed the breasts together and up. This effect, caused by the corset, overlaps with the history of the bra all through history.
French Revolution (1789–1799) and Napoleonic Wars (1803 to 1815)
During these periods, the aristocracy was very definitely not in favor. Any clothes that they might have worn or styles that they may have adopted were highly frowned upon. Décolletage virtually disappeared. Women often supported their breasts by tying a simple length of fabric, tied underneath them.
Empire and Regency Style
At the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, neo-classical influences were huge. Emma, Lady Hamilton liked to give performances where she held the pose of classical statues and she designed the Empire Line dress to show the poses off to their best advantage. This style has a waistband just underneath the breasts. For the first time in many years, the emphasis was taken away from a tiny waist. The cut of the dress also helped to support and enhance the bust. The style was the height of fashion until the 1820’s when the hourglass figure returned.
The Victorians and Edwardians
The Victorians were a bundle of contradictions. They were renowned for their strict moral code and yet their fashion dictated a tightly laced waist which showed off the bust and hips. Again, the breasts were supported by the corset.
Edwardian women partook in physical activities with cycling being particularly popular. This mean that the corset fell from favor and a new garment appeared. The Bust Bodice (known as a BB) was a supportive camisole.
For those less sporty, the ‘S’ shape was in vogue. The corset to achieve this flattened the stomach, pulled in the waist and pushed the breasts together and up.
The Bra Separates From The Corset
There were two main reasons for this evolution:
Health Concerns
Medical professionals were becoming increasingly alarmed at the effect corsets were having on ladies. Wealthy women considered it normal to start their daughters wearing boned corsets from the age of seven, to help them grow into women with 15 inch waists. Women often suffered from fainting, eating disorders and bowel issues. This led to bed-rest and the blessed removal of the torturous corsets – although contemporary accounts say that once the tiny waist was achieved, it was no longer painful. It was the ‘getting smaller’ period that was agony!
The Movement For Clothing Reform of the 1870’s…
…which was led by the Rational Dress Society, the National Dress Reform Association and the Reform Dress Association. These were predominantly feminists who saw a change in dress to allow women more freedom as a form of emancipation.
Despite all of this, the first bras onto the market did not do well. They were very expensive and only rich reformers wore them.
The bra emerges…
1859 – a garment to give “symmetrical rotundity” to the breasts was patented by Henry Lesher in Brookly, New York.
1863 – A support for the breasts, marketed as a substitute for the corset, was patented by Luman Chapman of Camden, New Jersey.
1870’s – The first bust supporter (aimed at larger ladies) went on mail-order sale in America, eventually being sold in department stores, clothes shops and catalogues. It was called a ‘bust supporter’ and was developed by a dressmaker called Olyvia Flynt.
1889 – The ‘corselet gorge’ appeared in a corset catalogue. It was a two piece garment with the corset dealing with the waist. However, the upper part supported the breasts with shoulder straps. It was invented by a French woman, Herminie Cadolle and shown at the Great Exhibition in 1889.
1893 – The first type of underwire bra was patented by Marie Tucek. Her garment had a metal plate which sat under the breasts and was fastened at the back with hooks and eyes. Each breast was put into a fabric pocket and they were then laid on the plate. It didn’t due well due to lack of marketing.
Early 1900’s – the fashion for straight fronted corsets which didn’t support the breasts left a gap in the market for a bust support. These were either simple bodices or camisoles which pushed the bust down into the corset.
During all of these developments, the focus was on improvement of health rather than appearance.
1910 – Mary Phelps Jacob
Mary was a 19 year old from a wealthy American family. She wanted to wear a very sheer evening dress to an important social event but the only socially acceptable underwear was a whalebone corset. Mary didn’t like the way the whalebone showed under the fabric so with her maid’s help, she used two silk handkerchiefs and some ribbon to make an alternative.
It was a huge success and she made more for her family and friends. Although it was comfortable to wear it didn’t give much support and is was more like the flatteners used during the Roaring Twenties. She patented it in 1914 as the ‘backless brassiere’.
The bra didn’t do well and so she sold the patent for $1,500 to a gentleman that she met at a garden party, a mister Warner.
WWI
The bra continued to develop and grow in popularity. This was helped by the War because women needed unrestrictive and supportive garments to wear at work in the factories. By the end of the war, the bra was beginning to be seen as a fashion item rather than a functional health promoter.
1910’s and 1920’s
In the late 1910’s, the corset became shorter which meant that the breasts didn’t get so much support. As a result, it became more fashionable to have a lower bust. This culminated in the desire for boyish figures which dominated the 1920’s and meant that women wanted to flatten their breasts. They did this with simple binders.
The first cups
It is amazing to think that the concept of cup size didn’t wasn’t addressed until 1922. Enid Bissett owned a shop in New York called Enid Frocks. She employed a Russian immigrant called Ida and Ida’s husband, William Rosenthal to sew for her. They realized that one size of bra did not fit all women and so they invested $4,500 to found the company “Maidenform”. This was a pun on an earlier company called “Boyishform” which made bust flatteners. By 1924, the company was a huge success. In 1927, William Rosenthal took out patents on the first bras for nursing, a bra specifically for larger breasted ladies and the first uplift bra, achieved by clever seaming.
1930’s
This is when the A, B, C, D cup sizing that we know today came into being in America. It wasn’t picked up by the UK until the 1950’s. The system came from Warners ‘Alphabet’ bra. Warners also used elastic, offered adjustable straps and padded bras for those less well-endowed. The preferred shape in the 1930’s was a pointy bust and bra manufacturers flourished. Common names at that time were Triumph, Gossard, Courtaulds, Spirella, Twilfit and Symington.
1940’s and WWII
World War II had a huge effect on the clothing industry. Women in the Military were issued with underwear as part of their uniform. Factories issued dress codes, with Lockheed telling their workers that they had to wear bras for “good taste, anatomical support and morale!”
The combination of conical bras (for ‘protection’!) and military terminology led to bras called the Torpedo and Bullet. The ‘Sweater Girl’ became an icon with her slightly alarming chest.
The ‘Howard Hughes Designed the Bra’ Myth
In 1941, Howard Hughes was directing Jane Russell in ‘The Outlaw’. He wanted to make the most of her bust and designed and made an elaborate underwire bra which was operated via the shoulder straps to show varying amounts of breast. In Jane Russell’s autobiography, she admits that she didn’t like the fit of Hughes’ creation so she simply wore her own bra with the straps pulled down. Hughes never noticed.
1950’s
The early 1950’s were still hit by rationing and shortages. By later in the decade, Hollywood had increased women’s desires for decent bras and the market picked up. During this time, custom fitting fell out of favor and women preferred to buy ‘off the peg’.
1960’s
Despite a rise in feminism, no one actually ‘burned their bra’s’. This myth arose following a demonstration against the ‘Miss America’ pageant in 1968. Protestors filled a trashcan with symbols of beauty such as bras, fake eyelashes, cosmetics and high heeled shoes, meaning to set fire to it – but they were not given a permit and so no fire was ever lit.
1970’s onwards
Bra production is now limited only by the imagination of the designer, with versions for backless dresses, dresses worn off the shoulder and halter necks. We can make our breasts smaller, larger, higher or get a deeper cleavage.
In 2001, women spent a record $15 billion on bras. However, a poll in 2008 showed that 73% of women only spend an average of $25 on a bra. 37% don’t bother to try before they buy and yet 75% of women report that they don’t think their bras fit properly. 53% have never had a professional fitting. Look at all the development that has gone into the bra and go and get a proper fitting. It will transform your figure and help your back. Think of our ancestors in their 15 inch whalebone corsets…what’s a little bra fitting?
had grown so long that they laced right down to the knee. However, outdoor pursuits were becoming more popular and with them came the demand for clothes that were less structured and restrictive. Corsets were still worn but they had hardly any boning and relied on quilting for gentle support. In 1910, a corset with mesh panels and an elasticized ‘step-in’ corset were both introduced.
