Brassiere
Methods of supporting breasts have been known since ancient times. Greek women wore breast bands, apparently to flatten or minimize the bust. A fourth-century Roman mosaic in Sicily shows a female athlete wearing bikini pants and a bra. In modern times, "patent bust improvers" similar to the bra were advertised in Great Britain in 1902, and a "brassiere" was illustrated in the magazine Vogue in 1907. A German immigrant to America, Otto Titzling, claimed to have invented the bra in 1912, but he never patented the design.
The origin of the word brassiere is uncertain. The French use the term soutien-gorge ("throat-supporter") for the bra. The claims of the Frenchman Philippe de Brassiere to be the origin of the name were rejected in court. Apparently the French word for "arm," bras, is the basis of the term. The word "bra" came into use around 1937.
The first person to patent a design for the brassiere was the American socialite Mary Phelps Jacob (later known as Caresse Crosby). Dressing for a debutante ball, Jacob became fed up by, in her own words, "being encased in a sort of boxlike armor of whalebone and pink cordage"--her corset. With her maid, Jacob fashioned two silk handkerchiefs and pink ribbon into the first modern bra--short and soft.
Jacob showed her creation secretly to her female friends, who asked her to make copies for them. When a total stranger sent a dollar asking for one of the contraptions, Jacob realized she had a money-maker. She patented her "Backless Brassiere" in November 1914. After having several hundred brassieres produced, Jacob lost interest in her product and then sold her patent to Warner Brothers Corset Company for $15,000.
Jacob's bra design went on to earn Warners $15 to $20 million in the next few decades. The company introduced bra cup sizes--A, B, C, and D--in the 1930s. The thirties also saw the introduction of the padded, strapless, and wired bras. An odd development in the 1950s was the "sweater girl" bra that was designed to produce high, pointed breasts.
In the 1990s, the pushup bra has reemerged in the form of the Wonderbra. The lowcut Wonderbra incorporates cups that are tightly shaped across the bottom. The these cups push the breasts upward and inward, an effect that is enhanced by small pads place in the outer bottom area of the cup. The result is the appearance of highly sought-after cleavage. Like the new "foundation garments" that are merely updates of the traditional girdle, the Wonderbra puts a new interpretation on an old idea, and has been wildly successful.
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