Brief history of the Brassiere
The concept of covering or restraining the breasts dates back to 6,500 years ago in Greece. Minoan women on the island of Crete 4,500 years ago wore brassieres that revealed their bare breasts. A binding known as an apodesmos, or mastodeton was worn by Greek women for exercise in those city-states that supported women’s sports, e.g. Sparta. It is said that brassieres were invented by men so that women’s breasts would be smaller, and thus more like a man’s.
A bra-like device to give a symmetrical rotundity to the breasts was patented (nr 24,033) in 1859 by Henry S. Lesher of Brooklyn, New York; although it is recognizably a bra, the design looks uncomfortable by current standards.
In 1889 Herminie Cadolle of France invented the first modern bra, a two-piece undergarment called le bien-être (the well-being). The lower part was a corset for the waist, the upper supporting the breasts by means of shoulder straps. By 1905 the upper half was being sold separately as a soutien-gorge (“breast-supporter”, using a euphemism for breast that usually means “throat”), the name by which bras are still known in France. Cadolle’s business is still going strong.
In America, Mary Phelps Jacob was granted the first U.S. patent for the brassiere (nr 1,115,674), in 1913. She was aided in this work by her French maid, Marie. Her invention is most widely recognized as the predecessor to the modern bra. She sold the patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500 (or over $25,600 in today’s money). Warner eventually made an estimated $15 million off Caresse’s patent.
In 1922, Ida Rosenthal, a seamstress at the small New York City dress shop, Enid Frocks, along with shop owner Enid Bissett and husband William Rosenthal, changed the look of women’s fashion. The “boyish figure” then in style downplayed women’s natural curves through the use of a bandeaux brassiere. Their innovation, designed to make their dresses look better on the wearer, consisted of modifying the bandeaux bra to enhance and support women’s breasts. Hence, the name “Maidenform”. A later innovation is the development of sized brassieres. The company they founded became the Maidenform manufacturing company.
In 1943, Howard Hughes designed a cantilevered brassiere for Jane Russell for her appearance in the movie “The Outlaws”. The “lifts and separates” design went on to influence later commercial brassieres.
In 1960s, many women publicly discarded their bras as a symbol of female liberation as a form of protest; however, “burning the bra” was not a widespread practice.
The oft-repeated story that the brassiere was invented by a man named Otto Titzling (giving the humorous name tit-sling) is false.
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