World history of the bra

The first official patent for a bra was received on September 3, 1914. The author of this wonderful invention was a woman - progressive American Mary Phelps Jacobs. Going to a social event, Mary used a trick and built an alternative to the usual corset from two elastic bands, which was destined to become the first bra.

But the history of this wonderful piece of women's clothing does not begin with this event. Clothing for the female breast has existed since ancient times and has always performed not only aesthetic, but also practical functions. Breast support has been a problem for women at all times. Our historical study focuses on the cultural traces of bras in the history of the world.

• Egyptian freedoms

  No matter how much they say that the first bras were invented in ancient Egypt, studies say that they did not know of such a garment on the banks of the Nile. Women from the people preferred walking topless, and noble ladies hid their charms under spacious tunics and chitons.

• Minoan goddesses

  During the Bronze Age, the Minoan culture on the island of Crete had many symbols associated with the female breast as the personification of fertility. The statuettes of the mother goddess usually had an open chest, and earthly women imitated her in everything. Historians say that Cretan women tied their breasts from below, but did not cover them completely.

• Antique breasts

  It is generally accepted to consider the culture of Ancient Greece as a reference in many ways, but there were definitely no push-up bras. Noble women wore spacious tunics, in no way constraining them. Only a few female warriors bandaged their breasts with tight ribbons. The legend of the Amazon women tells of such an unpleasant procedure as burning out the right breast in order to make it more convenient for archery.

• Underwear of the Roman Empire

  It is known for certain that athletes in ancient Rome tied their breasts with tight ribbons so that it would not interfere with exercise or horseback riding.

• Chinese dudu

  Chinese fashion was very conservative in nature; moreover, it had a clear predilection for the suppression of everything feminine. Chinese women carefully hid their breasts under wide linen ribbons, which were called "dudu". They became the prototypes of corsets, as they tightened not only the chest, but also the stomach.

• Medieval busts

  In the Middle Ages, there was no clearly defined attitude towards the female breast, but slender ladies from high society had a clear tendency to lack them, which ultimately resulted in the fashion for slender boyish forms. Large breasts and wide hips became a sign of commoners, and the rest had to tighten the excess into tight corsets, which by that time had become an everyday item of women's clothing.

• Corsets in Western Europe

  The fashion for boyish silhouettes required more new corsets. Interestingly, this became good business for the whalers, as the best corsets were made on a frame of whalebone. The hourglass-shaped woman became a symbol of beauty for many centuries, and echoes of this fashion are noticeable to this day.

• Great breast release

  Among other freedoms, the Great French Revolution brought emancipation for women. The revolutionaries also wanted a new fashion, free from the prejudices of the past. Women stopped hiding their breasts under corsets and began to wear deep necklines. At the same time, women from the lower classes bandaged their chests with ribbons for convenience, including for wearing a man's dress, which was fashionable at that time.

• Victorian pressure

  The Puritan traditions of the 19th century were not very fond of the freedom of women. Particularly nervous young ladies were treated in psychiatric hospitals, and there was no question of breast freedom. The code of conduct required women to wear slimming underwear day and night, and cleavage was out of the question.

• Feminism and the mammary glands

  In Britain, during the reign of King Edward VIII, women's movement for their rights began, among which the right to wear comfortable clothes was not the last. As an argument, weighty arguments were given about the harmfulness of corsets and the deformation of the internal organs that they caused. So, at the end of the 19th century, there was a real explosion of inventions of new types of women's underwear, which were not harmful and were much more convenient than anything that the human mind had come up with before.

• Jacobs’s bra

  The landmark invention of Mary Phelps Jacobs occurred in 1914 and became the embodiment of thousands of years of aspirations and hopes for women around the world. She called her invention the “backless corset,” and made it from two handkerchiefs and elastic bands. The idea came to the girl at the moment when she was trying on a dress with an open back, going to a social event.

• War and bust

  By the beginning of World War II, the light industry had already mastered many models of bras, but this garment remained a very niche product. The breakthrough was the official adoption of bras as a uniform for female soldiers, which greatly helped raise morale among the military.

• Post-war success of bras

  After the war, there was a real explosion of interest in an intimate garment. Hundreds of designers took up the development of new models, and firms offered a wide variety of styles - from maternity bras to the first underwired models or scary wire-framed bras.

• Future of the bra

  Despite the fact that fashion historians have repeatedly predicted the death of this piece of clothing, interest in bras is not going to subside at all.