The Probert Encyclopaedia of Costume

BRASSIERE

Brassieres date from the early 1900s. A design for a brassiere made from two handkerchiefs and narrow ribbon was patented in the USA in 1914 by Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby). Until the mid- 1920s, brassieres were boneless and were designed to flatten the bust and push it downwards. They were widely adopted during the 1920s when fashionable at-home dresses and, later, cocktail dresses were often made of revealing, semi-transparent fabrics. By 1925, brassieres had adjustable front straps and a division between the breasts in the bandeau front. During the late 1920s the Kestos Company of America produced a brassiere made of two triangular pieces of fabric secured to elastic that was pulled over the shoulders, crossed at the back, and buttoned at the front under a darted 'cup'.

During the late 1920s and 1930s corsetry companies began manufacturing brassieres which were boned and stitched into different cup sizes. A boned strapless brassiere appeared in the late 1930s and it was during this decade that the word 'bra' came into popular usage. In the 1940s the use of foam pads gave additional shape to many bras. Their outline was most exaggerated during the 1950s, when bras were both wired and stitched in circular patterns to further stiffen the fabric. The strapless bra was popular during the 1950s, when it was worn under off-the-shoulder, strapless dresses. The same decade saw manufacturers beginning to produce bras for teenagers.

With the 1960s came greater flexibility of design and further liberation and comfort for women through the introduction of fabrics containing Lycra. Since the 1970s, mouldings of thermoplastic fibres at high temperatures have produced one-piece seamless bras. In 1964 a Canadian company, later purchased by Sara Lee Intimates, designed a 'Wonderbra', a padded, under-wired, push- up bra that made a more pronounced breast shape. This style gained wide popularity from 1994, in the wake of adverse publicity for artificial breast implants.
Research Brassiere