Some would argue that the bra has been around for as long as women have had breasts. While this isn’t quite true it is not far off either. The bra certainly dates back to at least the 14th century. Vases have been discovered which depict women playing sports and wearing a silk garment across their breasts. These were called Bandeaus. At the time Romans saw large breasts as a negative attribute of women as any sagging of the breast was seen as unattractive. Women wanted to cover their breasts and make them look smaller with less sag. The bandeau also played an important role in supporting the breasts during sport.
In the 1500s the French introduced the corset to modern fashion, something that most women will never forgive them for. The corset was laced up on the back and squeezed the wearer’s body into an hourglass figure. It pushed the breasts into the body and caused them to squeeze upwards as if almost spilling out of the corset. This had the appearance of looking bigger and more voluptuous.
By the 19th century, the corset had given way to the girdle. It was a similar idea but with fewer restrictions. The laces were done up the front which gave women more control and although it promoted an S shape figure in the body it was far less constricting.
In the 1900s in France, a new garment appeared called the corselet gorge. It was a two-piece garment that featured a bra on top. By 1905 the two items were sold separately and the brassiere was born. The French magazine Vogue used the term brassiere in 1907 and four years later it was in the Oxford English dictionary. A new clothing item had been created.
It wasn’t until 1932 that a company decided that one cup would not fit all women and they began to create different bras according to the cup size. They corresponded to the alphabet with A being the smallest and D being the largest.
Since then some interesting fashion styles and social movements have taken place with bras at the core. The sweater girl look became popular in the time of Marilyn Monroe. It was common for a woman to wear a cone-shaped bra with a tight fit sweater over it. This accentuated the breasts a lot and enhanced the size of the bust.
Feminists also embraced the bra but not in the way you think. They tore their bras off and burned them in massive bonfires. They felt that bras were a symbol of the oppression they felt from men in the world. They wanted nothing to hold them back or hide who they really were and burnt their bras a symbol of their new position in the world.
Today bras are used for a variety of things. Sports bras have become very popular as women need additional supports for their breasts when doing physical exercise. For years men were intimidated and afraid to buy bras but since the introduction of stores like Victoria’s Secret, it is now far more acceptable for a man to purchase a bra for his partner. The name “Victoria’s secret” comes from the class and respectability of the Victorian period. The owner imagined that women would dress respectably but they had secretly sexy underwear on underneath.