Who Invented The Bra?

Even during the ancient times, there are already clothing that help cover up and support breasts. There was even a Roman mosaic from the 4th century depicting women wearing bandeau-style bras called strophium. An Indian play from the same period mentions its heroine wearing something strikingly similar.

"No one person invented the corset or the bra," says Valerie Steele, Director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, as reported by History Channel. "They were developed in different places and many people took out patents over the years improving or changing their design."

As fashion changed, undergarments changed with it. "Bras are a steward of fashion," says Cheree Berry, author of Hoorah for the Bra. Sometimes, a flatter bosom was in style — as in Ming Dynasty China (1368-1644), when women achieved the courtly fashion of flattening their chests with a dudou, or in America and Europe in the Roaring Twenties, when bandage-inspired bras helped flappers achieve boyish-straight figures. Other times, curves were en vogue—enter the bust-enhancing bullet bra and Wonderbra of the 1950s and '60s.

"There was a bra product for all fashion needs… Poses for backless dresses, strapless bras for strapless dresses, Lycra for bras that allowed us to stretch, move, get fit - [bras] became fashion unto themselves," says Berry.

Here are some moments in history worth noting:

1. The Corset (1500- 1900)
   The corset reigned supreme for centuries, especially in Europe. During the Middle Ages, both genders wore waist-minimizing garments, though the corset as we think of it today evolved to be worn mainly by women.
   By the 1500s, it took more or less the form it would take for the next 500 years: Fabric reinforced by solid strips, or 'stays,' made of hard materials like horn, whalebone, or wood (later replaced by metal and synthetics), laced tight.
2. Corselet Gorge (1869)
   The year the Eiffel Tower rose over Paris, another convention-defying structure was being formed: The first modern bra. French inventor Herminie Cadolle, fed up with uncomfortable corsets, cut one into two pieces: An upper part supporting the breasts with shoulder straps, and a second, lower part to support the waist.
   She presented her invention at the World Expo of 1900 in Paris under the name "bien-être," or "well-being," and by 1905, was selling the upper half separately as a "soutien-gorge" — the term still in use to describe bras in French today.
3. Brassiere Patent (1914)
   American socialite Mary "Polly" Phelps Jacob’s invention was inspired by a wardrobe malfunction: When her corset poked through her dress before a ball, she and her maid replaced the stiff undergarment with something more flexible: two handkerchiefs sewn together and tied with pink ribbons. It caused a sensation in her influential social circle, and she patented her "backless brassiere" under the pseudonym "Caresse Crosby" in 1914.
4. The Padded Bra (1947)
   In the wake of World War II, American fashion in bras began to overtake Europe for two reasons: the popularity of Hollywood films and America’s quicker recovery from the deprivations of war. In her 1953 work "Muffs and Morals," author Pearl Binder wrote: "In the hungry post-1939 world - the female breast is the obvious symbol of nourishment."
   Hungarian-American tailor Frederick Mellinger, the founder of Frederick’s of Hollywood, returned from his Army service inspired by the pin-up girl posters of his fellow soldiers. In 1947, he invented the padded bra. While using pads to enhance breast size was not a new concept, they became mass-produced in this era. There was even a pneumatic option women could inflate to their desired fullness.