The Origin of the Bra

Despite the fact, doubted by some, that the bra is not a necessity in keeping a woman's breasts firm and uplifted, bras originated in one form or another, centuries ago..

Minoan women athletes of 700 BC have been depicted wearing a bra like garment to restrain and cover their breasts and the women of other civilizations are known to have worn bras like undergarments for a variety of reasons.

From the Middle Ages, through to the earlier part of the twentieth century, women of wealth wore corsets that tended to push the breasts, and in Georgian times, in the 1700s to the mid 1800s, it was considered the height of fashion to expose uplifted breasts with prominent cleavage and to just cover the nipples.

Queen Victoria soon put paid to that and although the style of corsets still pushed up the breasts, they remained decorously covered.

Into the 1920s, the fashion was to restrain the breasts, flappers of the time considered that the flatter the chest the more sex appeal they had, and their men must have agreed - but when did they have a choice?

Although there was a movement towards designing bras as we know them today, around the latter years of the nineteenth century, the first patent for a brassiere was only given to a Mary Phelps Jacob in November 1914.

The word brassiere is derived somewhat indirectly from the French "bras" meaning arms with an earlier military association to mean arm protector that then was developed into a chest protector.

In English the first known reference to the word occurred around 1893 with manufacturers going on to use the term to describe derivations of the corset that provided support for female breasts.

The ultimate fashion magazine "Vogue" first mentioned the term brassiere on its pages in 1907, and by 1911 the Oxford English Dictionary awarded the word its final accolade of acceptance into the English language.

The advent of the First World War held up the development of the brassiere as a fashion garment just as a similar situation took place during and just after World War II. A possible explanation is that in both wars women of all classes had to take over so many of the menial tasks performed by men that sex appeal was not on their list of priorities.

The shortened term "bra" came into use in the early thirties as the undergarment became affordable and gained popularity with all classes.

After 1945 the bra became one of the top priorities in the world of fashion, allowing the top couturiers to design fashion wear from topless evening dresses to any number of other day and evening wear apparel emphasizing the silhouette.

Without this progress in bra design, the bikini would never have happened, women might still have had to suffer the restraints and discomforts of corsets to give their bodies a desirable shape.

Nature has and continues to take its course; women who want to retain their sex appeal do not have to suffer in the same way as their grandparents.

As for men, they have never had it so good, the media and peer pressures have opened their eyes to some of the fabulously beautiful and attractive women that abound in the world and they expect their sweethearts and wives to strive to look just as gorgeous.