Modern History of a Woman Bra

Today you cannot imagine your life without daily usage of such garment as a bra, but its history is as diverse and complicated, as the history of women status and position in the society.

Women have been using various items to support, push and enhance their bust line for centuries now. Even during ancient Greece times ladies fell back upon wool or cotton bands to fasten and secure their shapes. Some of the later variants had pieces of fabric sewed together in a way to create a kind of cups. In 16th century the corset took a secure place among lingerie options for most of the wealthiest women.

In Western countries the prototype of modern bra appeared no so long ago – in 1889 on France and 1895 in Germany, while the first bra idea patented in US belongs to Mary Phelps Jacob, who once in 1910 was dissatisfied with the way her corset looked under her sheer evening gown and as an alternative used two handkerchiefs, sewed together by a ribbon. By 1914 she registered a patent for her “backless bra”, but never made too far in her brassiere business. However she did manage to make $1,500 (equivalent of $21,000 today) selling it to Warner Bothers Corset Company.

Maybe if it weren’t for the World War I, a new version of the bra wouldn’t have gained its unanimous popularity. But during these times women had to complete tasks that were impossible to complete being wrapped up in corsets, and the government needed all the metal it could get – including the one used to produce corset wires (only 28,000 tons of it were required for US corset manufacture).

But at this time the era of comfortable underwear hadn’t arrived just yet. The first bra that accommodated different breast sizes appeared in 1932 when the S.H. Camp and Company finally took into account the fact that some ladies have bigger or pendulous breasts and started to range bra cup sizes from A to D. Soon after that adjustable bands and hooks saw the world and became indispensable parts of a bra. It wasn’t long till women outside of North America and Europe started to fall in love with the new types of clothing for their breasts.

The date we all have been waiting for subconsciously is when the first prototypes of push-up bras would appear and it became reality in 1947, when Frederick Mellinger presented a padded bra model. Not long after that in 1977 the first sports bra, called “Jogbra” was devised by Lisa Lindahl, Polly Smith and Hinda Miller. Ever since that time the bra followed a rapid development lane with thousands of brands offering now over 50 different types of women bust support.

Just like there are many women who changed the course of history, there are some bras that changed the way women live, dress and think about their underwear today: these are Merlyn Monroe style plunge bras, or Angelique (The Marquise of the Angels) balconette brassieres, Madonna’s bullet bras, the all-times famous Wonder bras and hot fantasy Victoria Secret models.

Having such a large variety of bras is a great achievement for women and bra4her is here to serve you in finding the best model quickly and painlessly. We put together bras from America’s leading brands and made their ranging, selection and comparison much more convenient for you. What kind of bra are you feeling like buying today? Let’s look and find out!