History of The BraBra Fitting By the early 20th century womans lingerie undergarment styles were quickly becoming mainstream and gaining popularity.
In 1902 an American named, Charles de Bevoise debuted the forerunner of today's form fitted corset and bustiers, a lingerie cover with straps which he called a brassiere. In 1907 the French couturier, Paul Poiret began designing womens lingerie clothing to fit a woman's natural shape, as opposed to making the woman fit the clothes...which up until then had been the norm. And, finally in 1913, Mary Phelps Jacob, an American socialite had the brilliant idea of tying two handkerchiefs together with a pretty ribbon. Ms Jacob patented her invention and eventually sold it to the Warner Corset Company for a mere $1,500. The patent for today's exotic bras was later valued at an astounding $15 million. Think of what it is worth today!
Fast forward several years.... up until this time there had been no universal sizing system. In 1935 the Warner Company started the novel idea of bra cup sizes. The bra scale became based on an A, B, C, and D scale, with A being the smallest and D size the largest. The system of standard bra sizes
Subsequently, in 1938 underwire bras were introduced with padded cups for smaller breasted women following shortly after. Introduced by Frederick's of Hollywood in 1948, the Rising Star became the world's first push up bra. During the 1950's Hollywood sex icons like Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield and Elizabeth Taylor began to exert enormous influence both on-screen and off. Lana Turner and Diana Dors quickly became poster girls for the popular sweater girl look. Lingerie designers in turn continued to heighten breast sizes with plastic and foam inserts striving for the popular cone shaped look of the era.
HerRoom Lingerie We Buy For Ourselves Fast forward to the 1980's...pop siren Madonna became the new it girl of the era. Madonna wore sheer exotic bras outside her clothing and voila lingerie went mainstream. No one has impacted lingerie fashion as much as she. The French designer Jean-Paul Gauthier designed an entire lingerie themed wardrobe for one of Madonna's early World Tours. Instantly, it became fashionable and mainstream to wear a brassiere or corset as outerwear. Curves were now back in fashion. If you didn't have them naturally, it became much easier to amplify what you had. In 1994 the Wonderbra became an instant worldwide hit. Originally designed in 1964 by a Canadian lingerie company, American manufacturers could not keep up with the demand for the now famous Wonderbra. The New York department store, Saks Fifth Avenue sold $100 000 worth of Wonderbras alone in their first week on sale!
The Wonderbra has been popularized by some very well known celebrities...Pamela Anderson, Kylie Minogue, Sharon Stone, and Geena Davis to name a few... Other lingerie manufacturers have quickly followed suit with new
types of bras
and designs. Women are now setting the pace, pushing the lingerie market and manufacturers for the lingerie designs they want. The history of the bra continues and the future of womans lingerie has never looked brighter!
Bra Fitting - Wearing a properly-fitted brassiere is essential for daily comfort and avoiding neck and back pain. Bra Size Calculator - Find your correct bra size with this easy three step guide. Leave History of The Bra Part II and return to History of Bras I
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