The Dresden- based German, Christine Hardt, patented the first modern brassière in 1899.Hardt, Christine (1899) German Patent 110888A. dpma.de Sigmund Lindauer from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, developed a brassière for mass production and patented it in 1912. It was mass-produced by Mechanische Trikotweberei Ludwig Maier und Cie.
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Polly started selling bras to her friends for one dollar. Soon she founded the Fashion Form Brassière Company, a two-woman factory in Boston, and patented the first bra as "the backless brassière" in 1914. After making a few hundred bras and some orders from department stores, she was persuaded by her husband to close the company.She sold the patent to The Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1,500.
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In the next 30 years, Warner Brothers made more than US$15 million from the design. According to Cadolle Lingerie House, Herminie Cadolle, a French inventor, was the first inventor to patent the modern 'brassiere', called the "corselet-gorge", lingerie which separated the upper bra portion from the lower corset, the first step toward the modern bra. An urban legend that the brassière was invented by a man named Otto Titzling ("tit sling") who lost a lawsuit with Phillip de Brassière ("fill up the brassière") originated with the 1971 book Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra and was propagated in a comedic song from the movie Beaches. Women have played a large part in the design and manufacture of the bra, accounting for half the patents filed.
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Mone obtained a marketing job with the Labatt brewing company and, within two years, had risen to become its head of marketing in Scotland. She was made redundant by Labatt, prompting her to set up her own business and has since admitted that she exaggerated qualifications on her CV in order to obtain the job. While wearing a very uncomfortable cleavage enhancing brassière at a dinner dance, Mone realised she could improve the design. Her stated aims were to create a brassière that was both more comfortable and better looking, whilst enhancing more cleavage.
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After the dermal closure, a suture is emplaced to achieve the continuous approximation of the nipple-areola complex to the adjacent skin edge, and to the lower skin incisions. ;Post-operative matters Convalescence — Post- operative care is minimal after a mastopexy procedure; the lifted breasts are supported with a porous, soft elastic tape, which is removed at 7–10 days post-operative, and then is reapplied to the mastopexy incisions for an additional 1–2 weeks during convalescence. For comfortable healing of the wounds, the woman wears a surgical brassière, and avoids wearing an underwire brassière until the breast implants have settled into position. The mastopexy outcome is photographed at 2–3 months post-operative.
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The patient is discharged from hospital either the same day or the day after the breast reduction operation. Because the liposuction- only procedure featured only a few, small, surgical incisions, the woman quickly recovers her health, usually resuming daily life activities at 14 to 28 days post-operative – when the breast-molding dressings are changed; she also resumes her personal hygiene regimen to include washing under a water shower. In the initial convalescence period, the surgical-incision wounds are inspected at 1-week post-operative, during which time the woman has continuously worn a strapless brassière to contain and immobilize her corrected breasts; afterwards, she continuously wears a strapped brassière for 30 days after the breast-reduction operation.
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Vogue magazine first used the term brassiere in 1907, and by 1911 the word had made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary. On 3 November 1914, the newly formed US patent category for "brassieres" was inaugurated with the first patent issued to Mary Phelps Jacob. In the 1930s, brassiere/brassière was gradually shortened to bra.
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A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment designed to support or cover the wearer's breasts. Bras are designed for a variety of purposes, including enhancing breast size, creating cleavage, or for other aesthetic or practical considerations. Swimsuits, camisoles, and backless dresses may have built-in breast support with supportive bra cups. Nursing bras are designed to facilitate breastfeeding.
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The term brassiere, from French brassière, was used by the Evening Herald in Syracuse, New York, in 1893. It gained wider acceptance in 1904 when the DeBevoise Company used it in their advertising copy—although the word is actually French for a child's undershirt. In French, it is called a (literally, "throat-supporter"). It and other early versions resembled a camisole stiffened with boning.
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Support of the bosom by a bodice (French: brassière). 1900 Roman women wearing breast bands during sport. The Coronation of the Winner mosaic (a.k.a. the 'Bikini mosaic'), Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, 4th century AD The history of bras (brassières; variously pronounced) is inextricably intertwined with the social history of the status of women, including the evolution of fashion and changing views of the female body.
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The woman afflicted with macromastia presents heavy, enlarged breasts that sag and cause her chronic pains to the head, neck, shoulders, and back; an oversized bust also causes her secondary health problems, such as poor blood circulation, impaired breathing (inability to fill the lungs with air); chafing of the skin of the chest and the lower breast (inframammary intertrigo); brassière-strap indentations to the shoulders; and the improper fit of clothes. In the woman afflicted with gigantomastia (>1,000 gm overweight per breast), the average breast-volume reduction diminished her oversized bust by three (3) brassière cup-sizes. The surgical reduction of abnormally enlarged breasts resolves the physical symptoms and the functional limitations that a bodily disproportionate bust imposes upon a woman; thereby it improves her physical and mental health. Afterwards, the woman's ability to comfortably perform physical activities previously impeded by oversized breasts improves her emotional health (self-esteem) by reducing anxiety and lessening psychological depression.
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There are considerable differences of opinion as to who "invented" the modern brassière. Patent dates indicate some of the landmark developments; a large number of patents for bra-like devices were granted in the 19th century. However, what is regarded as the world's oldest push-up bra was discovered in storage at the Science Museum in London. Designed to enhance cleavage, the bra is said to be from the early 19th century.
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In October 1932, the S.H. Camp and Company correlated the size and pendulousness of breasts to letters A through D. Camp's advertising featured letter-labeled profiles of breasts in the February 1933 issue of Corset and Underwear Review. In 1937, Warner began to feature cup sizing in its products. Adjustable bands were introduced using multiple hook and eye closures in the 1930s. By the time World War II ended, most fashion-conscious women in Europe and North America were wearing brassière, and women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America began to adopt it.
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Several lingerie and shapewear manufacturers, among them Wonderbra, Frederick's of Hollywood, Agent Provocateur and Victoria's Secret, produce bras that enhance cleavage.Victoria Pitts-Taylor, Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body (volume 1), page 49, ABC-CLIO, 2008, There are as many as 30 different kinds of bras like push-up, strapless, bandeau, demicup, sports bra, the minimiser, padded, a T-shirt bra, multiway, plunge, wireless, maternity, seamless, silicone, and stick-on available.Carol Odero, How well do you know your breasts?, Daily Nation, 2019-11-09 History of the brassière is full of myths featuring people like Caresse Crosby, Howard Hughes, Herminie Cadolle and even Otto Titzling command the center stage.
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Debbie Wells, 1940's Style Guide, page 33, CreateSpace, 2011, In 1947, Frederick Mellinger of Frederick's of Hollywood created the first padded brassière followed a year later by an early push-up version dubbed "The Rising Star". In that decade, Christian Dior introduced a "new look" that included elastic corsets, pads and shaping girdles to widen hips, cinch waists and lift breasts.Robert Sickels and Robert J. Sickels, The 1940s, page 88, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, Under the Motion Picture Production Code, which was in effect in the U.S. between 1934 and 1968, the depiction of excessive cleavage was not permitted. Many female actors defied those standards; other celebrities, performers and models followed suit and the public was not far behind.
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During the next century, the brassière industry went through many ups and downs, often influenced by the demand for cleavage.Kevin Hillstrom and Mary K. Ruby, Encyclopedia of American Industries: Manufacturing industries, page 258, Gale Research, 1994, With a return to more womanly figures in the 1930s, corsetry maintained a strong demand, even at the height of the Great Depression. From the 1920s to the 1940s, corset manufacturers constantly tried training young women to use corsetsJill Fields, An Intimate Affair: Women, Lingerie, and Sexuality, page 71, University of California Press, 2007, but fashions became more restrained in terms of décolletage while exposure of the leg became more accepted in Western societies during World War I and remained so for nearly half a century.Johnson, Kim K.P.; Torntore, Susan J. and Eicher, Joanne Bubolz (2003).
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The woman is instructed to resume her normal life activities, and to eat a light diet, post-operative, on the day of the breast reduction surgery; to resume washing in a shower at 1-day post-operative; to avoid strenuous physical activity, and to wear a sports brassière; the convalescence regimen is for 3-months post- operative. She is also informed that the wrinkles at the bottom of the vertical limb of the scar usually resolve and fade within 1–6 months post- operative; yet some cases might require surgical revision of the vertical scar. Scheduled follow-up consultations ensure a satisfactory outcome to the breast reduction surgery, and facilitate the early identification and management of medical complications. There is limited evidence in showing wound drains have no significant benefit after reduction mammoplasty.
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The reduction of oversized breasts by liposuction only (lipectomy) is indicated when a minor-to-moderate volume-reduction is required, and there is no breast ptosis to correct. However, in a 2001 study of 250 patients, nipple and breast elevation of between 3 cm and 15 cm was reported. Further indications for lipectomy are presented by: (i) the woman who requires a large-volume reduction, and wants un-scarred, sensate breasts, yet will accept a degree of ptosis; (ii) the woman who requires a secondary mammoplasty to correct an asymmetric breast, by up to one (1) brassière cup- size; and (iii) the girl afflicted with virginal breast hypertrophy, as a temporary procedure performed before the conclusion of her thelarche (the pubertal breast-growth phase), given the hypertrophy's high rate of recurrence.
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On the first Friday of every April in South Africa, brassière marketer Wonderbra sponsors a National Cleavage Day.National Cleavage Day Wonderbra.co.zaThere's a special day just for your cleavage Independent Online America's largest lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret was launched by Roy Raymond, a Stanford alumnus, in San Francisco in late 1970s with a similar appeal.Rowan Pelling, 100 years of the bra - a girl's best friend, The Telegraph, 2013-10-06 Victoria's Secret Angels held its first fashion show at Plaza Hotel in New York in 1995.Maude Bass-Krueger, Vogue's fashion encyclopaedia: The history of the bra, Vogue, 2019-10-23 Even traditional brands, who were producing 1950s style pointy-cups, low-backs, low-fronts and no-straps,Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau, Uplift: The Bra in America, page 144, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, like Maidenform joined the competition in 1995.
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Nora Jacobson, Cleavage: Technology, Controversy, and the Ironies of the Man-made Breast, page 56, Rutgers University Press, 2000, In 1920, paraffin was replaced for breast augmentation with fatty tissue taken from the abdomen and buttocks. Frustrated with the whalebone corset, New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob (better known as Caresse Crosby) created the first brassière from two handkerchiefs and some ribbon to show off her cleavage.Staff Reporter, 100 years of everyone's favourite undergarment, Deccan Chronicle, 2019-03-30Misha Ketchell, The story of … the bra, The Converstation, 2014-11-05Kirsten Fleming, 100 years of everyone's favorite undergarment, New York Post, 2014-02-22 In 1914, Jacob patented the garment as "the backless brassiere"; after making a few hundred garments, she sold the patent to The Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1,500. In the next 30 years, Warner Brothers made more than US$15 million from Jacob's design.
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Dramatic necklaces that emphasized the cleavage became popular at balls and parties in France.Sally Everitt and David Joseph Lancaster, Christie's Twentieth-century Jewelry, page 81, Watson-Guptill, 2002, In the U.S., television shows tried to mask exposed cleavage with tulleRobert Pondillo, America's First Network TV Censor, page 88, Southern Illinois University Press, 2010, and even sketches, illustrations and short stories in Reader's Digest and Saturday Evening Post depicted women with tiny waists, big buttocks and ample cleavage.Michael Johns, Moment of Grace: The American City in the 1950s, page 21, University of California Press, 2004, In this decade, Hollywood and the fashion industry successfully promoted large, cloven bustlines and falsies, the brassière industry started experimenting with the half-cup bra (also known as demi-cup or shelf bra) to facilitate décolletage. Polyvinyl sacs were often the preferred implant to augment breasts into a fuller, more projected appearance.
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Despite these developments, open presentation of cleavage was mostly limited to well-endowed female actors like Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe (who was accused of revealing America's "mammary madness" by journalist Marjorie RosenRachel Moseley, Fashioning Film Stars: Dress, Culture, Identity, page 58, Bloomsbury Academic, 2005, ), Rita Hayworth, Jane Russell, Brigitte Bardot, Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren, who were as celebrated for their cleavage as for their beauty. While these movie stars significantly influenced the appearance of women's busts in this decade, the stylish 1950s sweaters were a safer substitute for many women.Don J. Dampier, Finding the Fifties, page 238, DJ Discovery Press, 2005, Lingerie manufacturer Berlei launched the "Hollywood Maxwell" brassière, claiming it to be a "favourite of film stars". Modern augmentation mammaplasty began when Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow developed the first silicone gel-filled breast prosthesis with Dow Corning Corporation, and the first implanting operation took place the following year.
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Bikini tops come in several different styles and cuts, including a halter- style neck that offers more coverage and support, a strapless bandeau, a rectangular strip of fabric covering the breasts that minimizes large breasts, a top with cups similar to a push-up bra, and the more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts. There are four fundamental types of bare-midriff bikini tops: the brassière, halter, bandeau, and vest. These styles are differentiated by the number of shoulder straps and the resultant number of edges to the garment. Some of these tops include a halter-style neck strap that offers more coverage and support, a strapless bandeau, a rectangular strip of fabric covering the breasts that minimizes large breasts, a top with cups similar to a push-up bra, and the more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts.
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The medical history records the woman's age, the number of children she has borne, her breast- feeding practices, plans for pregnancy and nursing of the infant, medication allergies, and tendency to bleeding. Additional to the personal medical information, are her history of tobacco smoking and concomitant diseases, breast-surgery and breast-disease histories, family history of breast cancer, and complaints of neck, back, shoulder pain, breast sensitivity, rashes, infection, and upper extremity numbness. The physical examination records and establishes the accurate measures of the woman's body mass index, vital signs, the mass of each breast, the degree of inframammary intertrigo present, the degree of breast ptosis, the degree of enlargement of each breast, lesions to the skin envelope, the degree of sensation in the nipple–areola complex (NAC), and discharges from the nipple. Also noted are the secondary effects of the enlarged breasts, such as shoulder-notching by the brassière strap from the breast weight, kyphosis (excessive, backwards curvature of the thoracic region of the spinal column), skin irritation, and skin rash affecting the breast crease (IMF).
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