Trendy-Lingerie.com — Who invented the bra? In recent weeks several newspapers in the U.S. rewrote a press release from the Committee for the 100th Anniversary of the American Bra — and rewrote history in the process.
The articles claim that in 1910 a busty 19-year-old New York woman named Mary Phelps-Jacob bought an evening gown to wear to an upcoming party and was frustrated with here whale-boned corset because it was visible underneath the sheer dress.
Phelps-Jacob reportedly asked her maid to tie two white handkerchiefs together with some pink ribbon. While it did not provide much support the improvised garment worked well with the dress, and the young woman soon was busy providing her high-society friends with similar contraptions.
However, most articles on the history of the bra say Phelps-Jacob fashioned her silk breast-holder in 1913 instead of 1910. That later date appears correct in light of the fact that the next year, on November 3, 1914, the socialite was awarded a patent for the “Backless Brassiere”. The term brassiere comes from the old French word for ‘upper arm’.
She soon sold her patent to Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut for $1,500. That company made $15 million off the garment over the next 30 years, and today bras are a $15 billion industry in the United States alone.
Other Bra Inventions
In a way it can be said that Phelps-Jacob was the inventor of the modern bra. But much earlier, in 1893 Marie Tucek — also from New York — already patented a breast supporter.
This garment is similar to modern-day bras in that it features a separate pocket for each breast, shoulder straps, and hook-and-eye closures.
That Tucek’s invention was not a success is likely due to the fact that the contraption, which was not designed to actually cover the breasts, provided support from below via a metal plate.
In the eyes of many fashion historians the true inventor of the modern bra is Herminie Cadolle, a French woman who operated a made-to-measure underwear store in Paris.
In 1889 Cadolle invented a two-piece undergarment called le bien-être (the wellbeing). The lower part was a corset for the waist and the upper supported the breasts by means of shoulder straps.
The idea of supporting the breasts by the shoulders rather than squeezing them up from below like a traditional corset was revolutionary.
By 1905 the upper half was being sold separately as a soutien-gorge — literally, “support for the throat”, but gorge in old French meant breast.
In 1922 Ida Rosenthal, a Russian immigrant, and her husband William patended the name Maiden form. The dresses they made for their shop in Manhattan included a built-in bandeau with cups that separated and supported the breasts. Customers loved the brassieres, and quickly demanded them separately.
The garment became so successful that in 1925 they stopped making dresses to focus on bras exclusively. William is credited with devising standard cup sizes, along with the first maternity and nursing bras.
Ida is responsible for the creation of bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed bras for every stage of life – puberty to maturity.
The Rosenthals can also be credited for helping to make lingerie sexy. They built their Maidenform brand name with racy ads that debuted in 1949, featuring photographs of women in bras. The “I dreamed… in my Maidenform bra” campaign ran successfully for 20 years.
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