The History Of The Bra – Is An Under ~ Statement

The bra has transformed into a fifty billion dollar industry in just over a hundred years. It is expected to continue growing in the upcoming decades, with some predicting the industry will be around ninety billion within the next couple of decades.

In Ancient Greece women wore strips of fabric, or bands of wool or linen called apodesmos, or strophium  around their breasts for support. This was the precursor to the modern day bra, and persisted throughout Neoclassicism from 1760’s to the 1840’s when there was a revival of antiquity, and austere simple lines for slender figures.

Roman history tells of an adaptation of the breast brand or strophium, mentioned in the writings of Martial, Ovid, and Scriptores Historiae Augustae describing the “bikini mosaic” featuring women wearing bikini tops participating in sporting events.

In the high Middle Ages Henri Mondeville and Konrad Stolle wrote about breast bags, or shirts with bags to contain the breasts, which some considered to be indecent.

In the 1800’s the fashion pendulum swung to the hourglass figure, along with ornate corsets to create an emphasis on cleavage, and a very small waist. This trend peaked and carried on between the 1840’s and 1890’s.

In 1889 French designer Hermine Cadotte separated the top and bottom of the undergarment, creating a two piece ensemble. The top part was a corset for the breast. By 1905 she was selling the top part as the soutien-gorge, which translates into “an undergarment supporting a woman’s breasts”.

In 1893 Mary Tucek received a US patent for a bra style made of hankies, ribbon and a metal plate to support the breasts. This was a precursor to the underwire bra. Let’s hope the women who wore those did not fall off any horses. They might have ended up with a metal plate embedded between their ribs.

In 1914 Mary Phelps Jacob in the US patented the first backless bra, because she did not like the way a corset showed through when wearing more svelte evening dresses.

In the 1930’s S.H. Camp & Co. developed the standard cup sizing as we know it today.

Comically, in 1977 Hinda Miller and Paula Smith co-invented the first sports bra called the Jogbra. They made the first prototype by sewing two jock straps together.

Since then, the bra has evolved, and continues to evolve to suit a divergent range of shapes, sizes, activities, and life changes.

Now we often hear that 80% of women are wearing the wrong bra size. Yet do we ever hear that 80% of men are wearing the wrong size shorts or jock straps?

It seems to me there is a bit of a tug-o-war over boobs. Our autonomy over the size and shape of our body has to be decided by someone else for some reason, or you will surely be one of the 80% who is lop-sided, spilling out, or lost in those breast bags somewhere.

No doubt most of us have worn the wrong size bra for many reasons. Weight gain, weight loss, pregnancy, breast feeding, aging, and a change in fitness level, will all affect the bra size.

To measure yourself, you simply need a flexible tape measure to measure the size of your rib cage in oder to get the band size. Any bra chart will give you the band size based on this measurement. Then you measure around the fullest part of your breast. After that you subtract the band size (rib cage) measurement from the bust circumference. Each inch of difference is a cup size, one inch is an A cup, two inches is a B cup, and so on.

However, the tricky part is that not all bra brands fit the same, even though you might have ordered the same size from two different brands. There is still an element of trial and error. You can also look up sister sizes if you think you might be more comfortable in a bra with a larger or smaller band than what you have measured.

If you go to a lingerie or specialty bra shop, they will insist on measuring you. Personally I think the days are long gone where women are going to be dictated to on what bra size they wear, if they feel reasonably confident they know what size they wear. The people who do the measuring call themselves “certified professionals” and try to make you believe it is rocket science.

I read an interesting article the other day about a woman who decided to test the whole bra fitting scenario by going to multiple different shops to get fitted. She did this bra marathon in a single day, so we can safely say she didn’t lose weight between stores.

She made several observations in how each of the salespeople did the measurements, such as front to back, back to front, over top clothes etc. Not surprisingly, she got told she was multiple different sizes throughout the day. In fact each place told her she wore a certain size, and each time it was different. She dutifully tried them on as per their suggestion.

She found that even though she had been fitted, the bra size they told her to try on was often too tight. Of all six or seven places she went to, there was just one of them that got her size right. At the end of the day she had a couple purchases she regretted, but was happy to find the right fit by the end of her experiment.

I think the lesson learned, is that not all fitters are capable of doing a measurement better then we are. In many cases their service, and assistance is welcome, but I do think they should give more credit to the woman, and what she is most comfortable with.

Some women just want to go in and browse, or buy something off a sales rack, without being pressured into a fitting. This is especially so in the winter when you might have a coat and two sweaters on, and just want to stop in for a quick look.

The bra evolution is expansive. Women are constantly seeking a balance between comfort, form, fit, and fashion when it comes to bras. As it is with shoes, and other clothing, we make plenty of mistakes.

Something can feel like it fits when you are in a change room, or in a store. Yet after you take it home, remove the tags, and wear it, within a few hours, you realize it itches somewhere, or digs into your shoulders, back or rib cage. 

In many cases, it is not a matter of a woman choosing the wrong size, but more likely, she chose the wrong brand. These discards end up fuelling the industry. We have to admit that almost all clothing is now mass produced, and because bras have a minimal amount of fabric, even slight deviations in the cut, and sewing can make a big difference in how it fits.

Just to prove the point, try buying two different name brands from Amazon in the exact same size, the size you normally wear, and the size you have carefully measured yourself for. Without a doubt, you will find out those two bras fit differently. One might fit, the other might be too tight. Or one could be too tight, and the other too loose.

To top it off, the majority of bras, even expensive ones, are made in China. Asian women are generally smaller, and thinner than North American, and European women. An Asian size large, is a small size by our standards. 

So like the woman who went on the day long bra hop, we all find out that we can’t live without them, or at least most of us can’t, and we are lucky if we can stand wearing one for more than eight hours.

The perfect bra would be one with enough elasticity to not have straps pulling on your shoulders, or wires digging into your ribs when you lean forward, yet will offer the support that separates your breasts, and provides a proper shape. The best bra would be one you can put on and ignore, without giving it another thought until you take it off. 

If you search for one with comfort and stretch, you get zero support. You soon find out that a bra without support is not comfortable either. Nor can you wear it anywhere, without looking like gravity in motion. 

If you opt for a bra with maximum support, you get the uni-boob sports bra coming out of your neck. Either that, or the push up cleavage, and the binding wire to keep them up there. Extremism is not only found in religion and politics.

Even though they are bilateral in nature, breasts are not exempt from monomania. In fact they go from the maternal and nurturing, to the wild things on the stripper’s poles.

There was a doctor who did breast augmentations, and was so obsessed with large breasts, he encouraged women to go for astronomically huge, and unnatural looking breasts. One can only imagine how awkward it would be to live your life with breasts so large you could barely fit behind the wheel of a car.

The doctor would frequent strip clubs, and snort cocaine off of women’s breasts. Eventually his breast bubble burst, and he got busted. He was a prime example of the extremism, and titillating fixation on women’s breasts. 

No wonder the industry is still evolving. Getting back to the basics – surely there is a fabric somewhere between rubber, wire, and itchy lace – that can become the breast bags, without the sags, of the future.

We supposedly put a man on the moon, and harnessed fire, yet we cannot harness, and subdue the bare bosom, in the comfort and style she so deserves. 

We are not there yet. So if you are inclined to invest in stocks, the bra might be a good place to set your sights. Only for those with vision, and strong shoulders that can bear the burden of the breast. 

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2025). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.