The History of the Bra Essay

The identity of the Bra Boys can be seen through their values and attitudes. They are presented through the Cody, the value of brother ship and Attitude of brother ship through their tattoos and being there for each other.

Fashion in the early nineteen twenties was all about comfort. Men’s pants got wider and women stopped wearing their corsets and tight dresses, while older women of the age considered this scandalous and still held the thought that women should not show their ankle. Though the majority of adults disagreed with the fashion revolution, young women continually hiked up their skirts, stayed out late, and kept up with fashion trends. Times were changing, and thus the flapper age was born. Hemlines rose to the knee, and then later above it- exposing the muscular

In the latter part of the Victorian era there were significant developments signaling the decline of the corset. The way garments were produced is perhaps the key factor in the move away from the corset. In 1839, a Frenchman by the name of Jean Werly patented a loom for the production of women 's corsets. This type of corset was popular until 1890, when machine-made corsets gained popularity. The development of the sewing machine in the early 1850’s gradually led to mass production, manufacturers could produce corsets in far greater numbers and increase the variety of designs available to women of all classes. These advances finally led the way to new designs in underwear in keeping with the changes to the fashions and silhouettes of the early Twentieth Century.

The Great Depression caused woman to want to save money and not spend much on clothing. All over people were struggling to keep money in their pockets, so no one would spend big bucks on designer outfits. Women tended to make their own new clothes from other clothes they already had. “The life motto of many was to ‘Repair, reuse, make do, and don’t waste anything’; therefore, any creativity was apparently confined to those boundaries.(The Vintage News, 2016)” During this time no one wanted to out shine others so they dressed very conservative. Shoulder pads and butterfly sleeves were coming into trend.

But towards the end of the 1850s, the growing industrial world had developed a hierarchy of jobs that were "gender-appropriate" based on a combination of stereotypes, market demands, and real differences in physical strength. Although by the 1840s women represented 50 percent of factory workers in the shoe and textile industries, they rarely worked alongside men. Instead, they held jobs reserved exclusively for women, jobs whose low wages affirmed the belief that women's work was less skilled than men's and less important to family survival. The trend towards delicate or weak women as ideals of beauty in the Victorian era (e.g., the corseted waist) was in part a contrast to the great strength and physical fortitude that average, working women had to display in order to survive and be employed in the Industrial Revolution.

This week’s reading talks about breasts, anorexia, and fat. Breasts play an important role because girls worry about their breast size. Boys like busty girls which causes the girls to pay more attention to their body including their weight. A statistic that amazed me was that “In the United States, the first boneless bra to leave the midriff bare was developed in 1913 by Mary Phelps Jacobs, a New York City debutante (205)”. I also found out the first bra was designed to flatten; on the other hand, now a day it’s different. Bras are made to enhance the breasts. As time go by, the making of bras slowly change.

During the 1920's, the corset fell from favour, in America and Europe, to be replaced by girdles and elasticised brassieres. Initially regarded as lingerie, the corset is now regarded as outerwear amongst devotees of the fetish, BDSM and goth subcultures.

The supermodel Elle Macpherson has launched an innovative brassiere and is she all agog about it. The innovation comes in the form that the seams and darts don’t do a peek-a-boo beneath a cotton white T-shirt or a silk blouse, primarily. The placement of bra straps in this new release is such that it gives an illusion of an athletic body. The new affordable lingerie line is launched by Elle Macpherson Body that is in equal partnership with Australian entrepreneur Simon de Winter.

This was modeled after the Virgin Mary whose round belly contained the savior (Yalom, 1997, p. 40). It wasn't until the fourteenth century and the Renaissance that this began to change. Explosive creativity and art occurred despite great famine and disease. As people became more frolicsome, clothing became more revealing. Such clothing including lowering the neckline to show cleavage (Latteire, 1998, p. 31). In the seventeenth century, the breasts once again became the center of female attractiveness over the belly. The breast stood as a symbol of power and wealth at a time when mercantilism was on the rise in Europe (Latteire, 1998, p. 32). The corset, which was previously used to flatten the breasts, was used to push in the stomach and push up the breasts (Winston, Website). Louis XIV of France's personal taste was a factor in this, as he demanded lower necklines for all the court women. He considered it a sign of respect to

In which I believe would have gradually gave the wives the image the men in society were demanding females to be considered attractive when they wanted thinner more fit wives or the men that were fascinated with the hourglass figure. But as allowing females to get rid of the corset and get active would have did the purpose of the corset and more for less the cost and less stress on your organs or spinal cord from the constant pressure but getting females active during would have made the relevancy of females sports the same as men, so because of this delay due to the dangers of the corset female sports and active activities were slowing introduce with caution but of the lingering affects younger females could have inherited from wear the enabling

Pin-up lingerie and Hollywood fashion and glamour had an impact on women’s fashion choices including the cone-shaped bra, and the spiral-stitched bullet bra. In the 1950s, the conical bra literally set the standard of what made a woman alluring. The bullet bra, also known as the “push up” bra of the 1950s, added a full cup size to their bust, fully covered the breasts and provided necessary support, whilst allowing the breasts to breathe. Women’s choice about what sort of brassiere to wear or whether to wear a bra at all were consciously and unconsciously based on the social opinions of the “perfect” shape of the female breast and the female figure reflecting her bust, waist, and hip measurements. (Burns-Ardolino, 2007). As Steele stated in

Another area in which women made changes was with their appearance. Women used their attire and style to show an independence, a certain freedom in which they alone had control. Starting with the “Gibson Girl”, women dressed in long, slim dresses, freeing themselves of the poufy petticoats of yore. Women started wearing shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles, leading to “Flapper Jane”. “Women started wearing “less” clothing, shorter dresses, cutting off their hair, and just being more “sensual” than normal”, (Bliven, 1925).

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.

When discussing fashion women often talk about the amazing dress they picked up or the sexy peep toe heels that they just couldn’t bare to pass by, however, very often does one think of the bra and its impact on fashion history. A necessary evil in most women’s lives the “over the shoulder boulder holder” has been around since ancient times in some form or another. Before the invention of the brassiere women were suffocating in corsets that resulted in crushed rib cages and damaged reproductive organs. But in 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob changed all that by stitching together the very first bra. The rest, they say, is history.

Arguably the most controversial garment in the history of fashion, the corset is a classic item that has lasted the test of time. Made to adjust the wearer’s body to the aesthetics through centuries, the lingerie item remained an essential in many women’s closet. Throughout its existence, the corset has been condemned and misunderstood as a torturous device for the female body, but it is more than that (Steele, 2001, 1-2). This report is dedicated to exploring the corset changes in form, its purposes and meaning from the 15th - 16th century. Taking into account that the corset has a long history, only the main events and mainstream viewpoints in its timeline will be examined. The focus will be placed upon the garment’s construction, the main events that causes its evolution and what it meant for women at the time.