On May 30, 1889,
the world’s first bra was (allegedly) invented.
Breasts are an essential feature among mammals, allowing mothers to nurture their young during protracted infancies. No infancy is longer than that of the human species – particularly that of the American male, which often lasts until death.
Breasts, of course, are not just mobile diners for infants. On humans, at least, they also have significant recreational value. Nothing else quite matches the nutrition, entertainment, and sheer jiggle value of the human breast (though Jell-O™ comes close).
Naturally, men couldn’t leave something with the power, appeal, and nutritive value of breasts entirely in the hands of women—literally or metaphorically. From the very dawn of human history, therefore, breasts have been in men’s hands.
In 2500 BC, the Minoan women of Crete were said to have worn special garments that lifted their breasts completely out of their clothing. (Like another popular story of ancient Minos, this is believed to be half bull.) By the rise of the Hellenic (Greek) and Roman civilizations, however, women were binding their breasts tightly to reduce their busts. This style persisted until 476 AD, which historians rightly call the Fall of Rome.
As history progressed, the popularity of breasts rose and fell—heaved and plunged, lifted and separated. Each new culture found its own way of exalting or obscuring the breast. By the nineteenth century in Europe, breasts were being pressed together and thrust upward by whalebone-fortified corsets. The strain was unbearable. Something had to give.
On May 30, 1889, the world’s first bra was invented. Or so the story goes—I’ve lost all track of where I first found that date. However, I do know that corset maker Herminie Cadolle invented the Bien-être (meaning “well-being“) in 1889, a garment that supported the breasts from the shoulder down instead of squeezing them up from below. A revolution, indeed.
Marie Tucek patented the first “breast supporter” in 1893—a design featuring separate pockets for the breasts, with shoulder straps and hook-and-eye closures. Yes, the very first over-the-shoulder boulder holder.
In 1914, New York socialite Mary Jacob Phelps crafted a modern bra using two handkerchiefs, some ribbon, and a bit of cord to wear under a sheer evening gown. She sold her invention—the brassiere—to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500.
World War I gave the bra an extra boost. The U.S. War Industries Board encouraged women to stop buying corsets in 1917, freeing up nearly 60 million pounds of the metal used in them—enough to gird a lot of loins. In the 1920s, Russian immigrant Ida Rosenthal and her husband William founded Maidenform, grouping breasts into cup sizes and designing bras for women of all ages.
From then on, the bra was here to stay—lifting, separating, supporting, and (in some cases) liberating breasts across the globe. So you see Bunkies, it doesn’t really matter what happened on May 30, 1889. It only matters that I’ve gotten you to read the word breast about twenty times in the last several paragraphs.
The Haus of Dcaligari 