Judge for yourselves: in Ancient Egypt, women wrapped their breasts with a wide band of linen. In Hellas, they wore bandages that either supported the breasts from below or helped hide overly lush forms, and Roman women used a whole system of straps for the same purposes. But by the Middle Ages, all this archaic practice had died out, and European women began to switch to corsets.
Unfortunate women! For centuries they suffered in heavy constructions with inserts of metal or, for the wealthier, whalebone. Spanish women suffered especially, whose court fashion dictated a flat female profile. To achieve the ideal, girls from a very early age were shackled with lead plates that inhibited breast growth.
The bra closer to the form we know today appeared in 1889, when Frenchwoman Herminie Cadolle offered the world a product promisingly named 'le Bien-être' (French for 'well-being'). Its cups were supported by two straps, but at the back the structure was still attached to the corset. Ten years later, Dresden seamstress Christine Hardt pleasantly surprised the experts of the City Chamber of Crafts with a 'women's undershirt with straps, with reinforced cups for the breasts.' From that time on, a Franco-German struggle for primacy in the invention of the bra began.
In 1912, German factory owner Sigmund Lindauer, who produced corsets, personally became convinced of the imperfection of his product: during a wedding trip, he had to spend a lot of effort and time to cope with the multitude of fasteners on his wife's corset. That's when Lindauer thought of finding a replacement for this item of women's attire. And already in 1913, he patented a bodice made of elastic material. In some ways, his invention repeated the ancient Egyptian prototype. But be that as it may, from 1914, Hutana bras, as Lindauer named his product, were mass-produced near Stuttgart at the factory Mechanische Trikotweberei Ludwig Maier und Cie.
But in the same year 1914, New York feminist, writer and publisher Mary Phelps Jacob patented her version of the bra, calling it a 'backless brassiere.' So the birthday of the modern bra can be celebrated according to both German and American 'style.'
The modern range of sizes for this part of women's lingerie was proposed by Ida Rosenthal (née Kaganovich). In 1902, at the age of 16, she moved from her native village of Rakov, near Minsk, first to Warsaw and then to the USA, where she married her fellow countryman William Rosenthal. In 1922, together with him and partner Enid Bissett, she founded the company Maidenform in New York for sewing women's outerwear.
Constantly improving her models, Ida once decided to insert anatomical breast inserts into a dress. William developed the idea, proposing to make standard cups in four sizes – A, B, C, and D. In 1926, he patented his idea with cups, becoming from then on the main generator of new technological solutions in the world of bras.
But in terms of management and finance, Ida was unmatched. As a result, today the development of the modern bra is associated with her name, not her husband's, which is, generally speaking, fair.
'There are no ugly breasts – only incorrectly chosen bras.' This aphorism, attributed to the world-famous lingerie company Victoria's Secret, greets visitors to the exhibition 'Body Talks – 100 Jahre BH' ('Body Talks. 100 Years of the Bra'), opened in Frankfurt. According to exhibition curator Julia Bastian, 'the bra can tell a lot about beauty ideals, taboos, and moral norms. No item of clothing has caused so much discussion and controversy.'
The exhibition contains over a hundred items – from corsets and bikinis that fit in a matchbox to 'smart bras' Wonderbra. This miracle bra is capable of changing the shape of a woman's breasts when its owner contemplates the object of her ardent passion.
Sergey LYUSHIN.
«Russian Germany»