The evolution of brassiere

How ladies have been containing themselves through the ages?

Women have used garments designed to secure their feminine assets by lifting, separating and restraining their breasts and tightening the waist, even as early as 2000 BC. In Ancient Rome and Greece, in the third and fourth centuries, women wore simple tunics with no shaping undergarments. This floppy tradition continued on into the twelfth century.

Somewhere in the thirteenth or fourteenth century things began to change. A stiff under bodice called a "cotte" was developed to support the women’s breast and by the fifteenth century it was named a "body" or more appropriately a "pair of bodies" since it was made in two pieces.

The French called this Soutien-gorge breast supporter. The original French meaning was support, but the word was out of use and the French chose to call a bra soutien-gorge.  The Gallic folk even designed their own corset which they named the “bandeau” and by 400AD, theirs was the most fashionable in the Western world, made of linen and frilly lace – call it medieval haute couture! 

It wasn’t the western culture to flare their assets at all.  When religion ruled Europe by 1300, it became increasingly important to hide a woman’s curves, the fairer sex sought corsets that would minimize breasts as much as possible.  By the 1400s women’s chest were covered up to such an extreme that ladies from London to Leningrad were wearing ruffled collars right up to their chins. The only man who would see a lady’s cleavage was her husband.

Chinese Dudou

In China during the Ming dynasty, a form of foundation cloth complete with cups and straps drawn over shoulders and tied to the girth seam at the lower back called a dudou was in vogue among the rich women. While they first arose in the Ming Dynasty, were also common in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In English they are known as 'stomach protectors' or 'tummy covers'.

In England bust improvers were available in the Edwardian period.  By 1905 BBs as they were known were the usual wear. In Spain they added wire, steel, whalebone, and other forms of reinforcements. Unfortunately, it was not a very comfortable garment to wear.

Minoan women on the island of Crete wore bra-like garments that lifted the bare bust out of their clothing. During the 1550s, Catherine de Medicis, wife of King Henri II of France, banned thick waisted women from court functions. It was she who introduced steel corsets. Since the 1500s until the 1800s the corset was the primary under-garment used by women for the purpose of shaping the waist and lifting the breasts.   


Quote: We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give - Sir Winston Churchill