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A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, ; ), is a type of
form-fitting A form-fitting garment is an article of clothing that tightly follows the contours of the part of the body being covered. A feature of Modern Western societies is the popularity of form-fitting clothing worn by women, compared to equivalent male ...
underwear Underwear, underclothing, or undergarments are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer clothing from being soiled ...
that is primarily used to support and cover a woman's
breasts The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...
. A typical bra consists of a chest band that wraps around the torso, supporting two breast cups that are held in place by shoulder straps. A bra usually fastens in the back, using a hook and eye fastener, although bras are available in a large range of styles and
sizes Size in general is the Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude or dimensions of a thing. More specifically, ''geometrical size'' (or ''spatial size'') can refer to three geometrical measures: length, area, or volume. Length can be generalized ...
, including front-fastening and backless designs. Some bras are designed for specific functions, such as nursing bras to facilitate
breastfeeding Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is the process where breast milk is fed to a child. Infants may suck the milk directly from the breast, or milk may be extracted with a Breast pump, pump and then fed to the infant. The World Health Orga ...
or sports bras to minimize discomfort during exercise. Although women in ancient Greece and Rome wore garments to support their breasts, the first modern bra is attributed to 19-year-old Mary Phelps Jacob, who created the garment in 1913 by using two handkerchiefs and some ribbon. After patenting her design in 1914, she briefly manufactured bras at a two-woman factory in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, before selling her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company, which began mass-producing the garment. The bra gained widespread adoption during the first half of the twentieth century, when it largely replaced the
corset A corset /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...
. The majority of Western women today wear bras, with a minority choosing to go braless. Bra manufacturing and retailing are key components of the multibillion-dollar global
lingerie Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...
industry.


Etymology

The term ''brassiere'', from French ''brassière'', of 17th century origin, meaning a woman's or child's short garment covering the arms (Fr: ''bras'') and upper body, was used by the ''Evening Herald'' in Syracuse, New York, in 1893. It gained wider acceptance in 1904 when the DeBevoise Company used it in their advertising copy. The French use the term (literally, "throat-supporter") for the item. It and other early versions resembled a camisole stiffened with boning. '' Vogue'' magazine first used the term ''brassiere'' in 1907, and by 1911 the word had entered the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
''. On 3 November 1914, the newly formed US patent category for "brassieres" was inaugurated with the first patent issued to Mary Phelps Jacob, later and better known as
Caresse Crosby Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the recipient of a patent for the first successful modern brassiere, bra, an American patron of the arts, a publisher, and the woman ''Time (magazine), Time'' called ...
. In the 1930s, ''brassiere''/''brassière'' was gradually shortened to ''bra''.


History

The history of the brassière is full of myths in which people like
Caresse Crosby Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the recipient of a patent for the first successful modern brassiere, bra, an American patron of the arts, a publisher, and the woman ''Time (magazine), Time'' called ...
,
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
, Herminie Cadolle and
Otto Titzling Otto Titzling is a fictional character apocryphally described as the inventor of the brassière in the 1971 satire ''Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling'' by New Zealand humorist Wallace Reyburn. The character's name is a pun on "a two-tit ...
command center stage. Before the spread of brassières, the female bust was encased in
corset A corset /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...
s and structured garments called " bust improvers", made of boning and lace. The history of corsets indicates they started to go out of fashion by 1917, when metal was needed to make tanks and munitions for World War I, and when 1920s fashions emphasized boyish figures. When corsets became unfashionable, brassières and padding helped to project, display and emphasize the breasts. In 1893, New Yorker Marie Tucek was granted a patent for a "breast supporter", described as a modification of the corset, and was very similar to a modern
push-up bra There are many brassiere designs suitable for a wide variety of business and social settings and suitable to wear with a variety of outer clothing. The bra's shape, coverage, functionality, fit, fashion, fabric, and color can vary widely. Some ...
designed to support the breasts. It consisted of a plate made of metal, cardboard or other stiff material shaped to fit against the torso under the breasts, following the contour of the breasts. It was covered with silk, canvas or other cloth, which extended above the plate to form a pocket for each breast. The plate curved around the torso and ended near the armpits.


Early brassières

Wearing a garment to support the breasts may date back to
ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
. Women wore an ''apodesmos'', later ''stēthodesmē'', ''mastodesmos'' and ''mastodeton'', all meaning "breast-band", a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the breasts and tied or pinned at the back. Roman women wore breast-bands during sport, such as those shown on the ''Coronation of the Winner'' mosaic (also known as the "Bikini mosaic"). Fragments of linen textiles found at Lengberg Castle in
East Tyrol East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (), is an exclave of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, separated from North Tyrol by parts of Salzburg State and parts of Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', ). It is coterminous with the administrative ...
in Austria dated to between 1440 and 1485 are believed to have been bras. Two of them had cups made from two pieces of linen sewn with fabric that extended to the bottom of the torso with a row of six eyelets for fastening with a lace or string. One had two shoulder straps and was decorated with lace in the cleavage. From the 16th century, the undergarments of wealthier women in the Western world were dominated by the
corset A corset /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...
, which pushed the breasts upwards. In the later 19th century, clothing designers began experimenting with alternatives, splitting the corset into multiple parts: a
girdle A belt without a buckle, especially if a cord or rope, is called a girdle in various contexts, especially historical ones, where girdles were a very common part of everyday clothing from antiquity until perhaps the 15th century, especially for w ...
-like restraining device for the lower torso, and devices that suspended the breasts from the shoulder to the upper torso.


Modern bra

Though the first bra, a linen and lace garment that looks almost exactly like a modern bra, was discovered in an early 15th century collection from Lengberg Castle in
Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, there is no other evidence of any use of bras in the 1400s. In 1914, the first modern bra was patented by New York publisher, activist, and socialite
Caresse Crosby Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the recipient of a patent for the first successful modern brassiere, bra, an American patron of the arts, a publisher, and the woman ''Time (magazine), Time'' called ...
(born Mary Phelps Jacob). Frustrated with a whale bone corset that kept popping through a new party dress, she created the bra from two handkerchiefs and some ribbon to create
cleavage Cleavage may refer to: Science * Cleavage (crystal), the way in which a crystal or mineral tends to split * Cleavage (embryo), the division of cells in an early embryo * Cleavage (geology), foliation of rock perpendicular to stress, a result of ...
. Crosby sold bras to friends for one dollar. Soon she founded the Fashion Form Brassière Company, with a factory in Boston staffed by two women. Crosby patented the first bra as "the backless brassière" in 1914. After making a few hundred bras and some orders from department stores, she was persuaded by her husband to close the company. She sold the patent to The Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1,500. In the next 30 years, Warner Brothers made more than US$15 million from the design. According to Cadolle Lingerie House, Herminie Cadolle, a French inventor, was the first inventor to patent the modern 'brassiere', called the "corselet-gorge", lingerie which separated the upper bra portion from the lower corset, the first step toward the modern bra. An
urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...
that the brassière was invented by a man named
Otto Titzling Otto Titzling is a fictional character apocryphally described as the inventor of the brassière in the 1971 satire ''Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling'' by New Zealand humorist Wallace Reyburn. The character's name is a pun on "a two-tit ...
("tit sling") who lost a lawsuit with ''Phillip de Brassière'' ("fill up the brassière") originated with the 1971 book ''Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra'' and was propagated in a comedic song from the movie ''
Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...
''. Half the patents filed for the design and manufacture of the bra were created by women. The
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
-based German, Christine Hardt, patented the first modern brassière in 1899. Sigmund Lindauer from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, developed a brassière for mass production and patented it in 1912. It was mass-produced by Mechanische Trikotweberei Ludwig Maier und Cie. in Böblingen, Germany. In the United States, Mary Phelps Jacob received a patent in 1914 for the first brassière design that is recognized as the basis for modern bras. Mass production in the early 20th century made the garment widely available to women in the United States, England, Western Europe, and other countries influenced by western fashion. Metal shortages in World War I encouraged the end of the corset. Development of the underwire bra started in the 1930s, though it did not gain widespread popularity until the 1950s, when the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
freed metal for domestic use. Aviator and filmmaker
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
designed a prototype for an aerodynamic underwire bra for
Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, model, and singer. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s and starred in more than 20 films throughout her career. R ...
when filming ''
The Outlaw ''The Outlaw'' is a 1943 American Western film directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, removing original director Howard Hawks and replacing origi ...
'' in 1941. According to Hughes, the resultant amount was "the length of the actual cleavage is five and one-quarter inches."Daphne Merkin,
The Great Divide
, ''New York Times'', August 28, 2005
Bras in 1940s left a substantial amount of fabric in the center, thus creating a separation of breasts instead of the pushed-together cleavage of today. Frederick Mellinger of Frederick's of Hollywood created the first padded bra in 1947, followed by an early push-up bra a year later (dubbed "The Rising Star"). A padded bra adds material (foam, silicone, gel, air, or fluid) to the cups to help the breasts look fuller. There are different designs, from a slight lift to a highly pushed-up effect, that provide coverage and support, hides nipples, add shape to breasts that are far apart and adds comfort.Patricia O'Grady, ''The Guide to Breast Reconstruction'', page 85, AuthorHouse, 2014, Graduated padding uses more padding at the bottom of the cups that gradually tapers off towards the top. There also are semi-padded bras that suits deep neck dresses. With the advent of padded bras, sales of removable pads took a plunge, though some padded bras also have removable inserts. Actress
Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles across various genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Award ...
was required to wear a custom made silicone gel filled bra for the movie ''
Erin Brockovich Erin Brockovich (née Pattee; born June 22, 1960) is an American paralegal, consumer advocate, and environmental activist who was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination ...
'' in order to increase her cleavage. Brassières were initially manufactured by small production companies and supplied to retailers. The term "cup" was not used until 1916, and manufacturers relied on stretchable cups to accommodate different sized breasts. Women with larger or sagging breasts had the choice of long-line bras, built-up backs, wedge-shaped inserts between the cups, wider straps, Lastex, firm bands under the cup, and light boning. In October 1932, the S.H. Camp and Company correlated the size and pendulousness of breasts to letters A through D. Camp's advertising featured letter-labeled profiles of breasts in the February 1933 issue of ''Corset and Underwear Review''. In 1937, Warner began to feature cup sizing in its products. Adjustable bands were introduced using multiple hook and eye closures in the 1930s. By the time World War II ended, most fashion-conscious women in Europe and North America were wearing brassière, and women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America began to adopt it.


1960s–1980s

In fall 1963 and spring 1964, the Western fashion trends were dominated by plunging necklines, while audiences were charmed by movies like '' Tom Jones'' that portrayed "aggressive cleavages". Lingerie and Shapewear manufacturers like
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
, Gossard, Formfit, and
Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...
took the opportunity to market plunge bras. A plunge bra covers the nipples and bottom of the breasts while leaving the top part bare making it suitable for low-cut tops and deep V-necks. It also has a lower, shorter and narrower center gore that maintains support while increasing cleavage by allowing the gore to drop several inches below the middle of the breasts.Cora Harrington, ''In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie'', page 64, Rodale, 2018, Plunge bras comes in different depths that provide great cleavage. Like a push up bra these have some padding and provide support, as well as to help push the breasts together and create cleavage. Bali and Vassarette also marketed lace bras that maximized cleavage. The first
push-up bra There are many brassiere designs suitable for a wide variety of business and social settings and suitable to wear with a variety of outer clothing. The bra's shape, coverage, functionality, fit, fashion, fabric, and color can vary widely. Some ...
was created in 1964 by Canadian Louise Poirier and patented for Wonderbra (trademarked in 1935), then owned by Canadelle, a Canadian lingerie company in 1971.Sam Stall, Lou Harry and Julia Spalding, ''The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures'', page 308, Quirk Books, 2004, A push up bra is designed to press the breasts upwards and closer together to give a fuller appearance with help of padded cups, differing from other padded bras in location of the pads. It leaves the upper and inner area of breasts uncovered adding more cleavage. These are available in many designs and every size starting from A to E. Most of the push-up bras have underwires for added lift and support, while the padding is commonly made of foam.


1990s onward

The Wonderbra brand was acquired, in 1994, by
Sara Lee Corporation The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. The Sara Lee name was used of a number of frozen and packaged foods, often known for the long-running slogan "Everybody doesn't like something, b ...
and, since 2006, licensed to HanesBrands Inc and Sun Capital for different markets. It had 54 design elements, including a three-part cup, underwires, a precision-angled back, rigid straps, and removable "cookies". When the push-up plunge bra first appeared in the US market one Wonderbra sold every 15 seconds, driving a first year sale of US$120 million. The bra became one of the most complex pieces of lingerie ever created. In 1994, supermodel Eva Herzigova's cleavage photographed by Ellen von Unwerth for Wonderbra's controversial advertising campaign ''Hello Boys'' helped shape the ideal of women, an experience Herzigova described as "empowering". In 1999, the advertising poster was placed at 10th position in the Poster of the Century competition compiled by trade magazine Campaign. In 2011, it was voted the top advertising campaign of all time in a poll by Outdoor Media Centre, and advertising and marketing portal, and was featured in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It helped to bring the brand into forefront of the competition for cleavage after 30 years of relative obscurity. On the first Friday of every April in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, brassière marketer Wonderbra sponsors a National Cleavage Day.National Cleavage Day
''Wonderbra.co.za''
There's a special day just for your cleavage
''Independent Online''
America's largest lingerie retailer
Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...
was launched by Roy Raymond, a Stanford alumnus, in San Francisco in late 1970s with a similar appeal. Victoria's Secret Angels held its first fashion show at
Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
in New York in 1995. Even traditional brands, who were producing 1950s style pointy-cups, low-backs, low-fronts and no-straps,Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau, ''Uplift: The Bra in America'', page 144, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, like Maidenform joined the competition in 1995. In 1999 the event was first webcast. By 2001, the event was being aired on network television with 12 million viewers for the first broadcast. Other lingerie manufacturers like Frederick's of Hollywood and Agent Provocateur also joined the competition by that time, with the former introducing a design called Hollywood Extreme Cleavage Bra that helped give the impression of a spherical cleavage like augmented breasts that was popularized by stars like
Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress, model and media personality. She rose to prominence after being selected as the February 1990 ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month. She went on to make regular appearan ...
. The
underwire bra An underwire bra (also under wire bra, under-wire bra, or underwired bra) is a brassiere that utilizes a thin, semi-circular strip of rigid material fitted inside the brassiere fabric to help lift, separate, shape, and support a woman's breasts. ...
utilizes a wire sewn into the bra fabric and under each cup, from the center gore to under the wearer's armpit. It helps to lift, separate, shape, and support the breasts. These bras use a thin strip of metal, plastic or resin, usually with a nylon coating at both ends. Some underwire bra styles also come in soft cup versions. Underwire bras accounted for 60% of the United Kingdom bra market in 2000 and 70% in 2005. About 70% of women who wear bras wear a steel underwire bra according to underwear manufacturer industries of New York in 2009. In 2001, 70% (350 million) of the bras sold in the United States were underwire bras. In 2005, underwire bras were the fastest growing segment of the market. It has been suggested that underwire bras may restrict the flow of blood and
lymph fluid Lymph () is the fluid that flows through the lymphatic system, a system composed of lymph vessels (channels) and intervening lymph nodes whose function, like the venous system, is to return fluid from the tissues to be recirculated. At the origi ...
around the breasts, preventing drainage of toxins, but no evidence has emerged to support this claim. In the next decade, particularly during the
COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...
, bralettes and soft bras started replacing underwired and padded bras, sometimes also serving as an outerwear. At the same time popularity of brands like Victoria's Secret decreased significantly. Sarah Shotton, creative director of Agent Provocateur, attributes this to a shift in consumer focus to "the athletic body, health and wellbeing", rather than "the male gaze;" according to independent lingerie designer Araks Yeramyan "It was #MeToo that catapulted the bralette movement into what it is today." Some bralettes still provide plunging designs, light padding, bottom support or significant cleavage.


Manufacture


Construction

Mass-produced bras are manufactured to fit a prototypical woman standing with both arms at her sides. The design assumes that both breasts are equally sized and symmetrical. Manufacturing a well-fitting bra is a challenge since the garment is supposed to be form-fitting but women's breasts may sag, vary in volume, width, height, shape, and position on the chest. Manufacturers make standard bra sizes that provide a "close" fit, however even a woman with accurate measurements can have a difficult time finding a correctly fitted bra because of the variations in sizes between different manufacturers. Some manufacturers create " vanity sizes" and deliberately mis-state the size of their bras in an attempt to persuade women that they are slimmer and more buxom. A bra is one of the most complicated garments to make. A typical design has between 20 and 48 parts, including the band, gore, side panel, cup, apex, neckline, underwire, strap, ring, slider, strap join, and closure. Bras are built on a square frame model.
Lingerie Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...
designer Chantal Thomass said, The primary component offering the most support is a chest band that wraps around the torso. It supports two cups that are usually held in place by two
shoulder strap A strap, sometimes also called strop, is an elongated flap or ribbon, usually of leather or other flexible materials. Thin straps are used as part of clothing or baggage, or bedding such as a sleeping bag. See for example spaghetti strap, shou ...
s. The chest band is usually closed in the back by a hook and eye
fastener A fastener (US English) or fastening (UK English) is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or disman ...
, but smaller busted models may be fastened at the front. Sleep bras or athletic bras do not have fasteners and are pulled on over the head and breasts. The section between the cups is called a gore. The section under the armpit where the band joins the cups is called the "back wing". Bra components, including the cup top and bottom (if seamed), the central, side and back panels, and straps, are cut to manufacturer's specifications. Many layers of fabric may be cut at the same time using computer-controlled lasers or bandsaw shearing devices. The pieces are assembled by piece workers using industrial sewing machines or automated machines. Coated metal hooks and eyes are sewn in by machine and heat processed or ironed into the back ends of the band and a tag or label is attached or printed onto the bra itself. The completed bras are folded (mechanically or manually), and packaged for shipment. The chest band and cups, not the shoulder straps, are designed to support the weight of women's breasts. Strapless bras rely on an underwire and additional seaming and stiffening panels to support them. The shoulder straps of some sports bras cross over at the back to take the pressure off the shoulders when arms are raised. Manufacturers continually experiment with proprietary frame designs. For example, the Playtex "18-Hour Bra" model utilizes an M-Frame design.


Materials

Bras were originally made of linen, cotton broadcloth, and twill weaves and sewn using flat-felled or bias-tape seams. They are now made of a variety of materials, including Tricot,
Spandex Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether- polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont. Name The name ''spandex'', which is an anagram of t ...
, Spanette,
Latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...
,
microfiber Microfiber (microfibre in British English) is synthetic fibre finer than one Denier (unit), denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometre, micrometers. The most common types of microfiber are made variously of polye ...
,
satin A satin weave is a type of Textile, fabric weave that produces a characteristically glossy, smooth or lustrous material, typically with a glossy top surface and a dull back; it is not durable, as it tends to snag. It is one of three fundamen ...
,
Jacquard Jacquard may refer to: People * Albert Jacquard (1925–2013), French geneticist and essayist * Joseph Marie Jacquard Joseph Marie Charles ''dit'' (called or nicknamed) Jacquard (; 7 July 1752 – 7 August 1834) was a French weaver and mercha ...
, foam, mesh, and
lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...
, which are blended to achieve specific purposes. Spandex, a synthetic fiber with built-in "stretch memory", can be blended with cotton, polyester, or nylon. Mesh is a high-tech synthetic composed of ultra-fine filaments that are tightly knit for smoothness. Sixty to seventy per cent of bras sold in the UK and US have underwired cups. The underwire is made of metal, plastic, or resin. The antecedents for underwire in bras date to at least 1893, when Marie Tucek of New York City patented a ''breast supporter'', a sort of early push-up bra made of either metal or cardboard and then covered with fabric. Underwire is built around the perimeter of the cup where it attaches to the band, increasing its rigidity to improve support, lift, and separation. Wirefree or softcup bras have additional seaming and internal reinforcement. By the late 1970s, wire-free bras were emerging both at Hanky Panky and at Hanro in Switzerland. Cosabella in Italy and in France followed in the 1980s, as did Eberjey in the 1990s. Others use padding or shaping materials to enhance bust size or cleavage.


Size and fitting

In most countries, bras come in a band and cup size, such as 34C; 34 is the chest band, or the measurement around the torso directly underneath the breasts, and C is the cup size, which refers to the volume of the breasts. Most bras are offered in 36 sizes; the Triumph "Doreen" comes in 67 sizes, up to 46J. The cup size varies depending on the band size. A D cup on a 38 band is larger in volume than a D cup on a 34 band, as the volume of a woman's breast increases as her chest band dimension increases. In countries that have adopted the European EN 13402 dress-size standard, the measurement is rounded to the nearest multiple of . International manufacturing standards and measurement systems vary widely. Bras are designed for an averaged body, but women's anatomy varies widely. Ten percent of women's breasts are asymmetrical, with the left breast being larger in 62 percent of cases. One woman's breasts may be ptotic and widely spaced, another's might be centered closely on the chest, upright, and very full. As a result, finding a correctly fitting bra is extremely difficult. When women find a bra that appears to fit, they tend to stay with that size, even though they may lose and gain weight. In a survey in the United Kingdom, 60 per cent of over 2,000 women between the ages of 16 and 75 said they had had a bra fitting, and 99 per cent said that fit was the least important factor when selecting a bra. Increased publicity about the issue of poorly fitted bras has increased the number of women seeking a fitting. The UK retailer
Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
stated that about 8,000 women are fitted for bras in their stores weekly. Despite this, about 80–85 percent of women still wear the wrong bra size. Bra experts recommend professional bra fittings from the lingerie department of a clothing store or a specialty lingerie store, especially for cup sizes D or larger, and particularly if there has been significant weight gain or loss, or if the wearer is continually adjusting her bra. Women in the UK change their bra size on average six times over their lifetimes. Signs of a loose bra band include the band riding up the back. If the band causes flesh to spill over the edges, it is too small. A woman can test whether a bra band is too tight or loose by reversing the bra on her torso so that the cups are in the back and then check for fit and comfort. Experts suggest that women choose a band size that fits using the outermost set of hooks. This allows the wearer to use the tighter hooks as the bra stretches during its lifetime.


Styles

Bras may be designed to enhance a woman's breast size, or to create
cleavage Cleavage may refer to: Science * Cleavage (crystal), the way in which a crystal or mineral tends to split * Cleavage (embryo), the division of cells in an early embryo * Cleavage (geology), foliation of rock perpendicular to stress, a result of ...
, or for other aesthetic, fashion, or more practical considerations. Nursing bras are designed to aid
breastfeeding Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is the process where breast milk is fed to a child. Infants may suck the milk directly from the breast, or milk may be extracted with a Breast pump, pump and then fed to the infant. The World Health Orga ...
. Compression bras, such as sports bras, push against and minimize breast movement, whereas encapsulation bras have cups for support. Breast support may be built into some swimsuits, camisoles and dresses.
Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
bras are designed specifically for
breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
patients who have undergone a
mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer choose to have ...
. The styles provide post-surgical support, and some include pads or pockets for stuffing. Bras come in a variety of styles, including backless, balconette, convertible, shelf, full cup, full coverage bra, demi-cup, minimizing, padded, plunge, lounge bra, posture, push-up, racerback, sheer, strapless, T-shirt, underwire, unlined, and soft cup.


Culture


Fashion

Women's choices about what bra to wear are consciously and unconsciously affected by social perceptions of the ideal
female body shape Female body shape or female figure is the cumulative product of a woman's bone structure along with the distribution of muscle and fat on the body. Female figures are typically narrower at the waist than at the bust and hips. The bust, waist ...
, which changes over time. As lingerie, women wear bras for sex appeal. Bras can also be used to make a social statement as evidenced by Jean-Paul Gaultier's designs and the cone-shaped bra
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
wore outside her clothing on her Blond Ambition World Tour. In the 1920s, the
flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...
aesthetic involved flattening the breasts. During the 1940s and 1950s, the sweater girl became fashionable, supported by a '' bullet bra'' (known also as a torpedo or cone bra) as worn by
Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, model, and singer. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s and starred in more than 20 films throughout her career. R ...
and
Patti Page Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), better known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer. Primarily known for Pop music, pop and Country music, country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and b ...
. As outerwear, bras in the form of bikini tops in the 1950s became an acceptable public display. During the 1960s, designers and manufacturers introduced padded and underwire bras. After the
Miss America protest The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included put ...
in September 1968, manufacturers were concerned that women would stop wearing bras. In response, many altered their marketing and claimed that wearing their bra was like "not wearing a bra". In the 1970s women sought more comfortable and natural-looking bras. In the late 1990s larger breasts became more fashionable in England.
Iris Marion Young Iris Marion Young (2 January 1949 – 1 August 2006) was an American political theorist and socialist feminist who focused on the nature of justice and social difference. She served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago an ...
described preferences in the United States in 1990: "round, sitting high on the chest, large but not bulbous, with the look of firmness." This is regarded as contradictory in several ways.
Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...
commissions a fantasy bra every autumn. In 2003, it hired the jeweller Mouawad to design one containing more than 2500 carats of diamonds and sapphires; valued at US$10 million, it was the world's most valuable bra at the time.


Undergarment as outerwear

Sports bras were invented in 1975. Women wore them under other clothing for the next 25 years. But on 10 July 1999,
Brandi Chastain Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...
scored the fifth kick in the
penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
to give the United States the win over
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
in the final game of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final. In celebration, she spontaneously whipped off her jersey, exposing her sports bra. Her act is regarded by some as a historical event that boosted wearing sports bras alone. From that point forward, sports bras were increasingly worn as outerwear.
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
was one of the first to start showing her bra straps, in the late 1980s. A corset she wore as outerwear during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour sold for US$52,000 in 2012 at the Christie's Pop Culture auction in London.
Versace Gianni Versace S.r.l. (), usually referred to as Versace ( ), is an Italian luxury elite fashion company founded by Gianni Versace in 1978. The company produces Italian-made ready-to-wear and accessories, as well as '' haute couture'' under it ...
's autumn 2013 couture collection featured fashions that were open in the front, revealing underwire bras. It became fashionable from the early 1990s to wear clothing that showed bra straps. Wearing clothes that reveal the bra or straps became so common that ''Cosmopolitan'' created guidelines in 2012 on how to expose them. Advice included avoiding plain, flesh-toned, smooth-cup bras, so that the exposure does not appear accidental; making sure the bra is in good condition; and wearing a style that either matches the colour of the outerwear or is dramatically different.


Decreasing Western usage

While a few women have a medical and surgical need to wear a brassiere, informal surveys have found that many women began wearing bras to be fashionable, to conform to social or maternal pressure, or for physical support. Very few cited comfort as the reason. In fact, many women experience so much discomfort that they remove their bra as soon as they can. In Western society, since the 1960s, there has been a slow but steady trend towards bralessness among a number of women, especially millennials, who have expressed opposition to and are giving up wearing bras. Being seen in public while not wearing a bra has become more acceptable since then, encouraging more women to go without. In 2016, '' Allure'' magazine fashion director Rachael Wang wrote, "Going braless is as old as feminism but it seems to be bubbling to the surface more recently as a direct response to Third Wave moments like #freethenipple hashtag campaign, increased trans-visibility like
Caitlyn Jenner Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner, October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American media personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yell ...
's '' Vanity Fair'' cover ... and
Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (; born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series '' Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two G ...
's show '' Girls'' (which features young women often without bras)." In an online survey for '' All You'' magazine in 2013, 25 percent of women reported that they do not wear a bra every day. Surveys have reported that 5–25 per cent of Western women do not wear a bra. A National No Bra Day was first observed in the United States on 9 July 2011. Women posted on Twitter about the relief they felt when taking off their bra. More than 250,000 people expressed an interest in "attending" the day on a Facebook page. No Bra Day is now observed internationally on 13 October. A Harris Poll commissioned by ''
Playtex Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
'' asked more than 1,000 women what they like in a bra. Among the respondents, 67 per cent said they prefer wearing a bra to going braless, while 85 per cent wanted to wear a "shape-enhancing bra that feels like nothing at all." They were split as regards underwire bras: 49 per cent said they prefer underwire bras, the same percentage as those who said they prefer wireless bras. According to underwire manufacturer S & S Industries of New York, who supply bras to
Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...
,
Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...
, Warner's,
Playtex Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
, Vanity Fair, and other labels, about 70 per cent of bra-wearing women wear underwire bras. COVID-19 lockdowns led to more women adopting wireless bras and bralettes for comfort. The company Knix, which manufactures exclusively soft-cup bras, reported a 100 percent increase in sales between January 2020 and January 2021. "I don't think women are going to want to go back to wearing their regular everyday bras," stated the chief product officer for Lululemon.


Usage in the developing world

Bras are not universally worn around the world; in some developing countries bras may cost up to 10–30 hours of a woman's wages, making them unaffordable to most of the population. , women in
Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
needed to pay up to a week's wages for a new bra. Bras are highly prized at second-hand markets in
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
. The Uplift Project provides recycled bras to women in developing countries. Since 2005 they have shipped 330,000, including to Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, and Cambodia. In 2009 Somalia's hard-line Islamic group Al-Shabaab forced women to shake their breasts at gunpoint to see if they were wearing bras, which they called "un-Islamic". A resident of
Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...
whose daughters were whipped said, "The Islamists say a woman's chest should be firm naturally, or flat."


Economic impact

Consumers spend around $16 billion a year worldwide on bras. In the US during 2012, women owned an average of nine bras and wore six on a regular basis. That increased from 2006, when the average American woman owned six, one of which was strapless, and one in a colour other than white. British women in a 2009 survey reported that they owned an average of 16 bras. The average bra size among North American women has changed from 34B in 1983 to a 34DD in 2012–2013, and from 36C in 2013 to 36DD in the UK during 2014–2015. The change in bra size has been linked to growing obesity rates, breast implants, increased birth control usage, estrogen mimicking pollutants, the availability of a larger selection of bras, and women wearing better fitting bras. Bras are made in Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, India, and China. While there has been some social pressure from the anti-sweatshop and
anti-globalization movement The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...
s on manufacturers to reduce use of
sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a cramped workplace with very poor and/or illegal working conditions, including little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting and ventilation, or uncomfortably or dangerously high or low temperat ...
labour, most major apparel manufacturers rely on them directly and indirectly. Prior to 2005, a trade agreement limited textile imports to the European Union and the US. China was exporting US$33.9 billion in textiles and clothing each year to the EU and the US. When those quotas expired on 1 January 2005, the so-called Bra Wars began. Within six months, China shipped 30 million more bras to the two markets: 33 per cent more to the US and 63 per cent more to the EU. , an average bra cost £29.80. , Africa imported US$107 million worth of bras, with South Africa accounting for 40 per cent. Morocco was second and Nigeria third, while Mauritius topped purchasing on a
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". Social statistics The term is used in a wide variety of social science, social sciences and statistical research conte ...
basis. In countries where labour costs are low, bras that cost US$5–7 to manufacture sell for US$50 or more in American retail stores. , female garment workers in Sri Lanka earned about US$2.20 per day. Similarly, Honduran garment factory workers in 2003 were paid US$0.24 for each $50
Sean John Sean John is a privately held fashion lifestyle company created by music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sean John "Diddy" Combs. The line made its fashion debut with a men's sportswear collection for the spring 1998 season. In 2016, the brand had ann ...
sweatshirt they made, less than one-half of one per cent of the retail price. In 2009, residents in the textile manufacturing city of Gurao in the
Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
province of China made more than 200 million bras. Children were employed to assemble bras and were paid 0.30 yuan for every 100 bra straps they helped assemble. In one day they could earn 20 to 30 yuan.


Western feminist opinions

In 1968 at the feminist
Miss America protest The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included put ...
, protesters symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can". These included bras, which were among items the protesters called "instruments of female torture" and accoutrements of what they perceived to be enforced
femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
. A local news story in the Atlantic City ''Press'' erroneously reported that "the bras, girdles, falsies, curlers, and copies of popular women's magazines burned in the 'Freedom Trash Can. Individuals who were present said that no one burned a bra nor did anyone take off her bra. However, a female reporter (Lindsy Van Gelder) covering the protest drew an analogy between the feminist protesters and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
protesters who burned their draft cards, and the parallel between protesters burning their draft cards and women burning their bras was encouraged by some organizers including
Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key Radical feminism, radical feminist member of the American Feminist movement, Wom ...
. "The media picked up on the bra part", Carol Hanisch said later. "I often say that if they had called us 'girdle burners,' every woman in America would have run to join us." Feminism and "bra-burning" became linked in popular culture. The analogous term ''jockstrap-burning'' has since been coined as a reference to masculism. While feminist women did not literally burn their bras, some stopped wearing them in protest. The feminist author Bonnie J. Dow has suggested that the association between feminism and bra-burning was encouraged by individuals who opposed the feminist movement. "Bra-burning" created an image that women were not really seeking freedom from sexism, but were attempting to assert themselves as sexual beings. This might lead individuals to believe, as
Susan J. Douglas Susan J. Douglas (born 1950) is an American feminist columnist, and cultural critic who writes about gender issues, media criticism and American politics. She has published five books on American history, and is currently Catherine Neafie Kellogg ...
wrote, that the women were merely trying to be "trendy, and to attract men." Some feminist activists believe that anti-feminists use the bra burning myth and the subject of going braless to trivialize what the protesters were trying to accomplish at the feminist 1968
Miss America protest The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included put ...
and the feminist movement in general. The trope of feminists burning their bras was anticipated by an earlier generation of feminists who called for burning corsets as a step toward liberation. In 1873, American novelist Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward wrote: Some feminists began arguing in the 1960s and 1970s that the bra was an example of how women's clothing shaped and even deformed women's bodies to male expectations. In 1964, Professor
Lisa Jardine Lisa Anne Jardine (née Bronowski; 12 April 1944 – 25 October 2015) was a British historian of the early modern period. From 1990 to 2011, she was Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies and director of the Centre for Editing Lives and L ...
described her dinner with Australian writer and public intellectual
Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...
during a formal college dinner in
Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
:
Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...
's book ''
The Female Eunuch ''The Female Eunuch'' is a 1970 book by Germaine Greer that became an international bestseller and an important text in the feminist movement. Greer's thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexual ...
'' (1970) became associated with the anti-bra movement because she pointed out how restrictive and uncomfortable a bra could be. "Bras are a ludicrous invention," she wrote, "but if you make bralessness a rule, you're just subjecting yourself to yet another repression."
Susan Brownmiller Susan Brownmiller (born Susan Warhaftig; February 15, 1935 – May 24, 2025) was an American journalist, author, and feminist activist, best known for her 1975 book '' Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape'', which was selected by The New ...
in her book ''Femininity'' (1984) took the position that women without bras shock and anger men because men "implicitly think that they own breasts and that only they should remove bras." The feminist author
Iris Marion Young Iris Marion Young (2 January 1949 – 1 August 2006) was an American political theorist and socialist feminist who focused on the nature of justice and social difference. She served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago an ...
wrote in 2005 that the bra "serves as a barrier to touch" and that a braless woman is " deobjectified", eliminating the "hard, pointy look that phallic culture posits as the norm." Without a bra, in her view, women's breasts are not consistently shaped objects but change as the woman moves, reflecting the natural body. Other feminist anti-bra arguments from Young in 2005 include that training bras are used to indoctrinate girls into thinking about their breasts as sexual objects and to accentuate their sexuality. Young also wrote in 2007 that, in American culture, breasts are subject to
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
American media-dominated culture
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
objectifies breasts before such a distancing glance that freezes and masters." The academic Wendy Burns-Ardolino wrote in 2007 that women's decision to wear bras is mediated by the " male gaze".


Health


Fit

Some women experience generalized breast discomfort and tenderness from fibrocystic breast changes, and their breast tissue is often described as "lumpy", "rope-like", or "doughy". Doctors often recommend that women wear a well-fitted, supportive bra to help resolve the symptoms.


Exercise

Biomechanical studies have demonstrated that, depending on the activity and the size of a woman's breast, when she walks or runs braless, her breasts may move up and down by or more, and also oscillate side to side. Researchers have also found that as women's breast size increased, they took part in less physical activity, especially vigorous exercise. Few very-large-breasted women jogged, for example. To avoid exercise-related discomfort and pain, medical experts suggest women wear a well-fitted sports bra during activity.


Breast sagging

Women sometimes wear bras because they mistakenly believe they prevent breasts from sagging ( ptosis) as they get older. Physicians, lingerie retailers, teenagers, and adult women used to believe that bras were medically required to support breasts. In a 1952 article in ''Parents' Magazine'', Frank H. Crowell erroneously reported that it was important for teen girls to begin wearing bras early. According to Crowell, this would prevent sagging breasts, stretched blood vessels, and poor circulation later on. This belief was based on the false idea that breasts cannot anatomically support themselves. A 2013 study by Jean-Denis Rouillon said that wearing a bra may actually weaken supportive tissue. Bra manufacturers are careful to claim that bras only affect the shape of breasts while they are being worn. The key factors influencing breast ptosis over a woman's lifetime are
cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...
smoking, her number of pregnancies,
gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
, higher
body mass index Body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass (Mass versus weight, weight) and height of a person. The BMI is defined as the human body weight, body mass divided by the square (algebra), square of the human height, body height, and is ...
, larger bra cup size, and significant weight gain and loss. *


See also

* Bustier *
Basque (clothing) A basque is an item of women's clothing. The term, of French language, French origin, originally referred to types of bodice or jacket with long tails, and in later usage a long corset, characterized by a close, contoured fit and extending p ...
* Handbra, covering the breasts with one's hands * Male bra *
Pasties Pasties (singular pasty or pastie) are patches that cover a person's nipples and areolae, typically self-adhesive or affixed with adhesive. They are usually worn in pairs. They originated as part of burlesque shows, allowing dancers to perform ...


References

Notes Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Further reading * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* —1859 ''Combined breast pads and arm-pit shield'' * —1907 ''Bust supporter'' * —1914 Mary Phelps Jacob's ''Brassiere'' {{Authority control 1880s fashion 19th-century fashion 20th-century fashion 21st-century fashion Brassieres Breast Feminism and health American inventions Women's clothing