bra

Undergarment designed to cover and support women's breasts. Created in the early 1900s, the original bra was made in the USA from two handkerchiefs and narrow ribbon. It became popular in the 1920s, helping to achieve the fashionable flat profile by flattening the chest and pushing the breasts downwards. By the late 1920s corsetry companies began manufacturing brassieres that were boned and stitched into different cup sizes (they acquired the popular name ‘bra’ in the 1930s).

The bra has undergone many transformations during the 20th century. The shape was most exaggerated during the 1950s when the cups were stiffened and wired. This was also the period when strapless bras became popular for wear under off-the-shoulder outfits. The invention of new fabrics such as lycra during the 1960s led to greater flexibility, comfort, and more natural-looking designs. In the late 1980s the bra also became a fashion garment, worn as outer clothing, notably in the designs of Jean-Paul Gaultier for the singer Madonna's 1990 world tour, and of Dolce e Gabbana. Madonna's costume bras are exaggeratedly geometrical and explicitly sexual.