Thursday, September 13, 2012

The World's Oldest Brassieres

There’s a phrase in the Bible that says, "There is no new thing under the sun." It seems that this saying applies to women’s undergarments.

The first modern bra was patented in the early 1800s as a replacement for the stiff corsets that were fashionable at the time. Mary Phelps Jacob, a New York socialite, is generally credited as the inventor of the modern bra. As it turns out, women were wearing bras way back in the Middle Ages, at least 600 years ago.

Archaeologists working in 2008 in an ancient castle in Austria discovered four linen bras, including one with a surprisingly modern look. Researchers did not report their finds until they had been able to verify the age of the garments through radiocarbon dating and historical research.

The bras were only a part of a veritable treasure trove consisting of over 2,700 textile fragments that were found mixed with dirt, wood and strong. Some of the textiles were made of a linen-cotton combination, reminiscent of modern blended textiles. The bras were decorated with lace and other ornamentation, and featured wide shoulder straps, with indications that they were held in place with back straps.

One puzzle that remains is the question of why bras were replaced by the more cumbersome, uncomfortable corsets that remained a mainstay of women’s undergarments until the bra was reinvented. One theory is that a desire for a "tiny" waist forced women to adopt the corset, which often had stays made of whalebone or other heavy, stiff materials. These were sometimes laced so tightly that they literally displaced the internal organs of their wearers.

These ancient bras may not prove that there is no new thing under the sun, but they do show that good ideas have a way of coming back more than once.

If you’d like to see a picture of one of the Austrian bras, visit here

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