The history of the bra paints an interesting portrait of evolution.

Far more than just a piece of sexy underwear or a support garment, the history of the bra tells us a lot about fashion, clothing, culture, and history itself as it wraps through ancient Greece into modern times. The history of the bra allegedly began in 2500 BC, when women on the island of Crete began using cloth garments to help lift their breasts up and out of their clothing so they were exposed to the sun… and anyone who happened to walk by! None of today’s sexy underwear could compete with that show.

Nearly 3000 years later, the history of the bra extends to ancient Rome as well as Greece. Now, rather than lifting their breasts out of their clothing, women tried to minimize the appearance of their breasts by bandaging them close to the body. This also, of course, gave them quite a bit of support and kept the breasts from sagging for what is perhaps history’s first strapless bra. The history of the bra then continues into the late 1500s, when the corset first came into fashion as a means of controlling the waistline and supporting the breasts.

In the 1850s, the first official step in the history of the bra is made as a US patent registration is filed for a bra-like support garment. In 1889, the French become involved in the history of the bra by changing the focus from supporting the breasts from below to supporting them from the shoulder using straps. Ten years later, a garment that most closely resembled the modern-day bra is developed and sold. In 1907, Vogue magazine is the first publication in the history of the bra to use the word brassiere.

The 1930s were a big decade in the history of the bra, as the new version of sexy underwear first started to be called “bras,” the modern-day cup sizing system (A-D) was instituted, and padding was added to the cups. In the 1950s, strapless bras were introduced to help provide support while allowing women to wear sleeveless and strapless dresses. The last big landmark in the history of the bra was in the early 1970s, when the sports bra was first created. The history of the bra is long and celebrated, and certainly no other piece of clothing is used as frequently by so many women in so many ways.

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