The History Of The Bra (& A Shopping List To Match)

We're approaching the 100th anniversary of the bra, ladies. Though the garment's existed, in some form, since the dawn of breasts, most people consider its "official" debut to be around the time the corset took a turn toward oblivion. As Rowan Pelling writes in a pretty fascinating piece for The Telegraph, that moment was when Mary Phelps Jacob created a makeshift "monobosom" bra out of two silk handkerchiefs and a bit of ribbon. Pelling goes on to chronicle the history of the brassiere through ...