Pundits say that Coco Chanel’s ‘little black dress’ has been the most influential garment designed in the last century. But for Swati Gautam, lingerie expert and t2 columnist, “the humble brassiere” wins hands down. “Without the bra the modern woman would probably not have emerged. Can you imagine life without well-fitting cotton bras?”

Origin

Brassiere, the French word for a baby’s vest or a soldier’s arm-band or shield, was first used to describe an undergarment in Vogue magazine in 1907. It was the revolutionary dress styles of Paul Poiret, a Parisian, which persuaded women to give up wearing the corset. American socialite Mary Phelps Jacob was granted the first US patent for the invention in 1913. Mary chanced upon the bra when she bought a sheer evening dress and found her whalebone corset sticking through it. So she picked up two silk handkerchiefs and attached it to a bit of ribbon to support her breasts. Requests started pouring in from friends to create something similar for them, which led her to patent her find. But she lost interest and sold her rights to the Warner Brother’s Corset Company for a rumoured $1,500.

Before the bra

Ishika shows off a white Wonderbra from Swati Gautam’s collection. Picture by Rashbehari Das

The corset, something the green-eyed Scarlett ’Hara has Mammy crush her into in Gone with the Wind, was a stern predecessor of the bra. We see the immense torture of a corset and stays that cramped ribs and became a health hazard for women over years. For them, the bra was liberating.

In ancient India, the kanchuli or a strip of cloth tied tightly around the chest was upper-body wear for women. In the medieval ages, the ghagra was accompanied by the choli. Women who wore saris, as in the territory of modern Bengal, did not wear anything on top. With the British came the chemise or a long stitched fabric that women used to wear under their blouses, which also came with the British, and petticoats. Sometimes they wore another garment under the chemise that looked like a tiny sleeveless blouse (chhoto jama). None of this provided support, but it did conceal. In Bengal the blouse was introduced around 1860, probably by the Thakurbari women.

The bra was taboo for a long time in India, something that was considered proper for only the thin upper crust of society. It became popular only after the Sixties.

Local variety

But now, of course, there are many species available in the country. The Wonderbra is finally in Calcutta, appropriately in the centennial year of the bra. Trademarked in 1935, the Wonderbra was reintroduced in 1991. “You can’t party without the Wonderbra. It gives the maximum cleavage, is daringly low and yet offers good support,” says Swati.

Awareness has grown. Everybody is more aware of their bodies and the fit of their bra. But those ready to spend on it are a minority. “The bra is still mostly a basic, utility garment here,” says Suman Nathwani, sleepwear designer and t2 columnist. “Only recently have women started differentiating between the band and the cup size. And a lot of sizes are not available in Calcutta.”

But it didn’t burn

Go and choose your inner garment with thought. But before that, one or two more facts. By the Sixties, the bra had supported many women — and had evolved enough to anger many too. It led many feminists to be known as “bra-burners”, a label that still holds. But contrary to popular belief, the bra wasn’t burnt at all. In 1968, a group of women activists against the Miss America pageant led protestors in Atlantic City to set alight symbols of oppression. A “Freedom Can” was filled with bras, girdles, high-heels, make-up and hair-spray, but never set alight, because a fire permit couldn’t be obtained.

Then, of course, Janet Jackson suffered a wardrobe malfunction during the Superbowl performance with Justin Timberlake in 2004. What the audience saw were Janet’s breast, covered with tiny nipple-shield, rendering the bra altogether irrelevant! Naughty, naughty!

Now the bra is ubiquitous. A look at the iconic images that would have been impossible without the bra.

Jane Russell: Whose breasts were behind the names of the “Jane Russell Peaks” in Alaska, was behind the famous cantilever bra. To support her smouldering sexuality as Rio in Wallace McCutcheon’s The Outlaw (1943), its producer Howard Hughes created the special aerodynamic cantilever bra. It was a seamless, push-up bra but was denied a place in fashion history when Jane claimed she had not worn it at all because it did not fit.
Janet Leigh: Her appearance as Marion in her black bra and half slip in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the brief view of Marion’s bathtub and shower will forever remain etched in public memory.
Anne Bancroft: It was a lacy, black bra in The Graduate that did it for Bancroft as Mrs Robinson. An entire generation was smitten as Bancroft revealed her bra in the film.
Madonna: In the 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan Madonna used her innerwear as outerwear. She is a superstar who is inseparable from the bra. In 1991 Jean Paul Gaultier designed the golden conical bra for her to wear at the Blonde Ambition Tour.
Bindu: Loin’s Mona has displayed it often, though she made it more gross than seductive.
The Bollywood lovemaking/rape scene of yore: Would be impossible without the bra. A bit of a torn blouse and a glimpse of a bra-strap have meant both seduction and torment in Hindi movies. In the cult romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge Shah Rukh Khan accidentally rips off a part of Kajol’s top. The bra appears several times in Ray movies, to suggest femininity or an atmosphere charged with sex, prominent under a blouse, as with Madhabi in Charulata, Kaberi Bose in Aranyer Dinratri, Arati Bhattacharya in Jana Aranya and Sharmila Tagore in Nayak. But Miss Shefali in Pratidwandi didn’t need a cover.

Poulomi Banerjee

(Do you have different bras for different occasions? Tell t2@abpmail.com)