Bras: A Private View

by Rosemary Hawthorne

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0285630865
• ISBN13: 9780285630864
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Souvenir Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Lighthearted history

A lighthearted history of the bra, including corsets and other means of shaping the female form, from 1600 BC to today. Includes a history of the garment-makers, with side trips to talk about whales, the rubber industry, WWII rationing, children's underclothes, diet pills from 1877, feminism, and Madonna. The outer garments of the periods are discussed in relation to the underclothes. Includes numerous descriptions and drawings of garments in the author's collection. From the back of the book: Did you know -- that the first patented bra was designed from two handkerchiefs -- that the inflatable bras of the '50s were rumored to explode at high altitudes? -- that the very first garment resembling a bra was worn by Greek and Roman women in need of special support? -- that the eighteenth-century corset elevated and pushed out the breasts like two dumplings on a shelf? -- that a bust-improver of 1905 consisted of two cup-shaped, perforated metal discs like twin tea-strainers? -- that sixteenth-century women wore a "body" of steel and sire very like the high-fashion bodies of today? Contents: Acknowledgements Preface 1. In the Beginning 2. A Bra is Born 3. Going Down 4. Separate Entities 5. Going Up A Diversion: Liberty Kids 6. Still Rising 7. Bosom Friends 8. No Visible Means of Support 9. Swing, Sixties, Swing Another Diversion: Maternal Openings 10. Let It All Hang Out 11. Art Versus Nature 12. Blooming Big Bibliography

bras, breasts and fashion

I found this book a fascinating look at the history of the corset and bra. As well as being a costume journal though, the book also covers the history of breasts in fashion, in detailing the undergarments which were designed and built to create the appropriate cleavage effect, dictated by what was fashionable at any given time.