A Century of the Billion Dollar Bra Industry
Came across an interesting article in The Independent UK. The article was celebrating one hundred years of the bra.
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The bra was invented by an engineer of German extraction called Onto Titzling. He was living in a New York boarding house, and one of his neighbours, a voluptuous opera singer called Swanhilda Olafson, complained that she needed a garment to hoist her vast bosom aloft every evening – so Titzling obliged, using some cotton, elastic and metal struts. Unfortunately, he failed to patent the device and, a Frenchman named Philippe de Brassière began making a suspiciously similar object. Titzling took him to court, but the unscrupulous Frenchman won the day. And that's why the garment all the ladies are wearing is called a brassiere, not a titzling.
In 1907, Vogue coined the term 'brassiere', and launched a billion-dollar industry that changed the way women dress for ever."
Celebrating its hundredth year, lingerie lover John Walsh provides a timeline and history of the undergarment – and dwells on its role in today's world at this article at The Independent, UK
Published: 15 August 2007
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