Christine Tjia

You heard me right - the 100th birthday of the bra! Since when bra has birthday rite? Hehehe ...

I was awed when I knew it first too.

It wasn't until 1907 that Vogue magazine first used the word brassiere. It came a long way to the lingerie we love today. Thanks to NY Daily news, who had put nicely the milestones ...

The term "brassiere" from a French word used to denote a soldier's arm guard or shield, is used to describe the undergarmet in Vogue magazine.

The word enters the Oxford English Dictionary.

The first brassiere patent is awarded to New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob. She quickly loses interest and sells the patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Conn., for $1,500. In the years that follow, Warner will pull in around $15 million.

Maidenform, founded by Russian immigrant Ida Rosenthal and dressmaker pal Enid Bisset, opens its first plant in Bayonne, N.J. Rosenthal is often credited with having invented cup sizes - though some attribute that bright idea to her husband, William.

Lana Turner's form-fitting attire in "They Won't Forget" reveals that bra technology has increased lift and pointy, separate positioning - and earns her the nickname the "Sweater Girl." "This change came about at a time when no one was wearing such tight clothes," says Rebecca Apsan, owner of New York lingerie shop La Petite Coquette and author of "The Lingerie Handbook." "Naturally, she appealed to men."

Controversial designer Rudi Gernreich - inventor of 1964's "topless bathing suit" - turns his attention to the bra. He comes up with the "no bra" bra, made of see-through stretch netting. It is a retail hit, playing to the flat, boyish silhouette of the 1960s. Pointy is out!

A protest of the 1968 Miss America Pageant gives rise to the legend of feminist bra burning. Though women at the Atlantic City protest filled a "freedom trash can" with bras, girdles, high heels, makeup and hairspray, it was not set alight because no fire permit could be obtained. Misworded reports - such as one from hapless New York Post journalist Lindsay van Gelder - spread like the fire that might have been.

Feminist author Germaine Greer becomes a household name with her best seller "The Female Eunuch." According to Greer, "Bras are a ludicrous invention, but if you make bralessness a rule, you're just subjecting yourself to yet another repression." Despite the clarifying second half of her statement, Greer is linked to the myth of bra-burning as a symbol of radical feminism.

Lisa Lindahl, a 28-year-old grad student at the University of Vermont, sews an athletic bra out of two jock straps and takes it for a test jog with fit friend Hinda Miller. The sports bra is born.

Victoria's Secret is founded in San Francisco after Stanford MBA Roy Raymond realizes men might be more comfortable shopping for their girlfriends via catalogue.

Jean Paul Gaultier designs a golden, pointy cone bra for Madonna to wear on her Blond Ambition concert tour. "The design itself is brilliant," says Apsan, "but Madonna made it famous. She took shapewear out of the bedroom and onto the streets of America."

Wonderbra, though first trademarked in 1935, is reintroduced to a huge resurgence. By 1994, the bra's "Hello Boys" ad campaign featuring Eva Herzigova gazing down at her bosom, gives the line a huge profile.

During a now infamous half-time Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson experiences a "wardrobe malfunction" and reveals that she is not wearing a bra. She does, however, show 100 million Americans the bra's distant cousin, the nipple shield.

In the moments before her disastrous "comeback" performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears reportedly ditches her costume for a black, sparkly bra and panty set. We're quite sure this is one brassiere you won't be seeing in Vogue.

Article - http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2007/09/27/2007-09-27_the_bra_turns_100_years_old__with_no_sig.html