Women's Fashion During WWI: 1914 - 1920 | Bellatory Women's Fashion During WWI: 1914 - 1920 Women's Fashion During WWI: 1914 - 1920 Updated on September 09, 2016 Joined: 7 years agoFollowers: 2,826Articles: 189 10 Women and Fashion 1919 Fashions of Downton Abbey's Season 2 Women's fashions of 1914-1920 were heavily influenced by World War I (the Great War) as well as the women's suffrage movement. These are the fashions featured in the second season of the popular PBS drama Downton Abbey which is set in the years 1916 - 1919. Though clothing of this time is often referred to as Edwardian, in the strictest sense it is not, as King Edward VII died in 1910. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, fashion had taken on a whole new look based on Orientalism with its soft drapery and bold prints.

The lines of Russian peasant costume appeared in hip-length tunics, a style that lasted through the war years. By 1914, women's clothing had lost the rigid, tailored lines of the Edwardian period, and the styles of fashion's first great design genius, Paul Poiret, obliterated the need for tight-fitting corsets. Advertisement 1914 Woman in Sailor Blouse | Source British Women's Land Army Poster | Source World War I and Women Before the war, Paris led the world of fashion. But due to the privations of war and loss of communication between the US and Europe, New York emerged as a fashion leader with new designs based on a combination or femininity and practicality. During WWI, as men went off to fight, women took on jobs formerly filled by men. Women and girls who previously worked as domestic servants took jobs in munitions factories, performed administrative work, worked as drivers, nurses, and on farms. They volunteered for organizations like the Red Cross and joined the military. A new image of freedom and self respect led women away from traditional gender roles. They drove cars and demanded the right to vote. Many of the occupations demanded the wearing of uniforms, including trousers.

A military look crept into fashion designs as well, bringing military-style tunic jackets, belts, and epaulets. During World War I, people took to a plainer lifestyle. Women wore less jewelry, and the lavish clothing of the Edwardian period fell by the wayside. As women dressed for new roles, gender-dictated dress codes relaxed. Skirts became shorter, as they often do during wartime, and colors became sober and muted. Advertisement 1914 Barbier Sketch Dating the Clothing Styles of the World War I Era 1914 began with a strong Edwardian silhouette. Women wore lacy shirtwaists and long, narrow skirts that fell to the top of the foot. But the tunic effect— introduced by Paul Poiret, based on a Russian peasant look— came to blend with the military-style tunic worn during the Great War. At the end of the Edwardian period (around 1910), Paul Poiret introduced the jupe colotte for evening wear— a high waisted tunic style dress worn with harem pants. As the world entered war in 1914, women were offered more tailored versions of the look which included military details along with checks and stripes.

Jeanne Paquin, the first woman to gain international fame in the world of fashion, created garments for the new, more active woman. Her version of the hobble skirt (a narrow skirt that restricted a woman's stride) included pleats for ease of movement. Her designs mixed tailoring with feminine drapery. The spring of 1914 brought a new fashion trend called the "war crinoline" which featured a bell-shaped skirt and a wide overskirt. The season also featured sloped shoulders and wide collars, but the use of so much fabric was soon viewed as wasteful during wartime and critics called for a more conservative use of cloth. In 1915, hemlines rose to mid-calf and traditionalists complained of immodesty. By 1918, skirts grew narrow again and hemlines fell to below the calf. 1919 saw longer dresses with clean lines and a natural waist. Advertisement Fashion Shows 1911 - 1918 In 1911, the fashion show was a new phenomenon. Previously, designers had worked with individual clients to create new combinations of style, cut, and fabric for a more personalized look.

Paul Poiret's 1911 traveling fashion show appeared at charity benefits, theaters, and department stores in Europe. He took his show to the US in 1913. Soon, other designers followed suit. In 1913, a New York film company documented a twice yearly show, offering a look at couture to the masses. Before the advent of fashion models, actresses, singers, and dancers modeled the clothing. During World War I, fashion shows were organized to help raise funds for the war effort. In 1914, Edna Woolman Chase, the editor of Vogue, put on a fashion show to display the work of New York designers. Led by Paul Poiret, French couture houses banded together to form a syndicate to thwart design piracy. Customers and businesses who wanted to reproduce couture designs were charged a copyright fee and fashion shows were invitation-only. Fashion Show circa 1917 1916 - War Crinolines | Source 1914 - 1920 in Shoes During the Great War, higher hemlines exposed a gap between the tip of the boot and a skirt hem.

The look distracted from the overall appearance of an outfit, so the high button boots of the past were abandoned, and women wore shoes with heels that featured a slight curve (as you can see in the illustration here). Outerwear: The Birth of the Trench Coat The Great War introduced a new coat style that became a classic for the rest of the century and beyond: the trench coat. A need for all-weather coats inspired a new style and fabric. In London, Burberry patented an all-weather, breathable fabric, a chemically processed fine cotton gabardine that was approved for military use. The new military style coat featured a wide collar, extra fabric at the top of the back, epaulettes, and a belt. The trench coat became a fashion staple for both men and women for the next 100 years. Advertisement Bathing Suit - 1916 World War I Era and Sportswear The more relaxed attitude towards gender-specific clothing combined with women's more active lifestyles inspired what we now call sportswear. Skiing, for instance, went from a practical activity to a popular sport.

As long skirts were unsuitable for skiing as well as many other activities, women began to wear a short knee-length skirt over knickerbockers. Burberry produced jackets and pants an all-weather gabardine that protected the wearer from wind and snow. Bathing costumes became less about modesty and more about the ability to actually swim. The one-piece bathing suit was born, offering women greater freedom of movement in the water. Smaller suits were generally worn by competitive swimmers, however many swim costumes remained long and dress-like. 1917 Spirella Corset Women's Underwear Circa 1914 - 1920: The Introduction of the Modern Bra A key development in women's undergarments was introduced by a new York debutante named Mary Phelps Jacob. Working under the name Caresse Crosby, Jacobs designed one of the first modern bras. Previously, breasts had been pushed up by corsets. The new design was soft and boneless with shoulder straps that suspended the breasts from above. Corsets were not totally abandoned but given greater flexibility for comfort. The Spirella corset offered a greater range of movement than the old fashioned type and purported to improve posture to benefit overall health.

The makers of these corsets would send a representative to your home to measure you for a personal fit. Young Gloria Swanson | Source WWI's Influence on Fashion and Culture The hard war years, combined with the devastating effects of the 1918 flu pandemic, brought the world to its knees. After Armistice, recovery was difficult. People felt crushed and cynical as they moved into peacetime. A new feeling of freedom mixed with disillusionment created a new kind of culture, a live-for-today, devil-may-care society that led to the roaring 20s and the distinctive look, sound, and fashion of the Jazz Age. 1915 fashion plate from La Gazette du Bon Ton. | Source 1916 - Dresses on the Beach The Silent Screen Star, Lillian Gish Source The History of the Brassiere - Mary Phelps Jacob The History of the Brassiere Mary Phelps Jacob and the Brassiere History of the Brassiere. Mary Bellis Updated February 01, 2016. The first modern brassiere to receive a patent was the one invented in 1913 by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob.

Mary Phelps Jacob had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social events. At that time, the only acceptable undergarment was a corset stiffened with whaleback bones. Mary found that the whalebones poked out visible around the plunging neckline and under the sheer fabric. Two silk handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon later, Mary had designed an alternative to the corset. The corset's reign was starting to topple. An unhealthy and painful device designed to narrow an adult women's waist to 13, 12, 11 and even 10 or less inches, the invention of the corset is attributed to Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henri II of France. continue reading below our video Should I Roll Over my 401K to an IRA? She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendance's (1550's) and started over 350 years of whalebones, steel rods and midriff torture. Mary Phelps Jacob's new undergarment complimented the new fashions introduced at the time and demands from friends and family were high for the new brassiere. On November 3, 1914, a U.S.

patent for the "Backless Brassiere" was issued. Caresse Crosby Brassieres Caresse Crosby was the business name Mary Phelps Jacob used for her brassiere production. However, running a business was not enjoyable to Jacob and she soon sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500. Warner (the bra-makers, not the movie-makers) made over fifteen million dollars from the bra patent over the next thirty years. Mary Phelps Jacob was the first to patent an undergarment named 'Brassiere' derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally. Other points in the history of the brassiere worth mentioning: In 1875, manufacturers George Frost and George Phelps patented the 'Union Under-Flannel', a no bones, no eyelets, and no laces or pulleys under-outfit. In 1893, a woman named Marie Tucek patented the 'breast supporter’; the device included separate pockets for the breasts and straps that went over the shoulder, fastened by hook-and-eye closures.

In 1889, corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented the 'Well-Being' or 'Bien-être', a bra-like device sold as a health aid. The corset's support for the breasts squeezed up from below. Cadolle changed breast support to the shoulders down. World War I dealt the corset a fatal blow when the U.S. War Industries Board called on women to stop buying corsets in 1917. It freed up some 28,000 tons of metal! In 1928, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust-size categories (cup sizes). Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby) Save $201. Reprints of the 1899 Phelps Family in America family history are now available . Loading Notable Family Members Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby) Inventor of the Modern Brassiere, Publisher Mary Phelps Jacob (20 April 1891 - 24 January 1970), better known as Caresse Crosby, was the first recepient of a patent for the modern bra.

She was also an American patron of the arts, publisher, and peace activist. She and her second husband, Harry Crosby, founded the Black Sun Press which was instrumental in publishing some of the early works of many emerging modernist authors including James Joyce, Kay Boyle, Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, D. H. Lawrence, and René Crevel, among others. Image Use and Permission For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use images of Mary Phelps Jacob (Caresse Crosby), contact the Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Phone: +1 (618) 453-2516. For more images, visit the Caresse Crosby Photograph Collection . Born in New Rochelle, New York, "Polly" (as she nicknamed herself early in life) was the daughter of a prominent New England family. Her ancestry included Governor Bradford, the Plymouth Colony's first governor, and Robert Fulton, developer of the steamboat. She was also descended from William Phelps , the Puritan colonist. Mary Phelps Jacob circa 1925.

Polly's family was not fabulously rich, but her father had been raised, as she put it, "to ride to hounds, sail boats, and lead cotillions," and he lived high. She grew up, she later said, "in a world where only good smells existed." "What I wanted," she said of her privileged childhood, "usually came to pass." A childhood of privilege included private school, dancing school, and horse riding school. She was a rather disinterested student. Author Geoffry Wolff commented that for the most part Polly "lived her life in dreams.". Her education included private schools and She took dancing lessons at Mr. Dodsworth Dancing Class, attended Miss Chapin's School in New York City, went to school at Rosemary Hall prep school in Wallingford, Connecticut, where she played the part of Rosalind in As You Like It to critical acclaim. She was formally presented to the King of England at a garden party in 1914. In 1915, at age 24, Polly Jacob married her long-time sweetheart, Richard "Dick" Rogers Peabody, son of one of the three great New England families.

By the early 20th century a case could be made that the Peabodies had supplanted the Cabots and the Lodges as the most distinguished name in the area. She had for all intents and purposes arrived socially, having married into American aristocracy. But it was not to last. From the Corset to the Brassiere A straight-fronted overbust corset design from 1903 like that probably worn by Mary Jocob in 1910 at age 21. Blue-blooded Harry Crosby in the 1920s Up to this time, an unhealthy and painful device called a corset narrowed an adult women's waist to 16 or fewer inches. The corset is attributed to Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henri II of France. She enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendance during the 1550s. For nearly 350 years, women's primary means of support was the corset, with laces and stays made of whalebone or metal. The corset worked by compressing the body at the center and forcing the woman's flesh from the waist to the breasts and hips.

The corset's stiffness was reinforced with steel or whalebone struts. It could squeeze a woman's waist to as little as 16 or 17 inches (40 - 43 cm), creating an extremely exaggerated, hourglass shape. For many women, the corset was painful, limited movement, and could even lead to fainting. In 1875, designer Susan Taylor Converse created a garment called the “Union Under-Flannel” from woolen fabric. The garment is different to previous items as it has no-bones, eyelets, laces or pulleys. The garment was patented by manufacturers George Frost and George Phelps, but never gained much attention. In 1889, French-born corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented a two-part undergarment. The top half of her 1889 invention was "designed to sustain the bosom and supported by the shoulders." (The bottom half was a corset that covered only the waist and rear.) She called it the 'Well-Being' or 'Bien-être'. Introduced in Paris, the Bien-être resembled a Victorian bikini.

But Cadolle's far-sighted design seems to have been kept a close secret among her select customers. Later in 1893, Marie Tucek patented the first brassiere. Her device included separate pockets for the breasts, straps that went over the shoulder which were fastened by hook-and-eye closures. It looked very much like modern bras today, but Marie apparently failed to successfully market the patent. In 1910, Polly Jacob purchased a sheer evening gown for a social event. At that time, the only acceptable undergarment was a corset stiffened with whalebone. Polly found that the corset's whalebone visibly poked out from her plunging neckline and from under the sheer fabric. Dissatisfied with this arrangement, she worked with her maid to stitch two silk handkerchiefs together with some pink ribbon and cord. Polly's new undergarment, light and risque for its times, complimented the new fashions introduced at the time. Family and friends almost immediately asked Polly to create brassieres for them, too. One day, she received a request for one of her contraptions from a stranger, who offered a dollar for her efforts.

She knew then that this could become a viable business. The corset's reign was beginning to topple. While similar inventions for supporting the breasts previously existed, Polly was the first to patent an undergarment named 'Brassiere,' derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Illustration from Mary Jacob Phelps' patent application 1,115,674 . Modern version of the overbust straight-fronted corset. Girdle / bra combination foundation garment from the mid-1950s. A modern brassiere typical of modern lingerie descended from Caresse Crosby's initial patent. Born Mary Phelps Jacob, Caresse Crosby was the "literary grandmother to the Lost Generation" of American expatriate writers in Paris during the 1920s. Harry and Mary Crosby re-christened their company Éditions Narcisse as the Black Sun Press. Their whippet Narcisse Noir is at their feet. On November 3, 1914, the U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the 'Backless Brassiere'. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally.

Polly christened her business with the name Caresse Crosby. While a definite improvement, her brassiere did not offer breasts a lot of support, and were more flattening than flattering. In fact, the breast-flattening style was popularized by the Flapper look during the Roaring Twenties. With the popularity of actresses like Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, the present breast-enhancing style gained popularity during the thirties and forties. Running a business either was not enjoyable to Polly or she failed to properly market the product, for she soon sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for $1,500 (or over $25,600 in today's money). Shortly afterwards, in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. This step liberated some 28,000 tons of metal, enough to build two battleships. Consumer acceptance of the bra was triggered in large part due to World War I. The Great War shook up gender roles, putting many women to work in factories and uniforms for the first time. Women needed practical, comfortable undergarments.

Warner went on to earn more than fifteen million dollars from the bra patent over the next thirty years. During the flat-chested Flapper era in the 1920’s, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal noticed that a bra that fit one woman did not fit another woman of the same bra size. With the help of her husband William, they founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed bras for every stage of life (puberty to maturity). In the 1930s, Warner produces the first popular all-elastic bra, which shows off a woman's curves. Polly Divorces Richard Peabody and Remarries In 1916 and 1917, Polly and Dick Peabody had two children: a son, William Jacob, and a daughter, Polly ("Poleen"). Dick was a well-educated but undirected man and a reluctant father. She found he had only three real interests, all acquired at Harvard: to play, to drink, and to turn out, at any hour, to chase fire engines. His World War I experiences were traumatic and became an alcoholic.

Polly's life was difficult during the war years and when her husband returned home, significantly changed, her life soon changed abruptly too. The catalyst for Polly Peabody's transformation was her introduction and eventual marriage to Harry Grew Crosby, a wealthy scion of a socially prominent Boston family and another veteran and victim of the recent war. Harry attended private schools and until age 19 and he appeared to be well on the path to a comfortable life as a member of the upper middle class. His experiences in World War I changed everything. In the pattern of other sons of the elite from New England, he volunteered for the American Field Service Ambulance Corps. He served in the Second Battle of Verdun. After the Battle of Orme, his section (the 29th, attached to the 120th French Division) was cited for bravery, and in 1919 Crosby was awarded the Croix de Guerre. While completing school after WWI, Harry met Polly. She was 28, six years older than Harry, with two small children. By some accounts, Harry fell in love with Mrs. Peabody in about two hours. He confessed his love for her in the Tunnel of Love at the amusement park.

Two weeks later they made love. Their scandalous courtship was the gossip of blue-blood Boston. Polly finally divorced Richard Peabody who was in and out of sanitariums fighting his alcohol abuse, and on September 9, 1922 Harry and Polly were married. Two days later they moved to France to join other American expatriates, probably much to the relief of their respective families. At first they lived in Paris, then they bought a restored mill in the suburb of Ermenonville, which they called Le Moulin du Soleil ("The Mill of the Sun"). They partied with artists and socialites, met with writers, studied literature, and began to both write and publish their own work. Harry at first worked for his famous uncle, American capitalist J.P. Morgan, who was also Harry's godfather, in a job arranged for him in a Paris bank. But he soon tired of the working life and by the end of 1923 Harry quit the banking job. Harry At the end of 1924, Harry persuaded Polly to formally change her first name to Caresse. Polly and Harry purchased a race horse and then two more.

They traveled to North Africa where it is reported they first smoked opium, a habit to which they would return again and again. From 1922 to 1925, the Crosbys led the life of the rich expatriates. They lived a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle that included an "open marriage," a mutual suicide pact, and cremation instructions they carried with them. Their lifestyle was financed by selling the bonds and stocks whose dividends were previously the basis of Harry's income. Harry at one point sent a telegram to Boston: "PLEASE SELL 10,000 WORTH OF STOCK. WE HAVE DECIDED TO LEAD A MAD AND EXTRAVAGANT LIFE." Founded the Black Sun Press After publishing two volumes that they were unhappy with, the Crosbys found a master printer named Roger Lescaret whose previous work had been largely funeral notices. He printed Harry’s poems in a fine edition. Harry and Caresse were very happy with the book, Red Skeletons. It contained illustrations by their friend Alastair (Hans Henning von Voight). The decided to found a press, first called Éditions Narcisse— after their black whippet, Narcisse Noir.

It was created to publish its founders’ attempts at verse in beautifully bound, hand-set books. By the time the name of the press was changed in mid-1928 to the Black Sun Press, the careers of both the Caresse and Harry Crosby were in high gear. The Black Sun Press is famous for having published lavishly bound, typographically impeccable versions of unusual books, including The Fall of the House of Usher, their Hindu Love Book, and letters by Henry James to Walter Berry, Harry’s cousin. As their literary tastes matured, they began to publish the works of their Parisian literary friends. This included D. H. Lawrence’s The Sun and Escaped Cock (sometimes reprinted under the title The Man Who Died); James Joyce’s Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (work — later incorporated into Finnegans Wake; and short stories by Kay Boyle. In 1929, their best year, they published fourteen works by James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound, among others. Caresse published her own book of poetry, Crosses of Gold.

The Crosbys had what people later in the twenty-first century would call an "open marriage" and both had numerous extramarital affairs. Harry was a womanizer, gambler, alcoholic, and opium smoker. They apparently remained devoted to each other nonetheless. While Caresse maintained the joie de vivre of a moneyed and carefree 1920s heroine, Harry grew darker in his moods and became increasingly obsessed with death. In 1928, Harry Crosby met Josephine Noyes Rotch, whom he would call the "Youngest Princess of the Sun" and the "Fire Princess." She was descended from a family that first settled in Provincetown on Cape Cod in 1690. Josephine would inspire Crosby's next collection of poems called Transit of Venus. Miss Rotch was twenty, ten years younger than Harry. The two fell in love. In a letter to his mother, dated July 24, 1928, Crosby wrote: I am having an affair with a girl I met (not introduced) at the Lido. She is twenty and has charm and is called Josephine. I like girls when they are very young before they have any minds.

Josephine and Harry had an ongoing affair until she married, when it ceased. Then Josephine Bigelow's new husband got busy with school, and Josephine contacted Harry again. Their affair rekindled, they traveled to Detroit and checked into an expensive, $12 a day hotel as husband and wife. For four days they took meals in their room, smoked opium, battled, and made love. On December 7, 1929, the lovers returned to New York where they agreed that Josephine should return to Boston to her husband. But on December 9 she had delivered a 36-line poem to Crosby who was staying with Caresse at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel. The last line of the poem is: Death is our marriage. On December 9, Harry Crosby made the following entry into his notebook: One is not in love unless one desires to die with one's beloved. There is only one happiness it is to love and to be loved. These are Crosby's very last entries into his journal.

On December 10, 1929, in an apparent suicide pact, Harry was found in bed with a .25 caliber bullet hole in his right temple next to Josephine, who had a matching hole in her left temple. Harry was still clutching the pistol in one hand, Josephine in the other. Harry apparently shot Josephine and then, according to the coroner, several hours later, he shot himself. After Harry Crosby's suicide, Caresse continued her writing and publishing work at Black Sun. She also established Crosby Continental Editions, a book company that published paperback books by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker, among others. In 1937, at age 47, she married Selbert Young, a football player nearly twenty years her junior. She bought and renovated Hampton Manor, a ruined but splendid home in Bowling Green, Virginia. She opened an art gallery in Washington D.C. and started Portfolio, a magazine about art and literature. She also was politically active and founded the organization Women Against War. She later bought a castle north of Rome that gave her the title of Principessa, and later mountain-top retreats in Cyprus and Delphi.

Thus she had homes in Bowling Green, Virginia, in Washington, D.C., a sprawling apartment at 137 East Fifty-Fourth Street in New York City, as well as her residences in Europe. Caresse Crosby with her dog Narcisse in Paris in about 1924. Harry and Caresse in about 1927. He killed himself two years later in a scandalous murder-suicide pact with a lover. A broadside written by Harry Crosby, in advance of his death, illustrating his preoccupation with his own, glorious, death. Caresse Crosby and Peggy Guggenheim in a gondola in Venice. Photographed by Roloff Beny in 1953. Caresse Crosby in the 1960s with poet Ezra Pound at her estate in Italy. Adriana Lima models Victoria's Secret annual Fantasy Bra in 2011, featuring 60K of white diamonds and 82K of Topaz and Sapphires. Henry Miller and Opus Pistorum In Paris during 1933, Caresse had met Henry Miller. When he returned to the U.S.

in 1940, he confessed to Caresse his lack of success in getting his work published. Miller's autobiographical book Tropic of Cancer was banned in the U.S. as pornographic, and he could get no other work published. She invited him to take a room in her New York apartment where she infrequently lived, which he accepted, though she did not provide him with money. Desperate for cash, Miller fell to churning out pornography on commission for an Oklahoma oil baron, but after two 100-page stories that brought him $200, he could do no more. Now he wanted to tour the United States by car and write about it. He got a $750 advance, and persuaded the oil man's agent to advance him another $200. He was preparing to leave on the trip but still have not provided the work promised. He thought then of Caresse Crosby. She was already pitching in ideas and pieces of writing to Anaïs Nin's New York City smut club for fun, not money. Caresse was facile and clever, wrote easily and quickly, with little effort. Caresse accepted Henry's proposal.

She wrote the title given her by Henry Miller "Opus Pistorum" at the top, and started right in. Henry left for his car tour of America. Caresse churned out 200 pages and the collector's agent asked for more. Caresse's smut was just what the oil man wanted-no literary aspirations-just plain sex. In Caresse the agent had found the basic pornographic Henry Miller. Caresse churned out another 200 pages, spending her time writing while her husband, Bert Young, fell into a drunken stupor every night. In her diary, Anaïs Nin observed that everyone who wrote pornography with her wrote out of a self that was opposite to her or his identity, but identical with his desire. Polly or Caresse experienced years of social constraints imposed by her upper-class association in New York. She had a doomed and troublesome romanticism with Harry Crosby. She participated in a decade or more of intellectual lovers in Paris during the 1920s. Perhaps it was a release for Caresse just to take love as casual lust and let it go at that.

Her Later Years In 1950 Caresse divorced Bert Young and moved to Rocca Sinibalda, Italy where she planned to create an artists colony. She published an autobiography in 1953 called The Passionate Years. In the last years of her life, Crosby tried to build a world citizen center that would bring together political leaders and the artistic community in Greece and then in Cyprus. She was frustrated by political obstacles. She hired her friend Buckminster Fuller to design the structure, but she died in Rome of heart failure in 1970 at age 79, before its completion. Like Harry, Caresse Crosby is remembered primarily for her activities as a publisher, but she is also remembered as the inventor of the first modern bra. Caresse died in relative obscurity, but she lived long enough to see the bra go through a number of transformations and become immensely popular all over the world. The Modern Bra All kinds of bras have been created for every conceivable purpose, to do all the things that corsets have done in previous generations: minimize, uplift, show cleavage, maximize, or plain show off.

Training bras for newly developing young girls seem like an oxymoron, and in reality aren't really meant for support as much as for camouflage. Jogging or sports bras are a more recent innovation for the woman who wants to work out, and some are meant to be worn as outerwear. Statistics show the average American woman today owns six bras. Out of those six, one of is a strapless bra and one is a color other than white. Despite all of the many advances and improvements in br assieres, perhaps a Surgeon General's warning is still required. In 1994, Berbel Zumner, age 23, was walking through a park in Vienna. Berbel had large breasts and wore a brassiere with underwire support to support her ample frame. She was killed when lightening struck her brassiere. In 2004, Fine Line Features optioned Andrea Berloff's first screenplay "Harry & Caresse." Lasse Hallström was initially attached to direct and Leslie Holleran was attached as a producer. No completion date has been set.

References and Sources American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Spring 1997, Volume 12/Number 4 Daily Record (Scotland) 21 October 1994 "Caresse Crosby, Infield." Cosmic Baseball Association , 1998 (December 2003) Brassieres: An Engineering Miracle From Science and Mechanics, February, 1964. By Edward Nanas "The Brassiere." Useless Information . (December 2003) Bra sizes Sizes.com July 11, 2001 (June 2004) Edward Germain, Editor, Harry Crosby, Shadows of the Sun: The Diaries of Harry Crosby. Santa Barbara, California: Black Sparrow Press. 1977. Conover, Anne. Caresse Crosby: From Black Sun to Roccasinibalda. Santa Barbara, California: Capra Press, 1989. Wolff, Geoffrey Black Sun. Random House: New York. 1976. Cox, Shelley "Introduction: The Black Sun Press," ICarbS 3:2 (1977), 3-4.

Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek. Patently Female (John Wiley, 2002) p. 134-139. Caresse Crosby The Passionate Years (Ecco Press). Mary Phelps Jacob Mary Phelps Jacob "very soft, short and so well designed it separated the breasts naturally" -Beatrice Fontanel about Mary Phelps Jacob's brassiere A New York Socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob created the first modern brassiere in 1913. It was made out of two silk hankerchiefs and some pink ribbon, and was a savior after those corsets that were usually worn. The corsets were made out of steel rods and whaleback bones, and were not only uncomfortable, but protruded from women's clothing at times. So, Jacob created the bra, and received a patent for this "Backless Brassiere" on November 3, 1914. She sold many copies under her production name, Caresse Crosby, but she soon became bored. She chose to sell the patent for $1,500 to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

However, Warner Brothers Corset Company made $15 million off the brassiere in the following 30 years. Jacob died in 1970 after her brassiere had undergone many transitional changes. She is on my list because of this question: would the world be the same without the modern day bra? Of course not! 1000+ images about Fashion History 1914-1920 on Pinterest | 1918 fashion, Fashion and Corsets Forward The New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob better known as Caresse Crosby, patented her handkerchief bra in 1914 as a comfortable alternative to the corset or bustier. It had no cups, but was popular enough and created a trend in the 1910′s See More 1000+ images about MARY PHELPS JACOB on Pinterest | 1920s men, Henry miller and 1920s Henry Miller in Paris - compliments from the gangster author, photo by Brassaï 1930 See More The Brassiere Check out the excellent article titled The Invention of the Bra .

this is another give Mary Phelps Jacobs the credit story, although Marie Tucek is mentioned. Excellent links and photographs can be found here. For more information on the correlation between bras and breast cancer, check out these sites: R. L. Reed, Ph.D. has prepared an excellent summary of this possible problem titled Bras and Breast Cancer . Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati (1987, Harper and Row, Publishers) offers a nice summary on the history of the brassiere. For some really unusual reading, be sure to check out the book American Sex Machines by Hoag Levins (1996, Adams Media Corporation). It is a summary of patents filed in the United States Patent Office for sexual type devices. An entire chapter is devoted to the history of the bra. Both the images of Mary Jacob's brassiere (16k) and Marie Tucek's breast supporter (16k) have been scanned in from this book. The death by lightning story comes from the book Strange Days #1 compiled by the Fortean Times (1996, Cader Company).

The book cites all of its sources, but I would question the authenticity of many of these (including this one), as many are of the National Enquirer type. It can really kill you! Throughout the history of humans, the woman's body has been squeezed and contorted into many different forms. The breasts are certainly no exception. The female bust has gone in and out of style many times (even more times than John Travolta). At times it has been minimized to be hidden from view. At others, it has been maximized to the fullest extent. For instance, if we take a look back to 2500 B.C., we will find that the Minoan women that lived on the Greek isle of Crete actually wore a bra-like garment that actually lifted their bare breasts out of their clothes. Years later, ancient Roman and Greek women took the opposite approach. They actually strapped on a breast band to reduce their bust size. But where did the modern bra come from? And how can it actually kill? Let's find out: As pointed out above, there have been many types of garments that have appeared over the centuries to help enhance the human form. Many authors claim that the bra was invented by one Otto Titzling.

However, it turns out that this story first appeared in the book Bust Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling by Wallace Reyburn (the same guy that wrote the humorous book that describes how Thomas Crapper invented the toilet). The book claims that Titzling invented the bra with the help of his assistant Hans Delving in 1912. They designed the bra for a Swedish athlete named Lois Lung. Titzling then sued a Frenchman named Phillipe de Brassiere for patent infringement in the 1930's. As you can see from these names, the story is probably pure fiction (especially since, as we will see below, Mary Phelps Jacobs takes credit for the first documented use of the name brassiere in 1914). If you check most current literature, you will find the following story: The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob way back in 1913 (I'm sure that a lot of women want to believe that a man invented this torturous device, but it was a woman). Mary had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social events that poor people like myself will never get to attend. She had a problem.

At that time, corsets that were stiffened with whaleback bones were the accepted undergarment. Unfortunately, whaleback corsets and sheer evening gowns just don't go together well. In one of those great flashes of genius, Mary came up with a great solution. Together with her French maid Marie, Mary took two handkerchiefs, ribbon, and some cord and devised a simple backless brassiere. We can be fairly sure that Mary was the hit of the party, but the real hit was her newfangled brassiere among the women in attendance. Mary was very happy to sew up a bra for all family and friends that were interested. I guess you could say that she started the currently male dominated tradition of giving sexy underwear for those special holidays. One day, she received a request for one of her contraptions from a stranger, who had happened to enclose a dollar for her efforts. Mary Jacobs ran to the patent office with her sketches. In November, 1914, she was awarded a patent for the "Backless Brassiere". Mary made several hundred of the devices (marketed under the name Caresse Crosby), but due to lack of publicity, the business collapsed.

One would think that this would have been the end of the bra, but it managed to live on. Mary sold the rights to the brassiere to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut for a mere $1500. Just think how much money that would be worth today. This sounds like a great story, and is almost entirely true, except for the fact that Mary Jacobs did not invent the first bra. Her design was simply the first one to be widely used. It seems that a man named Hoag Levins had too much time on his hands and did an in depth study of all the sexual devices ever patented by the United States Patent Office. In the book American Sex Machines, Levins presents quite a few patents on bra-type creations. Levins' conclusion is that a woman named Marie Tucek patented the first brassiere in 1893. This "breast supporter" , as she called it, looked very similar to the modern brassiere. The device included separate pockets for the breasts, straps that went over the shoulder which were fastened by hook-and-eye closures.

In comparison, Mary Phelps Jacobs device was patented on November 3, 1914 and was called a "brassiere" . She may have had the name correct, but she didn't have the design. Her patent was for a device that was lightweight and flattened the breasts. Her bra did not have cups to support the breasts. Of course, many innovations were later made to the brassiere: use of elastic, standard cup sizes, and the development of the strapless bra. During the 1920's, the flat chested "flappers" that my grandmother always reminisces about were all the rage. A Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal decided to buck the trend. With the help of her husband William, they founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed bras for every stage of life (puberty to maturity). Of course, the 1960's was famous for its bra-burnings. One would think that this would have been the end of the bra, but it wasn't. Gravity and aging were on the side of the brassiere manufacturers. The bra has made a great comeback ever since. We have the Wonderbra.

The 18 hour bra. Cross your heart (and hope to die?) bras. Training bras (training for what?). Jogging bras. Dangerous breast implants that need added support. Madonna walking around in her underwear. Victoria's Secret (she's not very good at keeping her secret - everyone seems to know about it). So what about bras killing you? (I thought this would get your attention). In the 1994 book Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijerin, they suggested that wearing bras may inhibit the normal function of the lymphatic system in and around the breast. The result is a decreased removal of toxins from the breast and an increased occurrence of breast cancer. Based on a sample of 4,730 women, they concluded that women that go braless have a 21 times less chance of developing cancer. The study was torn apart by critics because the authors failed to incorporate the lifestyles (smoking, alcohol, exercise, weight, etc.) of the women into their results. However, it does bring up some good questions. To end this little discussion on brassieres, I thought that I would mention one documented case of death by a bra.

It seems that a woman named Berbel Zumner was killed at age 23 while walking through a park in Vienna. You see, Berbel was one of those women that many refer to as "well endowed". She wore a bra with metal underwire to support her ample frame. As we all know, metal wire and lightning just don't go together. As a result, Berbel was zapped and killed. They better start putting warnings from the U.S. Surgeon General on these contraptions. Useless? Useful? I’ll leave that for you to decide. If you liked this story, please check out our Convert A Regular Bra Into A Backless One With Just A Few Simple Cuts Convert A Regular Bra Into A Backless One With Just A Few Simple Cuts Next The brassiere, more commonly known as the bra, has existed in one form or another for a very, very long time. Ancient Greek women wore an "apodesmos/mastodeton," a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the chest and then tied or pinned at the back.

The term "brassiere" was first used in English in 1893 to describe what essentially resembled a camisole, stiffened for support using bones. In 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob was given the first U.S. patent for a bra. Today the bra has become an essential item for many women, while many others reject it based on their comfort and/or sociopolitical viewpoint. One thing that nearly all women do agree upon is that if you are wearing a bra, having the straps showing doesn't look great, especially when going with a backless dress. That's why YouTuber Ray Lee has come up with this simple DIY method of eliminating the back portion of a standard bra, without sacrificing support. 0 Shares She Solves An Annoying Fashion Problem With Just A Few Strategic Cuts On Her Bra She Solves An Annoying Fashion Problem With Just A Few Strategic Cuts On Her Bra She Solves An Annoying Fashion Problem With Just A Few Strategic Cuts On Her Bra August 3, 2015 Prev Article Next Article The brassiere, more commonly known as the bra, has existed in one form or another for a very, very long time.

The term “brassiere” was first used in English in 1893 to describe what essentially resembled a camisole, stiffened for support using bones. In 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob was given the first U.S. patent for a bra. Today the bra has become an essential item for many women, while many others reject it based on their comfort and/or sociopolitical viewpoint. One thing that nearly all women do agree upon is that if you are wearing a bra, having the straps showing doesn’t look great, especially when going with a backless dress. Yes, we could always pick a different dress, but what if it’s something like a bridesmaid’s dress where we don’t have much say? Plus, we all know that when one designer jumps on a trend, they all do, meaning we’re all going to run into this problem eventually. Let’s take the clothes-power back with some good old-fashioned female ingenuity! Ray Lee is here to show us this simple DIY trick of eliminating the back portion of a standard bra, without sacrificing support with a few cuts and stitches. Here it how:

Question: Mary Phelps Jacob designed which item of clothing in 1914?
Answer: The Bra