While preparing dinner last night, I received an urgent text from a friend saying, "Handkerchiefs are on Hard Quiz!" Obviously, I ran to the TV and turned it on, and I was lucky enough to hear the final two questions.

I learned the first bra was made from two handkerchiefs!! I had no idea. However, this makes perfect sense; handkerchiefs are very versatile; they can be anything you need them to be. 

 AN UPLIFTING STORY. THE HISTORY OF THE BRA

In 1913 a Manhattan debutante named Mary Phelps Jacobs became frustrated when her chest-flattening corset kept peeking out above her plunging neckline. “The eyelet embroidery of my corset-cover kept peeping through the roses around my bosom,” she wrote in her autobiography, The Passionate Years. The lumpy, bulky corset ruined the sheerness of her Paris evening gown.

WHAT’S A DEBUTANTE TO DO?

In frustration, she and her maid designed an undergarment made of two handkerchiefs and some pulled-tight ribbons. "The result was delicious. I could move more freely, a nearly naked feeling, and in the glass, I saw that I was flat and proper."

Showing off her invention in the dressing rooms of society balls, she had her friends begging for their own brassieres. Jacobs actually sewed and gave away many bras as gifts. But when strangers started accosting her, requesting the brassieres and offering money, Jacobs went to see a patent attorney (she had her maid model the garment discreetly over the top of her uniform).

A patent was granted, and Jacobs opened a small manufacturing facility. She called her invention the "backless brassiere." It was the first ladies' undergarment to dispense with corset-stiffening whalebone and use elastic instead. Jacobs sold a number of her brassieres under the name "Caresse Crosby," but for all her ability as a designer, she had no marketing instincts. Sales were flat, and she soon shelved the business.

A few years later, she bumped into an old boyfriend who happened to mention that he was working for Warner Brothers Corset Company. Jacobs told him about her invention and, at his urging, showed it to his employers. They liked it so much they offered to buy the patent for $1,500. Jacobs took the money—she thought it was a good deal. So did Warner Brother Corset Company—they went on to make some $15 million from Jacobs’ invention.

To read more about the invention of the Bra, click below -  https://www.neatorama.com/2014/03/17/An-Uplifting-Story-The-History-of-the-Bra/