Anatomy of a bra!

Bras are designed to cover, constrict and improve our breast shape, preserving the firmness for as long as possible throughout the years. This has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry over the past 80 years employing millions of people around the world.  Producing bras and lingerie is a very complex and labor intensive process, so manufacturers need to produce and sell us vast numbers of bras to keep their design development and production costs low and affordable.

The 1693 This Is Not A Strapless Bra by Warner’s – a perfect example of the newest innovative bras

So it’s good that us ladies have such love of lingerie!  On average, we own 6.5 bras each – how many do you have?

The modern bra is a highly specialized structure; it’s come a long way in 80 years and yet it’s still evolving with fashion (foremost) as manufacturers strive to meet our demands and ever-changing needs.

Many terms are used to refer to parts of a bra and I’ve illustrated here some of the most commonly used ones to help you out when you’re being fitted or buying your new bra.

A bra is made from approximately 12 x pieces of fabric, 2 x foam cups, 2 x underwires, 2 x sliders, 2 x rings and 1 set of hook and eye closures. It can take 6 months for a bra to be developed from design stage to pre-production (sometimes more), with up to 50 highly skilled people working on countless prototypes and with components coming from perhaps as many as 6 different countries. The bra has also led to many highly technical innovations from the hook and eye closure to (more recently) “spacer foam”. In fact the first Apollo spacesuits were designed and made in the 1960’s by Playtex, the bra and girdle manufacturer. Using their expertise of close-fitting synthetic garments, they produced the spacesuits worn by astronauts who stood on the surface of the moon!

So check your bra count, I’d be very interested to know what my reader’s average is!

Teresa

teresa@nowthatslingerie.com