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Tightly-wrapped cloths, cone-shaped cups, and stick-on strapless: Video charts the evolution of the bra over the past 500 years in just two minutes

00:05, Saturday, 19 September, 2015
Tightly-wrapped cloths, cone-shaped cups, and stick-on strapless: Video charts the evolution of the bra over the past 500 years in just two minutes

Whether they were meant to flaunt your breasts - or hide them - the first bras date back to ancient times, and like most fashions, they reflect the social and economic changes of that era.

Today women have the option of pushing-up, covering-up, and everything in between, and a new video created by Glamour charts the evolution of the bra over the past 500 years.

Beginning with the constricting mamillare from the Roman Empire and ending with a hypothetical design meant for robots in 2100, the clip highlights the prominent styles and history of the bras that debuted in various eras.

At the start of the video, viewers are introduced to the mamillare, a tightly wrapped cloth meant flatten a woman's breasts. Ancient Romans found large breasts to be unattractive, so the 'bra' of the time was meant to disguise them.
     Hundreds of years later, from the 1500s to the 1800s, women relied on corsets to push their breasts upwards and create extreme hourglass figures.
     And interestingly, corsets have made a comeback thanks to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Amber Rose touting the benefits of waist training on social media.
     Bras replaced corsets in the 20th century, and by the 1920s hour glass figures were out, and androgynous body types were all the rage.

According to the video, the Symington bra of this era 'minimized feminine curves with lines inspired by cubist painters'.
     However, by the late 1920s the Maiden Form brand debuted and encouraged women to embrace their natural shape, using the word maiden to counter its competitor, Boyishform Company.
     The 1930s saw the emergence of the underwire bra, which is still used to shape and support breasts today.
     And in recent years, there have been at least two occasions where women's lives were saved after their underwire bras deflected bullets.

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