Ok, A two for one deal my friends…
1.) Who invented the bra, and if it’s under the shirt, why is it in different colors?
2.) How did the word “Boobs” get synonymous with breasts?
ok, 3 questions…I lied 
but I would LOVE to know the answers
Because when the shirt is removed, it can be seen. Same reason men’s underwear comes in various styles & colors.
Wiki says bra-like garments were seen as early as the 1400s BCE, so it might be pretty hard to pin down a single inventor.
- Depending on your concept of a bra, the modern origins can be traced back to a) Henry S. Lusher b) Luman L. Chapman c) Olyvia Flynt d) Hermoine Cadolle e) Marie Tucek or f) Mary Phelps Jacob anytime between 1859 - 1910
Bras come in different colors because clothes come in different colors. Women may choose to mix or match as they see fit.
- According to the online etymology dictionary “boobs” or more properly “boobies” derives from the Old French popel and the Germanic dialect version Bubbi meaning “breast.”
That’s really only one question about breasts, and two about bras.
Here, let me google that for you.
Western women have been using things to hoist up/bind the breasts for at least a couple of centuries, usually in the form of some sort of corset/merry widow. As for what we know as the brassiere, History of Bras- Bras and Girdles - Fashion History before 1950 for starters. And are you seriously asking why bras might come in different colors? Really? Perhaps for the same reason panties don’t come in just one color, and neither does most any other item of clothing.
*Boob * (circa 1940’s/50’s) is a shortening of booby (1930-35) which is a variation of bubby, which has been slang for breast since the late 1600’s. Boob Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
Curious that no one’s mentioned the famous inventer Otto Titzling
Seems to me that bras originally were made in different colors so that they matched the outer clothes and were thus, less conspicuous. That served women well in the old days when discretion and modesty were more severely judged.
Anymore, many women want the area below their head to be noticed. Also, they are casual to the point that if they don’t have a clean bra of the “right” color they will grab whatever is convenient.
It wasn’t that many years ago that the exposure of a bra strap was somewhat salacious. Now it is something of a fashion statement.
IANA woman and don’t pretend to understand the female mentality. I only speak from experience and many years of observing, living with, and having to try to understand the behavior of women.
Anyone else have the Otto Titsling song from Beaches running through their heads now?
As far as different colored bras…well:
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If you’re going for the not-noticeable look, a white shirt should be worn with a nude, rather than white, bra. I have seen many a woman wearing a white blouse with a white lacey bra quite visible underneath. Last year, an embarrassed coworker realized she was wearing a blue bra underneath…oops.
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Similar idea with black bras and black (or dark) shirts. I rarely wear white bras; seems the most conspicuous color.
Of course, sometimes it’s nice to just wear a cute bra and panty combo. There’s something about wearing cute little outfits underneath a cute little outfit that just makes a girl feel sexy/cute/dressed up. There are also the FOR HIM combo outfits that, though cute, aren’t usually the most comfortable things–but in that case, comfort is not the goal. Not like you’ll be wearing it long, anyway.
Boob, to refer to a woman’s breast is found in print in the US about 1930, referring to about the teens.
If you have evidence that bubby as a reference to a woman’s breast existed before the early 1800s, please post it.
ETA: I don’t make any claims to the veracity of these origins, I just found them clicking a link from the link provided
Good cite, I’ll try to read this tomorrow.
Well, if a woman is trying for the not-noticeable look, she should match the shade of her bra with the shade of her skin. For me, that means that I look for beige/nude. For a darker skinned woman, that could mean coffee. It’s hard to find bras in coffee, though.
I’ve also seen women wearing dark bras or camisoles under white or cream shirts. I don’t think that this is a good look.
When I finally had my hysterectomy, I vowed to quit wearing white panties. White is more conspicuous than beige, if the outer garments are at all sheer, but at least white cotton things can be bleached. Nowadays I buy panties in a variety of colors, and enjoy matching them to whatever dress I’m wearing. That is, if I wear a purple dress, chances are that I’ll also be wearing purple panties. My remaining white panties are still in my underwear drawer, crying because they feel unloved and unwanted. I only wear them if I really need to do laundry.
Yeah, I have white bras that I usually only wear with darker shirts. For white white, beige is the best. In fact, beige pretty much goes with everything. I have black bras that I wear with black shirts but in a pinch, beige will do.
Lynn, this is probably more than I need to know but…why did it take a hysterectomy?
Maybe something to do with menstruation? Though you’d think you’d be less likely to if you had a period…
I had extremely heavy and irregular periods. I never knew when I’d start flowing and dropping clots, so I always wore white panties. It turns out that I had some fairly large but benign fibroids that were causing this problem, and one fibroid was pressing against a nerve in my spine. When I had my hysterectomy, that stopped the periods*. It’s possible to bleach colored and/or nylon panties, but they will show the effects of the bleach more. I still have a few pair of colored panties that look like someone did a halfassed job of tie-dying them, because my husband put them in with the white load and put bleach in the load.
*I was absolutely delighted about this, by the way.
These are some of my favorite boobies: Booby - Wikipedia
[Woody Allen]
They usually come in pairs.
[/Woody]
As a female acquaintance in college put it, “I like to look well-dressed at all stages of undress.”