If you look at TV shows from the 50s and 60s, lots of pointy, stickin’-out hooters. I think it’s kindof a cool look. How did they structure the bras to make them look like that? And why isn’t that still done? It would seem to be bust-enhancing and attractive at the same time.
Thanks for your insights!
The cups on older bras were shaped from two relatively thick pieces of layered material (lining, padding, outer) and the seam, which arced across the nipple, tended to hold a specific shape.
Modern bras have molded padding (even if it’s very thin) and loose liner and cover, so they mold a more naturally rounded shape.
It’s also a matter of style. Even with today’s “natural” bras, there is considerable variation in uplift, shaping, cleavage deepening, etc. The same woman with moderately sized and slightly soft breasts can mold them a dozen different ways with just the JC Penney’s selection, let alone the designer and custom fit brands.
they’ll put somebodie’s eye out.
Cadillac bumper bullets were the style during those years.
Since I’m an oldie and was wearing a bra back in those days, I remember having to stuff kleenex in the bra so that the points would not wrinkle up and show under my clothes. If you had firm breasts that weren’t of the right shape (apples instead of pears), those bras never fit right.
Can you get your tongue stuck to them, though?
Is that a double-dug-dare?
Conversely, if someone nowadays has breasts that are the right shape for those old pointy bras, do they fit into modern/rounded bras poorly?
You can still find bras constructed that way, but the materials are less bulky and stiff now so the effect isn’t the same. I do recall my babysitter/older cousin had one that had concentric rings stitched in the cups to help them maintain that shape. I thought it was weird.
The really pointy ones were sort of an exaggerated advertising thing. Young women had selections of bras that weren’t pointy. Not much in the way of photographic evidence remains of this unless you look at youthful pictures of your mom or grand mom. A pointy bra in my day was sort of slutty.
Secondly, fabric has changed a lot since the fifties. It’s been decades since I’ve seen a cotton bra, much less worn one. And I think you really need that cotton with the concentric circles to give you the rocket nose look.
Udderly. I can lick any pair in the house.
Thanks, my understanding of this matter has greatly increased!
Marketing and style.
Maria Callas at her typewriter:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9soily9tR1rrnekqo1_r1_1280.jpg
KABOOM! (That’s the sound of your head exploding.)
Too dangerous in safety-critical situations.
There’s a bit of a Mad Men-ish interest in vintage-style underpinnings - you can buy modern versions of bullet bras at places like Secrets in Lace. (They also have really nice garter belts that hold everything up. And girdles just like Grandma used to wear.)
ETA - since the bra sizing is really unforgiving in those styles because of the materials, they do also sell little pads to fill the points out.
Madonna tried to bring it back in the 80s.
Great set of lungs. But they’d rub callases all over your chest.
I think you’re right. It wasn’t just cotton, it was stiff cotton. The sides and straps were also heavy cotton, with lots of reinforcing stitching. I never wore one, but I did laundry as a child and they looked more like harnesses than today’s bras do.
