Fifteenth-Century Bras

[brightknightie]

(wiliqueen? lizbetann?)

While I'm sharing articles, here's an exciting discovery of interest to historians, costumers and historical-fiction writers, readers and viewers: "600-year-old linen bras found in Austrian castle" (July 18, 2012; CBS News).

Previously, historians had believed that the brassiere as we know it was invented to succeed the corset.  These artifacts demonstrate that the corset design was instead an interruption between eras of the more sensible brassiere design!  Unfortunately, this article includes just one photograph of only one of the four fifteenth-century bras — which were first discovered in 2008, but the carbon-dating and other tests and investigations took time.

(More interested in what's under pants than dresses?  "Also found at Lemberg Castle in Tyrol was a linen undergarment that looks very much like a pair of panties. But Nutz said it is men's underwear...")

Oh, the things we don't know because no one bothered to write or paint them! :-)