World's Oldest Known Bra Found

A 15th century bra was recently unearthed during reconstruction work at a medieval castle. The remarkably modern looking bra is arguably now the world's oldest known brassiere.

Fiber samples taken from the linen bra date to the medieval era, so this item appears to be legit. It pushes back the known history of the modern-styled bra by possibly more than 400 years.

The bra was discovered in a waste-filled vault at Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol, Austria. The stash included more than 2,700 individual textile fragments -- parts of nicely tailored trousers, buttoned shirts, and 4 modern-looking bras.

Beatrix Nutz, an archeologist from the University of Innsbruck, found all of it.

The bra is known as a "longline bra," meanging that the cups are each made from two pieces of linen sewn together vertically.

A press release from the University of Innsbruck further describes the bra as follows:

    The surrounding fabric of somewhat coarser linen extends down to the bottom of the ribcage with a row of six eyelets on the left side of the body for fastening with a lace. The corresponding row of eyelets is missing. Needle-lace is sewn onto the cups and the fabric above thus decorating the cleavage. In the triangular area between the two cups there might have been additional decoration, maybe another sprang-work.

Women, sometimes at the urging of men, have been trying to cover, restrain, or elevate their breasts for ages, with corsets becoming popular in the 16th century. But before the Austrian medieval bra find, there was nothing to indicate the existence of bras with clearly visible cups before the 19th century.

Read more at Discovery News