In the year By the 1950s, corsets were mostly a thing of the past, but that didn’t mean that bra fashion had come into its own. In fact, the reverse is true. In the year As the 1940’s gave way to the 1950’s, the natural look left in brass, which had first become popular in the 1930’s, was gradually losing interest. Instead, the bullet nipples of the 1940s were improved in the 1950s, and instead of separating the nipples, they now push the nipples together, creating cleavage.
Throughout the 1950s, strapless nightgowns grew in popularity as the underwired bra became more and more popular. And it didn’t hurt that the ever-increasing availability of television and film brought gown-wearing stars like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner into the American consciousness. Frederick Mellinger went on to open Frederick’s of Hollywood and introduced the first padded bra in the late 1940s (via Herroom), but in the 1950s an emphasis on shape gave padded bras the “oomph” they needed to rise in popularity.
In the year Finally, in The 1950s saw the introduction of maternity and nursing bras into mass production, although the proper size and function would have to wait until the 1990s.
