Think about films set in the 16th century onwards, the corset with ladies breasts pushed skywards were the first origins of the modern bra.

It wasn’t until the early 20th century, that brassiere garments that closely resemble modern contemporary bras emerged.

Vogue magazine featured a brassier in 1907, and by 1911 the Oxford English Dictionary had recognized the word.

It was the 1930’s that large-scale commercial production started, the word brassier soon got shortened to bra, and initially they were not viewed as a fashion item or thought to be sexy - how times change.