Today I found myself with six hours to kill in a midwest town I didn't know well. So I wandered out of no-sidewalk business section, up and down a hilly couple of miles to old downtown where I found a museum with an exhibit on the history of underwear.
I learned some things, the most striking of which is that Howard Hughes had an underwire bra specifically designed to highlight Jane Russell's cleavage as she lay in the hay in The Outlaw (1943). (What's that Laura Mulvey?)
AND, that during WWII the US army was concerned with servicemen getting lice so they experimented with making briefs with DDT infused into the fabric.
I have been searching out independent verification for both of these things, though who knows if it's any more reputable. The internet is...a special place
Hughes is definitely not the first to highlight the female form with metal. Marie Tucek is probably the first to break away from the corset and into the metal cupping business, patenting her Breast Supporter in 1893. The growing popularity of underwires did happen after The Outlaw, but that is probably because WWII being over, metal could be used for domestic use.
Sources so far: Museum in Sioux Falls, wikipedia - underwire bra, the breast site - bra history, The Mad Science Museum - the lice infested underwear experiment.
Mulvey is so pissed right now. Also, who doesn't want a Samson crotch?
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