History Hound Travels

There is a reason people tend to ask me when they want to know obscure facts, and it’s because I tend to know stuff. Today, I was wondering about lapband surgery, so I went to (wait for it) wikipedia to check it out. The first band for this type of surgery was patented the year I graduated high school, and now it is considered outpatient surgery. With proper lifestyle adjustments and followup care, it’s helping patients lose large amounts of weight.

I think that the advancements in the field of medicine are mind boggling. Just imagine that 300 years ago, going to the doctor was probably one of the least safe things you could do. The neighborhood surgeon/dentist/barber would be happy to see you, but whether or not he could do you any good was another question altogether. And that was just 4 life times ago.

What about this lifetime? Well, 50 years ago a tonsillectomy required a three day hospital stay. 20 years ago, it was overnight. Last week, it was donefor my soon at a stand-alone surgical center and he was home 5 hours after we left for the appointment.

Historically speaking, maternity clothes are quite a new thing. I attempted to search wiki this morning to find out exactly how new, but there isn’t an article on “maternity clothing”. They did invite me to write one at that point, but as much as I love history, fashion and even pregnancy, I am not quite ready to merge the three into a wiki article. Sorry. Therefore my mission to compare today’s Noppies maternity clothes with historical maternity clothing using wiki as a resource was thwarted. Man, I hate to be thwarted. Because I really wanted to use this cool picture.

Oops. I think I just used the picture. Do you see a picture? Just pretend it’s not there. Anyway, for most of recorded history, clothing was loose enough that maternity clothing was not even an issue, and it has only been since clothing became more form fitting (mostly in this century) that maternity clothes have been necessary. In fact, some societies (the Amish come to mind) do not use maternity clothing at all for that same reason.

Ooooooooooh, can you say “link bait”? I just couldn’t resist that title when the subject of today’s post is bras. Did you know that women have been binding their breasts since at least the Minoan civilization in the 700s BC? Mary Phelps Jacob was granted the first U.S. patent for the brassiere in 1913, in spite of a long standing joke* to the contrary. Of course, bras have undergone some radical changes from the days when women wound strips of cloth around their chests to hold their breasts in place, and now there are bras for all reasons and seasons.

Too big, too small,
Too low, too high
There’s a bra for you
To buy, buy, buy

(Sorry, I sometimes pretend to be a poet. It amuses me, and usually doesn’t hurt others. Too much.)

Most of the more recent bra innovations have occurred in nursing bras, with the latest one given in 2004 for the nursing bra tank, similar to Bravado Nursing Tank. This allows nursing moms to wear styles that other women wear with greater convenience and modesty.

*The claim that the brassiere was invented by a man named Otto Titzling (phonetically tit-sling) who lost a lawsuit with Phillip de Brassiere (fill up de’ brassiere) is an urban legend that originated with the 1971 book Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra and was propagated in a song from the movie Beaches.

See Snopes, wiki

We’ll start right here, in 1858, with this public domain photo. It’s hard to believe today that a suit such as this could have caused so much as a ripple, let alone and uproar, but it did. In fact, even dressed like this, one might have used a bathing machine to go swimming at that time. Bathing suit fashion had progressed, though, and at a sometimes remakable rate. In 1907, Annette Kellerman (from Australia) was arrested for indecent exposure when she visited the United States because her swimsuit showed her arms, legs and neck. Just a few years later, in the 1920, swimsuits were commonly sleeveless, and only came down to mid-thigh.

It’s a far cry from today, when this suit at left is considered modest, isn’t it? This particular suit is one of the new Plus Size Tankinis from Swimsuits for All, and it happens to be one of my favorites. They have more styles available than you can shake a stick at, including *gasp* bikinis. And while I’m not about to put one of those on, I’m pretty sure I’m not a strong enough swimmer to survive getting knocked down by a wave in the voluminous number above.

I told you several months ago that the first known engagement ring was given by Archduke Maximilian of Austria in 1477. And that’s where I left it. Smooth, right? I though I would follow up on that today. Maximilian gave that first diamond engagement ring to Mary of Burgundy. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is that diamond engagement rings did not become popular until the 1930s. De Beer’s started a massive marketing campaign to drive up demand in part because of the large amount of diamonds that were found in South Africa.

This is a classic example of creating demand for a product. Diamonds had been around as jewelry for centuries, and their price was high and sustainable. The in-rush of massive amounts of diamonds would have caused the price to drop as they became more common. That drop would have killed the diamond market, and created havoc with the wealth of many of the world’s richest families who had invested in precious stones. By creating a demand to match and even exceed the new supply, De Beer’s ensured not only their own profits but the fiscal solvency of other businesses, institutions and families.

Sheer marketing genius. Make people think diamond rings are a necessity. Then let them think you are doing them a favor by offering to sell them one at a “real good deal”.