The first modern brassiere to recieve patent was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob in 1913. Mary had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social events. At that time, the accepted undergarment were corsets stiffened with whaleback bones and Mary found that the whalebones poked out visable around the plunging neckline and under the sheer fabric. Two silk hankerchiefs and some pink ribbon and herstory is made. The corset's reign was toppling, an unhealthy and painful device designed to narrow an adult women's waist to 13, 12, 11 and even 10 or less inches.

The corset is attributed to Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henri II of France who enforced a ban on thick waists at court attendances (1550's) and started over 350 years of whalebones, steel rods, and midriff torture.

Mary's new undergarment went well with the new fashions being introduced at the time and demands from friends and family were high for the new brassiere. On November 3, 1914, she was awarded a patent for the "Backless Brassiere". Caresse Crosby was the business name Jacob used for her brassiere production, but business was not enjoyable to Jacob and she sold the brassiere patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut for $1500. Warner (bra-makers, not the movie makers) made $15 million dollars from the bra over the next 30 years. Mary Jacob was the first to patent an undergarment named "Brassiere" derived from the old french word for "upper arm". Her patent was for a device that was lightweight, soft and separated the breasts naturally. Other points in the bra's evolution worth mentioning: