Young Teen College Girl Without Brassiere

The culturally desirable figure for woman in Western culture has changed over time. In the United States during the 1920s, the fashion for breasts was to flatten them as typified by the Flapper era. During the 1940s and 1950s, the sweater girl became fashionable, supported by a bullet bra (known also as a torpedo or cone bra) like that worn by Jane Russell.
During the 1960s, bra designers and manufacturers began introducing padded bras and bras with underwire. Women's perception of undergarments changed, and in the 1970s, they began to seek more comfortable and natural looking bras. In response to the feminist era, many bra manufacturers' marketing claimed that wearing their bra was like "not wearing a bra". Women usually purchase a bra because they recognize they need to replace an existing bra or because they purchased new outwear requiring a new type of bra. Although in popular culture the invention of the bra is frequently attributed to men, in fact women have played a large part in bra design and manufacture, accounting for half of the patents filed.
• Social pressures and trends
The average American woman today owns six bras, one of which is a strapless bra, and one in a color other than white. Consumers spend around $16 billion a year on bras. In the last 15 years alone, the average bust among North America women has increased from 34B to 36C. A number of sources state that about 90% of Western women wear bras, although no authoritative source for this fact is available. Some wear bras because of feelings of modesty or because it is a cultural norm and they fear criticism or unwanted attention. Some wear bras because they believe it improves their appearance, while a minority prefer to go without because they find it more comfortable.