Tag Archive: lingerie

Brassieres. They hold the things we love so dear.

Brassieres. They hold the boobs we love so dear.

This is the strange case of Otto Titzling and Philipe de Brassiere, two women’s garment designers who both claimed to be developers of what is now the modern bra. Or did they? I researched this tale for the truth.

The story that’s been floating around for some time now, especially on Internet web sites, is that a German-born engineer named Otto Titzling created that wonderful garment that is now known as the bra for his neighbor, a stacked and packed opera singer named Swanhilda Olafsen.

Both lived in the same New York City boarding house in 1912, and Otto’s design for Swanhilda’s over-the-shoulder boulder-holders led to him plunging deeper into the cleavage of women worldwide.

Among Otto’s subsequent creations were padded bras, the famous “falsies,” and the first front-fastening bra (we call them front loaders at SCORE). Unfortunately, Otto, despite his many credentials, neglected to patent his “bra,” although he did patent the later improvements he made on his first bra.

Then, in the early 1930’s, trouble started when a Frenchman named Phillipe de Brassiere began manufacturing his own line of bras supposedly based on Titzling’s original designs. Brasierre was a well-known and fashionable ladies clothing designer with a more polished demeanor than Titzling.

A brutal lawsuit began which lasted from 1934 until 1942 when Brassiere won the jury case. During the trial each man brought out real women to model their hooter holsters. Brassiere’s model was a beauty, earning her a lot of exposure. There was even a sexy photo of her in a popular magazine of the time, The Police Gazette, under the headline “I Did It All For The Bra.”

Otto did get a small jury settlement, but the strain of fighting the case for years crushed him. He died in ’42 from the strain of his financial losses and the emotional bruising. And that’s why the modern bra is often referred to as “The Brassiere” and not a “Tit-Sling.”

Sounds like a great story, right? Good for a PBS Masterpiece Theater series?

The only thing is, it was a historical hoax, and a widespread one, in the wake of a 1971 book by Wallace Rayburn called Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling.

Rayburn previously had written a 1969 book about Englishman Thomas Crapper, crediting him with having created the flush toilet (he did not, although he was a sanitary engineer).

In another version of the story, Titzling invented his bra with the assistance of Hans Delving, designing it for a Swedish athlete named “Lois Lung.”

Over the past 42 years, the story of Titzling Vs. Brassiere has been accepted by countless newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as being debunked by other lingerie historians. Yet, their saga continues to carry on with a life of its own.