The fourth “bra” is the one that resembles a modern bra the most.  At the first assessment this garment was referred to in German as “Mieder” (= corselette in English) by the excavating archaeologists. It can also be described with the term “longline bra”. The cups are each made from two pieces of linen sewn together vertically. The surrounding fabric of somewhat coarser linen extends down to the bottom of the ribcage with a row of six eyelets on the left side of the body for fastening with a lace. The corresponding row of eyelets is missing. Needle-lace is sewn onto the cups and the fabric above thus decorating the cleavage. In the triangular area between the two cups there might have been additional decoration, maybe another sprang-work.

Are the bras indeed from the 15th century?
There are considerable differences of opinion as to who 'invented' the brassiere or bra. Among those named is the French corset-maker Herminie Cadolle in the late 18th century and Mary Phelps Jacob who was awarded an US patent in 1914.

Up to now there was nothing to indicate the existence of bras with clearly visible cups before the 19th century. Medieval written sources are rather vague on the topic of female breast support, sometimes mentioning “bags for the breasts” or “shirts with bags”. Other sources only mention breast-bands to bind down oversized breasts.

As no comparable archaeological textiles of medieval “bras” were to be found, fiber samples of two bras were sent to the ETH (Eidgenössissche Technische Hochschule = Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zürich to be Carbon-14 dated.  In addition fiber samples of the pair of underpants and two other textiles were also radiocarbon-dated. All results confirmed the dating of the finds to the 15th century.

University of Innsbruck