Caresse Crosby, who with her poet husband Harry founded the Black Sun Press in Paris during the 1920s, claimed to have invented the brassiere when she was still New York debutante Mary Phelps "Polly" Jacob, a young rebel who hated the heavy corsetry of the time. She patented her creation — a simple garment made from two silk handkerchiefs and pink ribbon — in 1914 and a few years later sold the rights for $1,500 to Warner Brothers Corset Company. In the meanwhile Russian emigre Ida Cohen Rosenthal, who ran a women's dress shop in New York City, became convinced during the early 1920s that her full-figured customers would look better in their flapper dresses if they had a little "support." She therefore designed a brassiere with cups, substantial straps, and snap fasteners in the back. At first Rosenthal gave away the bras with dress sales, but the...