Cleavage (breasts)
Cleavage-revealing clothes started becoming popular in the Christian West as it came out of the Early Middle Ages and enjoyed significant prevalence during Mid-Tang-era China, Elizabethan era England, and France over many centuries, particularly after the French Revolution.
[1][6] In the 1940s, Joseph Breen, head of the U.S. Production Code Administration, applied the term to breasts in reference to actor Jane Russell's costumes and poses in the 1943 movie The Outlaw.
Displaying any part of the female breast may be considered inappropriate and may be prohibited in some settings, such as workplaces, churches, and schools, while in other spaces, such as parties, beaches and pools, it may be permissible to show as much cleavage as possible.
[37] Early English Puritans used a tight bodice to completely flatten breasts, while 17th-century Spaniards put lead plates across the chests of pubescent girls to prevent their bosoms from developing.
[60] In a 2006 study conducted among young people in Mumbai,[61][62] both male and female respondents believed that women wearing cleavage-revealing filmi (movie-like) clothes may be more prone to become victims of sexual violence.
[74] In Alexandre Guillaume Mouslier de Moissy's 1771 play La Vraie Mère ("The True Mother"), the title character rebukes her husband for treating her as an object for his sexual gratification; "Are your senses so gross as to look on these breasts—the respectable treasures of nature—as merely an embellishment, destined to ornament the chest of women?".
"[77] Since emerging in the Christian West, the early décolleté dresses—which were termed by French court historian Jean Froissart as "the smile of the bustline"—had increasingly plunging necklines because the Renaissance celebrated the beauty of the unclothed human body.
[95][96] Bollywood actresses Disha Patani, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Nargis Fakhri and others were trolled and shamed for wearing cleavage-baring outfits in social and new media, including in The Times of India.
[97] Extraordinary attention was generated when politicians Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton and Jacqui Smith wore cleavage-revealing outfits, even from media outlets The Washington Post and The New York Times.
[106] In the next year, organizers of ChinaJoy, the largest gaming and digital entertainment exhibition held in China,[107] levied a fine of US$800 on women who revealed "more than two centimeters of cleavage".
[46] Functional anatomist Owen Lovejoy ("The origin of man", 1981) suggests, partly based on speculations by Morris, that prominent breasts among female Australopithecines helped attract males and cement the pair-bond necessary for further physical and cultural evolution toward modern humanity.
[139] In 2600 BCE, princess Nofret of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt was depicted wearing a V-neck gown with a plunging neckline that exposed ample cleavage that was further emphasized by an elaborate necklace and prominently protruding nipples.
[147] The ancient Greek goddess Hera is described in the Iliad to have worn something like an early version of a push-up bra festooned with "brooches of gold" and "a hundred tassels" to increase her cleavage to divert Zeus from the Trojan War.
[154] Between the 11th and 16th centuries, the prevailing décolleté clothes of women of Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan in India were replaced with covered bosoms and long veils as the region increasingly came under foreign control.
[157] In 1450, Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII, started a fashion trend when she wore deep, low, square décolleté gowns with fully bared breasts in the French court.
[183] During the extreme décolletage of the Elizabethan era, necklines were often decorated with frills and strings of pearls, and were sometimes covered with tuckers and partlets (called a tasselo in Italy[184] and la modiste in France).
[198] Despite the contemporaneous popularity of décolletage dresses, complete exposure of breasts in portraits was limited to two groups of women; the scandalous (mistresses and prostitutes), and the pure (breastfeeding mothers and queens).
[209][215] In that decade, Christian Dior introduced the "New Look" that included elastic corsets, pads and shaping girdles to widen hips, cinch waists and lift breasts.
[226] Modern augmentation mammaplasty began when Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow developed the first silicone gel-filled breast prosthesis with Dow Corning Corporation, and the first implanting operation took place the following year.
[194] In the late 1960s, attention began to shift from the large bust to the trim lower torso, reasserting the need to diet, especially as new clothing fashions—brief, sheer, and close fitting—prohibited heavy reliance on foundation lingerie.
[240] Lingerie and shapewear manufacturers like Warner Brothers, Gossard, Formfit and Bali took the opportunity to market plunge bras with a lower gore that was suitable for low-cut styles.
[242] Daring women and men of all ages wore tailored, buttoned-down shirts that were open from the breast-point to the navel in a "groovy" style, with pendants, beads or medallions dangling on the chest, displaying a firm body achieved through exercise.
[249][250][251] Driven by a controversial advertising campaign that featured model Eva Herzigova's cleavage, one Wonderbra was sold every 15 seconds shortly after the brand's launch, leading to first-year sales of US$120 million.
[76] Throughout history, women have used many methods, including accentuation and display of breasts within the context of cultural norms of fashion and modesty, to enhance their physical attractiveness and femininity.
[308] Cleavage wrinkles can also be reduced with botox[5][307] and, according to Samantha Wilson, founder of skincare product manufacturer Skin Republic, by intense pulsed light (IPM), collagen induction therapy (CIT) and high-intensity focused ultrasound.
[312][313][314] Many women, such as beauty pageant participants and transgender people, create cleavage by placing tape underneath and across their breasts, bending forward, tightly pulling them together and up.
[334] About 3 cm of cleavage distance is recommended while augmenting breasts, to avoid medial perforation, compromised soft tissues, visible implants, rippling and symmastia.
[366]: 1330 Commonly used ingredients include black cohosh,[366]: 1330 (shown to have no estrogenic effect[366]: 1330 ) dong quai,[366]: 1331 hops,[367]: 4914 kava[368]: 1347 (may cause liver damage[368]: 1347 ) and zearalenone[369] (increases probability of estrogen-dependent breast cancer and may reduce fertility[369]) among others.
[383] Bright colors, ornaments and accessories, including ruffles and glitters that add detail to the cleavage area, help to make breasts look bigger and draw attention to them.
Douglas Fairbanks revealed his chest in films including The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Iron Mask (1929), and Errol Flynn showed his male cleavage in movies like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
