Brassiere pads

2,834,352

May 13, 1358

M. ULLIAN

BRASSIERE PADS

Filed May 16, 1956

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United States Patent Office

2,834,352

Patented May 13, 1958

2,834,352 BRASSIERE PADS

Murry Ullian, Merrick, N. Y.

Application May 16, 1956, Serial No. 585,282

Claims. (Cl. 128—481)

This invention relates to pads fashioned from soft velvety yieldable material adapted to be arranged and retained in the cups or breast receiving portions of a brassiere to yieldably lift or raise the breast in the brassiere when the garment is in use. More particularly, the invention deals with a pad having generally the contour of the lower and part of the upper portion of a breast with a pair of raised rounded lift members disposed at opposite sides of the lower portion of the pad to provide initial lifts or supports for the breast with a slightly enlarged central portion to provide what may be termed a supplemental lift of the lower central portion of the breast consistent with the initial lift, as provided by said members.

Still more particularly, the invention deals with a supporting pad of the character described, wherein each breast can be raised to a maximum degree with a minimum amount of concentrated lift force upon the breast at any one particular area of the breast.

The novel features of the invention will be best understood from the following description, when taken together with the accompanying drawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosed and, in which, the separate parts are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views and, in which:

Fig. 1 is an inside diagrammatic view of a pad made according to my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section substantially on the line 2—2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section substantially on the line 3—3 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section substantially on the line 4—4 of Fig. 1.

In the accompanying drawings, I have illustrated diagrammatically one adaptation and use of my invention as apphed to a single pad adapted to be arranged and fixed in one cup or breast receiving pocket of a brassiere. It will be understood, in this connection, that a pair of these pads are employed and, while, in most cases the pads will generally be of the same cup size, it is also possible, with irregularities which may exist in a woman’s breast, to provide pads to balance or correct such irregularities, in which latter event, the pair of cups would not be identical in form.

The pads are formed from highly yieldable or mouldable material, such as rubber, synthetic rubbers or plastic materials and preferably materials having a very soft or velvety texture and, in moulding the pad, a more or less cup-like body 10 is formed, defined by an upper rounded peripheral edge 11, which terminates in more or less of a feathered edge to rest upon and blend into the upper portion of the breast. The lower rounded edge 12 of the body 10 is in the form of a contracted edge, as indicated, for example, in Fig. 3 of the drawing, so that this lower edge will fit snugly along the base of the breast from the center of the sides of the breast to the bottom thereof. This lower edge up to the deepest part of the cup body may be said to define the en10 larged lift portion 13 of the pad, which lift portion comprises two rounded lift members 14, the high points of which are so positioned as to occupy a spacing between themselves equaLto approximately one third of the overall dimension as between the outer side extremities 15 of' the body 10. These members have gradually receding curved outer edges 16, which flow into the body 10 at the horizontal central portion thereof and part of this curvature is indicated at 16' in Fig. 3 of the drawing. It also gradually flows into the lower and lower side edges 12, as seen at 16 in Fig. 2 of the drawing.

At adjacent portions of the members 14, the material of the lift portion 13 curves from the members 14 into a central supplemental lift 17, which may be said to bridge the members 14 at the lower central portion of the pad.

The supplemental lift 17 extends to the central portion of the pad in a curved and gradually receding line, as indicated at 18 in Fig. 3 of the drawing, so as to flow into the overall general thickness 19 of the pad at the upper portion thereof, which thickness gradually tapers to the more or less feather edging 11, as diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawing.

In Fig. 4 of the drawing is shown a horizontal section through the lower portion of the pad or through what has been described as the lift portion 13, simply to diagrammatically illustrate the gradual reduction in the thickness of the rubber body, as it extends to the edges 12 and as noted, for example, at 19'.

For purposes of description, the raised rounded lift members 14 may be said to be spaced by a substantially V-shaped groove or recess 20, which extends from the high point of the supplemental lift 17 up to the central portion of the pad. It will, thus, be seen that, in the use of the pad, the breasts will be raised by action of the rounded lift members 14 plus the action of the supplemental lift 17, so as to more or less uniformly lift the breasts to raise the same and support the breasts in this raised position, as is diagrammatically illustrated by the dotted line showing at 21 at the upper portion of the pad in Fig. 3 of the drawing.

By reason of the graduated curvatures, as at 16, 16' and 16, as well as the curvature 18, the lifting action is distributed over substantially the entire lower area of the breasts so as to simulate, to some degree, the lift or raising of the breasts as though a curved hand were placed beneath the breast and moved upwardly to raise or lift the breast. In other words, there is no real single point or area of upward pressure which would be uncomfortable and undesirable to the user. The nature of the material of the pad is such that, while somewhat high point lift members 14 and supplemental lift members 17 are employed, the nature of these members is such as to flatten out or spread in performance of their operation so that, in completing the lift, a substantially circumferentially continuous arcuate or crescent-shaped body would prevail at the lower part of the breasts applying the upward and lifting pressure and, to diagrammatically illustrate this, a dot-dash line 22 is illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing. While the section 2—2 is below the high point of the members 14, it will be apparent that, at the higher point, even a greater flow or spread of the material of the pad would be effected. It will be understood, in this connection, that the line 22 is simply diagrammatic to illustrate the substantially wide spread of the upper lift which would prevail, but it is not to be regarded as a completely accurate illustration of the final contour which would be obtained.

The material preferably used in constructing cup-like pad bodies of the kind under consideration is similar to sponge or foam rubber, the body portion comprising a multiplicity of cells which provide the soft and relatively yieldable

2,834,362 characteristics which are desired. The cup body has, as will be apparent, the convex outer rounded surface and the concaved inner surface, in the lower portion of which includes the enlarged thick wall main lift members and the intermediate supplemental lift.