Exoskeleton & Endoskeleton

Exoskeleton (pronounced ek-soh-skel-i-tn)

(1) In zoology, an external covering or integument, any hardened external structure, as the shells of crustaceans or the scales and plates of fishes and reptiles, especially when it is of the nature of bone.

(2) All hard parts, such as hair, teeth, and nails which develop from the ectoderm or mesoderm in vertebrates (generally used only in technical literature).

1841: The construct was exo- + skeleton.  The prefix endo- was used as a word-forming element meaning "inside, within, internal.  It was from the Ancient Greek ἔνδον (éndon) (within; inner; internal) from the primitive Indo-European en-do- (an extended form of the root en (in)).

Skeleton was from the New Latin skeleton (bones, bony framework of the body), from the Ancient Greek skeleton soma (dried-up body, mummy, skeleton), from the neuter of σκελετός (skeletós) (dried up, withered, dried body (and as a noun: parched; mummy), from σκέλλω (skéllō & skellein) (dry, dry up, make dry, parch), from the primitive Indo-European (s)kelha- (to parch, wither); related was the Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklirós) (hard).

Skelton was an early variant form.  The noun use of Greek skeletos passed into Late Latin as (sceletus), hence the French squelette and the rare English skelet (1560s), the Spanish esqueleto & the Italian scheletro.  The meaning "bare outline" is first recorded circa 1600; hence the term skeleton crew from 1778 used to describe minimal staffing, the skeleton key a similar allusion to some of a structure being removed.  The phrase skeleton in the closet (source of secret shame to a person, family or institution) is from 1812 and thought an adoption from the imagery in Bluebeard fable (1697) by Charles Perrault (1628-1703). Exoskeleton was a creation in 1841 by English paleontologist Sir Richard Owen (1804–1892).

Endoskeleton (pronounced en-doh-skel-i-tn)

(1) In zoology, the internal skeleton or framework of the body of an animal (generally the bony or cartilaginous skeleton of vertebrates).  Certain invertebrates, such as sponges and echinoderms, also have endoskeletons.

(2) For most (non-technical) purposes, a synonym for skeleton.

1838: The construct was endo- + skeleton  The prefix exo- was used as a word forming element in words of Greek origin meaning "outer, outside, outer part" and was used from the mid-nineteenth century.  It’s from the Ancient Greek ἔξω (éxō) (outer; external).and was related to ex (out of).

Endoskeleton is used almost exclusively in the biological sciences.  For most general purposes, it’s synonymous with skeleton which is the default assumption of use because it’s familiar from humans and most familiar animals.  Exoskeleton has become more widely used in recent years because of the interest in fields such as engineering, robotics and medicine in using external structures, often to augment or replace human functions.

Trilobites

Trilobite (pronounced try-low-byte) translates literally as “three lobes".  Often casually referred to as bugs or sea-bugs, in taxonomy, all trilobites actually belong in the class of trilobite in the phylum arthropod and within the class are ten orders.  It’s not known how many species of trilobites existed but almost 21,000 have thus far been identified in the fossil record, their numbers and variety leading them to be regarded as one of history’s more successful animals.  They inhabited all the seas and oceans and endured some three-hundred million years, surviving several mass-extinction events.  Their long duration, their structure and living habits meant they became a common and frequently discovered fossil, noted since antiquity although the first attempt scientifically to classify one seems to have been by Wan Shizen of China who, in 1689 described trylobite pygidia (tails) as batstones.  The first known scientific drawing was by Welsh botanist, the Reverend Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709) whose sketch of a trilobite was published in "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.  The drawing, now classified as being a Ogygiocarella debuchii, was then (not unreasonably), called the "flatfish".

Truly ancient, trilobites pre-date the Cambrian explosion and went extinct only towards the end of the Permian extinction event which ended the Paleozoic age.  However, the earlier events took their toll, a few orders vanishing after the Ordovician extinction event while the Devonian event removed all but one order, that last survivor dying out in the Great Permian Extinction.  Why such a successful and prolific creature could not endure these extinctions remains a debate.

All share the same basic structure, having three lobes: a left pleural, a middle axial and a right pleural lobe, their bodies divided into a cephalon (dead), thorax (middle), and pygydium (tail).  Trilobites had a thick, protective exoskeleton which formed a hard calcite shell, something like that of the modern crab and is the reason for their frequency in the fossil record, the exoskeletons usually the only part to survive although, in the rare cases where certain surrounding conditions exist, traces of soft tissue such as antennae can survive fossilization.  As a trilobite grew, it molted its exoskeleton, and many of the fossils which exist are molted frames rather than dead creatures.

Endoskeleton cars

The Birdcage: The Maserati Tipo 60/61 (chassis #2549).

Endoskeleton cars are far from uncommon but some make the concept more obvious than others.  The Maserati Tipo 60/61 (1959-1961) gained the nickname “Birdcage” (by which it’s almost always known) because observers were much taken with the delicacy of the construction.  By the late 1950s, space-frames had become familiar to race-car builders but they were usually robust-looking arrangements whereas Maserati had rendered an intricate latticework of some 200 chromoly steel tubes welded often in triangulated form in the points of highest stress, the designing providing both lightness and rigidity.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W196S, upper) & 300 SL (W198, lower).

One of the reasons the Maserati’s skeleton looked so delicate was that the space-frame had become associated with Teutonic-flavored construction like that used by Mercedes-Benz for its 300 SL & 300 SLR.  Both shared the same method of construction but despite the names and the the visual similarity between the two, there were few common components beyond the nuts, bolts & screws.  The 300 SL was a road car while the SLR was a lengthened version of the W196R Formula One Grand Prix car with a sexy body and an enlarged (though somewhat detuned) straight-eight engine.

Exoskeleton cars

MVE Exocet (left) & Exomotive’s Exocet Sport V8 (right).

Exoskeleton vehicles are numerous on farms, mine-sites and such but rarely seen on public roads.  They do though have a niche for those who want something which sacrifices just about everything (aerodynamics, weather protection, doors etc) for the nimbleness only extreme light-weight can deliver.  An example is the MVE Exocet, released for public sale in 2010.  It’s an inventive approach to the kit-car concept and takes the classic front-engined, rear-wheel drive approach, based on Mazda’s Miata (the MX-5, introduced in 1989 and a kind of clone of the Lotus Elan of the 1960s but without the problems), the advantage with the Japanese platform being its unusual sub-frame which permits the removal of the body, leaving the engine, drive-train and suspension as a rolling assembly to be transplanted to the Exocet chassis.

The nicely defined shoulder blade and ribcage definition of Lindsay Lohan's endoskeleton.

Because of the light weight, even when using sensible four-cylinder engines the Exocet delivers high-performance but the Americans in particular can’t resist the idea that just about any car can be improved by the installation of a V8 and quite outlandish power to weight ratios are possible.  An indicative example of Exomotive’s Exocet Sport used a 525hp (LS3) version of one of the later evolutions of the small-block Chevrolet V8 which, fully fueled, weighed in at 1690 lb (767 kg), somewhat less than a 2023 Formula One car.  Because it possible to buy, off the shelf (as a “crate” engine), V8 engines with about the same power as a F1 power-plant generates, although there was be something a weight penalty, the potential does exist to build a two-seater roadster with a similar power-to-weight ratio and there are jurisdictions which even allow such a thing to be registered for use on public roads.  Opinions would differ on whether such a build is a good idea but the little machines, if the V8 was tuned more for low and mid-range torque rather than ultimate power, would seem to have great potential in competitions such as short-course events and hill-climbs although the dubious aerodynamics would render it less suited to high-speed tracks.

Vermiform

Vermiform (pronounced vur-muh-fawrm)

Resembling or having the long, thin, cylindrical shape of a worm; long and slender.

1720-1730: From the Medieval Latin vermiformis, the construct being vermis (worm) + forma (form).  Vermis was from the primitive Indo-European wr̥mis and cognates included the Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos) and the Old English wyrm (worm (which evolved into the Modern English worm)).  Form was from -fōrmis (having the form of), from fōrma (a form, contour, figure, shape, appearance, looks).  The root of the Latin vermis was the primitive Indo-European wer- (to turn, bend), an element most productive, contributing to: adverse; anniversary; avert; awry; controversy; converge; converse (as the adjectival sense of "exact opposite”); convert; diverge; divert; evert; extroversion; extrovert; gaiter; introrse; introvert; invert; inward; malversation; obverse; peevish; pervert; prose; raphe; reverberate; revert; rhabdomancy; rhapsody; rhombus; ribald; sinistrorse; stalwart; subvert; tergiversate; transverse; universe; verbena; verge (as the verb meaning "tend, incline"); vermeil; vermicelli; vermicular; vermiform; vermin; versatile; verse (in the sense of the noun "poetry") version; verst; versus; vertebra; vertex; vertigo; vervain; vortex; -ward; warp; weird; worm; worry; worth (in the adjectival sense of "significant, valuable, of value") worth (as the verb "to come to be"); wrangle; wrap; wrath; wreath; wrench; wrest; wrestle; wriggle; wring; wrinkle; wrist; writhe; wrong; wroth & wry.  Vermiform is an adjective.

Commonly used in medicine to describe the appendix, Modern French also gained the word from Latin as the adjective vermiforme (plural vermiformes), the spelling of the medical use apéndice vermiforme (plural apéndices vermiformes).  The only known derived form in English is the adjective subvermiform, used apparently exclusively in the disciplines of zoology, including entomology.  The meaning was defined in a dictionary from 1898 as “shaped somewhat like a worm” which is surprisingly imprecise for the language of science but that vagueness appears adequate for the purposes to which it’s put.  For whatever reason, vermiform was a word much favored by the US humorist HL Mencken (1880-1956).

The female Eumillipes persephone: 1,306 legs & 330 segments.  

Because the scientific literature has for some time been dominated by COVID-19 and all that flowed the brief, sudden prominence of two vermiform creatures, one ancient, the other more recent, was an amusing distraction.  The younger animal was a new species of millipede which boasted not only more legs than any other creature on the planet but was the first of its kind to live up to its name.    

Since circa 1600, the term millipede has been applied to any of the many elongated arthropods, of the class Diplopoda (a taxonomic subphylum within the phylum Arthropoda (the centipedes, millipedes and similar creepy-crawlies) with cylindrical bodies that have two pairs of legs for each one of their many body segments and, although milliped was long regarded as the correct spelling by scientists who work with myriapods, millipede is by far the most common form in general use (although there’s the odd specialist who insists on millepede).  Millipede was from the Latin millipeda (wood louse), the construct being mille (thousand) + pes (genitive pedis) (foot), from the primitive Indo-European root ped (foot) (probably a loan-translation of Greek khiliopous).  When named, it wasn’t intended as a mathematically precise definition, only to suggest the things had lots of legs though, certainly many fewer than a thousand.  The creature has always possessed a certain comical charm because, despite having usually twice the number of legs as centipedes, the millipede is entirely harmless whereas there are centipedes which can be quite nasty.  For centuries millipede was thought a bit of a misnomer, with no example ever observed with more than 750 legs and that deep-soil dweller was an outlier, most having fewer with a count in two figures quite common.  The new species also lives in the depths: Eumilipes persephone (Persephone, the daughter of Zeus who was taken by Hades to the underworld), a female was found to be sprouting 1,306 legs.  Pale and eyeless, it’s vermiform in the extreme, the body-length almost a hundred times its width and instead of vision, it used a large antennae to navigate through darkness to feed on fungi.

The sheer length of the thing does suggest a long lifespan by the standards of the species, most of which tend not to survive much beyond two years.  The persephone however, based on a count of the body segments which grow predictably in the manner of tree rings, seems likely to live perhaps as long as a decade.  One factor which accounts for the longevity is the absence of predators, the persephone’s natural environment banded iron formations and volcanic rock some 200 feet (60 m) beneath the surface of a remote part of Western Australia.  Entomologists didn’t actually venture that deep to explore, instead using the simple but effective method of lowering buckets of tempting vegetation down shafts drilled by geologists exploring for minerals, returning later to collect whatever creatures had been tempted to explore.

Artist’s impression of an Arthropleura: half a metre wide and perhaps nearly three metres in length, the latter dimension similar to a small car.  

Days after the announcement from the Western Australian desert, livescience.com also announced researchers in the UK found the fossilized exoskeleton of an Arthropleura, the largest arthropod yet known to have lived.  The length of a modern car, the giant millipede-like creatures appear to have done most of their their creeping and crawling during the Carboniferous Period, between 359 million and 299 million years ago.

Although the Arthropleura have long been known from the fossil record, there’d not before been any suggestion they ever grew quite so large and the find was quite serendipitous, discovered on a beach in a block of sandstone which had recently fallen and cracked apart.  The exoskeleton fragment is 30 inches (750 mm) long and 22 inches (550 mm) wide which means the giant millipede would have been around 102 inches (2600 mm) long and weighed around 110 lbs (50 kg)m making it the biggest land animals of the Carboniferous era.  Despite its bulk however, the physics of movement and the need to support its own weight mean the leg count is nowhere near as impressive as its young relation what is now on the other side of the world (what are now the Australian and European land masses were closer together during the Carboniferous) and it’s still not clear if Arthropleura had two legs per segment or every two segments but either way it adds up to much fewer than a hundred.

Ultimately, Arthropleura was a victim of changing conditions.  In its time, it would have been living in a benign equatorial environment but, over millions of years, the equator can shift because of the phenomenon of TPW (true polar wander) in which the outer layer of Earth shifts around the core, tilting the crust relative to the planet’s axis.  This last happened some eighty-four million years ago.  So, the conditions which for so long had been ideal changed and changed suddenly and Arthropleura was unable to adapt, going extinct after having flourished for nearly fifty-million years.  The reasons for their demise are those seen repeatedly in the fossil record: In an abruptly changed environment, there was suddenly more competition for fewer resources and the Arthropleura lost out to animals which were stronger, more efficient and better able to adapt.

The human appendix.

Thousands of years after first being described, the human appendix, a the small blind-ended vermiform structure at the junction of the large and the small bowel remains something of a mystery.  For centuries the medical orthodoxy was it vestigial, a evolutionary dead-end and a mere quirk of human development but the current thinking is it exists as a kind of “safe-house” for the good bacteria resident in the bowel, enabling them to repopulate as required.  However, being blind-ended, although intestinal contents easily can enter, in certain circumstances it can operate as a kind of one-way, non-return valve, making exit impossible which results in inflammation.  This is the medical condition appendicitis and in acute cases, the appendix must surgically be removed.  That's usually fine if undertaken in good time because it's a simple, commonly performed procedure but unfortunately, in a small number of cases, a residual "stump" of the structure may escape the knife and in this inflammation may re-occur, something surgeons resentfully label “stumpitis”.  Apparently the most useless part of the human anatomy, there is noting in the medical literature to suggest anyone has noticed any aspect of their life being changed by not having an appendix.

Bandage

Bandage (pronounced ban-dij)

(1) A strip of soft cloth or other material used to bind up a wound, sore, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(2) Anything used as a band or ligature.

(3) To bind or cover with a bandage; to put a bandage on a wound, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(4) In fashion, a type of dress, distinguished from similar styles by the use of knitted fabrics.

(5) Figuratively, by extension, a provisional or makeshift solution that provides insufficient coverage or relief (also as band-aid solution).

1590-1600: From the Middle English bandage (strip of soft cloth or other material used in binding wounds, stopping bleeding etc), from the sixteenth century French bandage, from the Old French bander (to bind), from bande (a strip).  The verb bandage (to dress a wound etc, with a bandage) dates from 1734 (and was implied in bandaging).  Bandage is the spelling in Danish, Dutch, German, English & Swedish but other languages localized the French including Norwegian Bokmål (bandasje) Polish (bandaż) & Turkish (bandaj).  The spelling in the constructed Esperanto is bandaĝo.  Bandage is a noun, verb & adjective, bandaged & bandaging are verbs (used with & without an object) and the noun bandager does exist although use seems restricted to first-aid manuals.  Other words used in similar vein include dressing, gauze, plaster, swathe, truss, compress, bind & wrap.  The noun plural is bandages.

The noun compress, (in the surgical sense of "soft mass of linen or other cloth to press against some part of the body (with the aid of a bandage)”), as an adaptation from the earlier verb, evolved in the 1590s in parallel with bandage.  In earlier use, the noun ligament (band of tough tissue binding bones) was a late fourteenth century creation from the Latin ligamentum (a band, bandage, tie, ligature), from ligare (to bind, tie), from the primitive Indo-European root leig- (to tie, bind) and in the medical literature, ligamental, ligamentous & ligamentary still occasionally appear.  One technical term from medicine which seems extinct is the verb deligate (to bind up, bandage), noted since 1840 (and implied in deligated), from the Latin deligatus (bound fast), from deligare (to bind fast), the construct being de- (from the Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (of, from); the Old English æf- was a similar prefix) + ligare (to bind).  Under the Raj, the noun puttee (long strip of cloth wound round the lower leg as protection by soldiers) enjoyed a evolution in spelling typical of many words in British India, patawa in 1875, puttie by 1886 and the modern puttee finally (more or less) standardized by 1900).  The source was the Hindi patti (band, bandage) from the Sanskrit pattah (strip of cloth).  The noun fascia did have a brief career in medicine, being from the Latin fascia (a band, bandage, swathe, ribbon), derivative of fascis (bundle (which as fasces became a familiar form in the twentieth century)).  In English, the original use was in architecture, the anatomical application not noted until 1788 and it’s now also a familiar form in botany, music, astronomy and interior design, most obviously in cars.  The noun bandeau (headband), now much associated with revolutionaries (and in fashion the emulation) dates from 1706, from the French bandeau, from the twelfth century Old French bandel & bendel (bandage, binding), a diminutive of bande (a band, a strip).  As a style of women's top or bra, it was first described in 1968 and is distinguished from similar styles in being of a rectangular cut, the hems forming two horizontal lines above and below the breasts.

The bandage dress

Although the motif of what is called the bandage dress is clearly identifiable in depictions of women which pre-date antiquity, the creation of the modern commercial product is credited to the 1980s work of Tunisian couturier Azzedine Alaïa (1935-2017) but it is with French designer Hervé Peugnet’s (1957–2017) fashion house Hervé Léger that the style is now most associated.

Charlotte McKinney (b 1993), 2018.

The bandage dress is a specific interpretation of the earlier, figure-hugging bodycon dress, the name originally a contraction of "body conscious" which the industry would later morph into "body confidence" in reaction to criticism and in Japan, they were marketed as ボディコン (bodikon), a spelling better suited to traditional pronunciation in Japanese.  What distinguished bandage from bodycon was the fabric, the former made not with anything woven, engineered instead to compress with machine-knitted material, the completed panels left uncut and assembled to created the finished item.  Bandage dresses thus, although truly suitable for only one body type, because of the compression effect of the knitted fabric, do (slightly) extend the parameters of the silhouette which can be accommodated while still being aesthetically successful whereas bodycon dresses made from fabrics which merely cling rather than smooth out imperfections rely on an ideally formed frame.  For that reason, the jocular slang “body compression” was sometimes used to describe this sub-set of the bodycon, the bandage dress working like externally worn shapewear, corset-like in effect if not quite an actual exoskeleton.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986), 2008.

Hervé Léger in 1992 first displayed the bandage dresses which would come to be the style’s definitive look; instantly popular, they were a red-carpet staple well into the twenty-first century.  Still a big seller, the bandage dress in 2015 migrated, via the twittersphere, from the fashion section to the front page when the comments of Patrick Couderc (b 1961, then managing director of Hervé Léger's British distributor, MJH Fashion), were published.  In an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday, Mr Couderc made it clear he’d prefer it if some women would avoid buying Hervé Léger’s most famous creation, those on the proscribed list including lesbians, those beyond a certain age and anyone with a less than ideal silhouette.

There was an element of classism too in his critique as he lamented the bandage dress as a victim of its own success, too many now seen on the wrong-shaped customers and worse still, they were often cheap knock-offs of the £1,300 (US$1603) originals and thus increasingly associated with reality TV stars and those working in hair salons.  Admitting dryly “you can be a victim of your success”, his comments seemed to echo those reported earlier in the century by the distributers of a high-end cognac and the Maybach, Daimler-Benz’s ill-fated mistake in thinking what was needed was a brand above Mercedes-Benz which for almost a century had been good enough for presidents, popes and potentates.  Then the complaint had been that drink and car were finding favor with hip-hop & rap stars and this most interpreted as an expression of concern the association with people of color might “cheapen the brand”.  Mr Couderc didn’t comment on skin color but told The Mail he refuses to give free dresses to celebrities if they are “judged to lack sufficient class”.

Clearly a student of the interplay of sociology and economics, he allowed his mind to wander wide, recalling that he’d “...never go out to dinner if she’s not wearing tights.  I think hosiery is something which is very magical in my world and I’m veering off into complete poetry now.  But it’s a social statement because in the 1980s, the difference between someone who was wearing tights and someone who was not was very significant.”  Clearly nostalgic for a time when the poor were less inclined to get ideas above their station, he added that then, “...whoever was wearing tights was working in a private office in a bank in St James’s and whoever was not wearing tights was coming to work as a shampooist in a High Street hairdresser, commuting from Croydon.  We were living in a time where the distinction between the two social strata was much more significant than today”.  How he must long for that vanished, pre-1945 world, when folk from Croydon were deferential to their betters.

Salma Hayek (b 1966), 1998.

The attitude was hardly unique in the industry, Abercrombie & Fitch early in the century re-built into a highly profitable company using a model former CEO Mike Jeffries (b circa 1944) described in a 2006 interview as “exclusionary” noting their clothes were a product in which “a lot of people don’t belong and they can’t belong.”  That really wasn’t an unusual business model but it was rare for a CEO so bluntly to state the obvious and, when the comments were published in 2013, Jeffries issued a apology saying "We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics".  Also controversial was a later comment, attributed in 2013 to (an unnamed) Abercrombie and Fitch district manager.  It’s said the person being interviewed requested anonymity so the statements have never been verified but it was reported that when asked how the company responds to non-profits asking for donations of discontinued clothing to be given to the poor and homeless, the reply was “Abercrombie and Fitch doesn’t want to create the image that just anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing. Only people of a certain stature are able to purchase and wear the company name”, to which he added they would rather “burn the clothes” than risk them being seen on the backs of the poor.  Again, while rarely discussed, the practice of destroying rather than discounting or giving away unsold or discontinued items is widespread in the industry.

Speaking at Hervé Léger’s boutique in Knightsbridge, Central London, the like-minded Mr Couderc wasn’t entirely lacking in empathy, noting “You women have a lot of problems. You will lose the plot.  You will come and you will put a dress on and you’ll be in front of the mirror, like, ‘Argh, I’m so fat’”.  “Yes, you have a 12th of an inch around your stomach, it’s not really a disaster, and what you’re not noticing is that your cleavage is about two inches too low because you are 55 and it’s time that you should not display everything like you’re 23.”  At this point he did concede the particular virtue of the bandage dress was it could in such cases “provide useful support” but that didn’t mean he approved.

How a Hervé Léger bandage dress should hang.

He’d clearly thought about things, his advice to lesbians (presumably young or old) that “if you’re a committed lesbian and you are wearing trousers all your life, you won’t want to buy a Léger dress.  Lesbians would want to be rather butch and leisurely.”  Warming to the topic, he went on to say “voluptuous” women (most drawing the inference he meant "not slender") and those with “very prominent hips and a very flat chest” should wear something else, adding the handy hint that women must not wear underwear that was too small, because “the knicker line cuts through the flesh and goes through the other side of the dress” thereby creating the dreaded “visible panty line” (VPL).

Hervé Léger’s Moscow store.

Quite what he thought the reaction to his comments would be isn’t recorded but while his views may not much have changed since the 1980s, much of the rest of the world now has the means to respond en masse and what should have been the foreseen twitterstorm quickly gathered, #boycottherveleger & #wecanwearwhateverthefuckwewant soon trending.  Doubtlessly fearing the wrath of blood-thirsty lesbians, those not slender, chav shampooists and women of a certain age, Max Azria’s BCBGMAXAZRIA Group (which in 1998 had acquired Hervé Léger), went immediately into crisis management mode, issuing a statement saying they were “...shocked and appalled by Patrick Couderc’s comments made in the Mail on Sunday.  BCBGMAXAZRIA Group is working in concert with MJH Fashion, the London-based licensee of the Herve Leger brand, to investigate and establish appropriate next steps. The statements made by Mr. Couderc are not a reflection of Herve Leger by Max Azria or MJH Fashion ideals or sentiments.”  The Herve Leger by Max Azria brand celebrates sensuality, glamour and femininity without discrimination.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, MJH Fashion confirmed Mr Couderc was no longer employed by the company.  Max Azria (1949–2019) in 2016 ended his connection with BCBGMAXAZRIA and its associated companies and in 2017 the group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the intellectual property rights and assets later acquired by the Marquee Brands division of the Global Brands Group.  Bandage dresses remain popular.

Underwire

Underwire (pronounced uhn-der-wahyuhr)

(1) A (usually almost semi-circular) metal, plastic or composite “wire” sewn into the underside of each cup of a brassiere, used both as a structural member and shaping device.

(1) A brassiere (or related component in a swimsuit or some other garment) with such wires.

A portmanteau word, the construct being under + wire.  Under is from the Middle English under, from the Old English under, from the  Proto-Germanic under (source also of the Old Frisian under, the German unter, the Old High German untar, the Dutch onder, the Old Norse undir, the Gothic undar and the Danish & Norwegian under), from a blend of the primitive Indo-European n̥dhér (under) and n̥tér (inside).  It was akin to the Old High German untar (under), the Sanskrit अन्तर् (antar) (within) and the Latin infrā (below, beneath) & inter (between, among), influencing also the Sanskrit adhah (below), the Avestan athara- (lower) and the Latin infernus (lower).  The Old English under was a preposition in the sense of "beneath, among, before, in the presence of, in subjection to, under the rule of, by means of and also an adverb in the sense of "beneath, below, underneath," expressing position with reference to that which is above, usage gained from the Proto-Germanic under-.

Under proved as productive a prefix in Old English as had in German and Scandinavian languages, often forming words modeled on Latin ones using “sub-“ and the notion of "inferior in rank, position etc" existed in the Old English and persists in the language of the titles in the UK’s civil service to this day (eg under-secretary).  The idea of it being used as descriptor of standards (less than in age, price, value etc” emerged in the late fourteenth century whereas, as an adjective meaning “lower in position; lower in rank or degree” was known as early as the 1200s.  Mysteriously, the use in Old English as a preposition meaning "between, among," as in “under these circumstances” may be a wholly separate root (eg understand).  The phrase “under the weather (indisposed; unwell) is from 1810.  Under the table was used from 1913 in the sense of "very drunk" and it wasn’t until the 1940s (possibly influenced by the onset of rationing and the consequence emergence of black markets) it came to enjoy the sense of something "illegal" (although the long-extinct “under-board: (dishonest) is attested from circa 1600.  To keep something under the hat (secret) is from 1885 and use seems not to have been affected by the post 1945 decline in hat-wearing; to have something under (one's) nose (in plain sight) is from 1540s; to speak under (one's) breath (in a low voice) dates from 1832.

Wire is from the Middle English wir & wyr (metal drawn out into a fine thread), from the Old English wīr (wire, metal thread, wire-ornament), from the Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz (wire), from the primitive Indo-European wehiros (a twist, thread, cord, wire), from wei & wehiy- (to turn, twist, weave, plait).  The Proto-Germanic wira- & wīraz were the source also of the Old Norse viravirka (filigree work=), the Swedish vira (to twist) and the Old High German wiara (fine gold work).  A wire as marking the finish line of a racecourse is attested from 1883; hence the figurative down to the wire.  Wire-puller in the political sense dates from 1839, an invention of American English (though used first to describe matters in the UK’s House of Commons), based on the image of pulling the wires that work a puppet; the phrase “pulling the strings” replaced “pulling the wires” late in the nineteenth century.

Casting a practiced eye: Lindsay Lohan assessing the underwires.

In the technical sense familiar to a structural engineer, the bra’s underwire is a specific instance of the earlier verb (1520s) “undergird”, the construct being under + gird.  Gird (to bind with a flexible rope or cord; to encircle with, or as if with a belt) was from the Middle English girden, gerden & gürden, from the Old English gyrdan (to put a belt around, to put a girdle around), from the Proto-Germanic gurdijaną (to gird), from the primitive Indo-European gherdh.  It was cognate with the West Frisian gurdzje & girdzje, the Dutch gorden, the German gürten, the Swedish gjorda, the Icelandic gyrða and the Albanian ngërthej (to tie together by weaving, to bind).  The related forms were undergirded & undergirding.

As a familiar mass-manufactured commodity item, the bra is a relatively new innovation although many of the various functionalities afforded to the wearer are noted in illustrations and surviving garments worn since antiquity, interest in the physics of gravity long pre-dating Newtonian mechanics.  The most obvious immediate ancestor, the corset, began to be widely worn by the late 1400s, the shaping and structure of many underpinned by struts made either of metal or, more commonly, animal bone, a method of construction which, in simplified form, would later return as the underwire.  The first patent issued for a recognizably modern bra was issued in New York in 1893 for a “breast supporter” and it included all the features familiar in the mass-produced modern product: separated cups atop a metal support system, located with a combination of shoulder straps and a back-band fastened by hook and eye closures.  On the basis of the documents supplied with the patent application, the design objective was for something not only functional and practical but, unlike the often intimidating corsets then in use, also comfortable.

It was an immediate success although, lacking the capacity to manufacture at scale and unwilling to become involved in the capital raising which that would have demanded, the inventor sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company for US$1500 (at a time when a new Ford car cost around US$400).  Warner Brothers Corset Company (later Warnaco Group, in 2012 acquired by Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), which over the life of the patent is estimated to have booked profits of almost US$40 million from its bra sales, got a bargain.  English borrowed the word brassiere from the French brassière, from the Old French braciere (which was originally a lining fitted inside armor which protected the arm, only later becoming a garment), from the Old French brace (arm) although by then it described a chemise (a kind of undershirt) but in the US, brassiere was used from 1893 when the first bras were advertised and from there, use spread.  The three syllables were just too much to survive the onslaught of modernity and the truncated “bra” soon prevailed, being the standard form throughout the English-speaking world by the early 1930s.  Curiously, in French, a bra is a soutien-gorge which translates literally and rather un-romantically as "throat-supporter" although "chest uplifter" is a better translation.  The etymological origin of the modern "bra" lying in a single garment is the reason one buys "a bra" in the same department store from which one might purchase "a pair" of sunglasses or shoes. 

The booming popularity of the bra in the 1920s and 1930s encouraged innovation and not a few gimmicks and it was in this era that manufacturers first began to develop systems of cup sizes although there was there no standardization of dimensions and, technically, that’s still the case with remarkable variations between manufacturers; it’s an industry crying out for an ISO.  It was in 1931 a patent was issued for what was described as a bra with a pair of integrated “open-ended wire loops”, semi-circular pieces of metal enclosed in protective fabric which partially encircled each breast, sitting against the chest-wall at the bottom of the breasts.  This is the origin of the modern underwire and during the 1930s, while designers would develop more elaborate versions, the concept didn’t change and as late as 1940, the underwire bra remained something of niche product being, at this stage of development, both more expensive and often less comfortable.  Wartime necessity also imposed an evolutionary delay, the use of metal during wartime being limited to essential production and carefully rationed.  Bras by then probably had become essential but apparently not underwired bras.

Hughes H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose) on its only test flight, 2 November 1947, Long Beach, Los Angeles Harbor.  It flew for abou1 1 mile (1.6 km) and achieved a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

Howard Hughes (1905—1976), the industrialist knew about the wartime limits on the use of metals because the War Production Board had insisted his H-4 Hercules, a huge, eight-engined flying boat designed to transport 750 troops across the Atlantic, be built using “non-strategic materials" which precluded the industry’s preferred aluminum, Hughes using birch wood almost exclusively.  The H-4, which wasn’t completed until after the end of hostilities flew, briefly, only once and was nicknamed the Spruce Goose, which obviously was arboreally inaccurate but thinking of something as funny and rhyming with “birch” wasn’t easy.  So, in 1942 Hughes knew he’d never get approval for enough metal for his big flying boat, but in 1941, before the entry of the US into the war, more than enough metal was available to create a specialized part to be used in another of his ventures: film director.

Jane Russell, promotional picture for The Outlaw (1941).

In 1941, while filming The Outlaw, Hughes wasn’t satisfied with what sympathetic lighting, camera angles and provocative posing could make of Jane Russell's (1921—2011) bust.  A skilled engineer, he quickly designed and had fabricated a kind of cantilevered underwire bra to lend the emphasis he though her figure deserved.  What Hughes did was add curved steel rods which functioned as actual structural members, sewn into the bra under each cup and connected to the shoulder straps, an arrangement which simultaneously pushed upwards the breasts and allowed the shoulder straps to be re-positioned, exposing to the camera much more skin.  In engineering terms, it was a device which achieved a fixture with no visible means of support.  Hughes was delighted with the result and completed filming though it wasn’t until much later Ms Russell revealed the cantilevered device was so uncomfortable she wore it for only a few minutes, reverting to her own bra which, to please Hughes, she modified with those trusty standbys, padding and a judicious tightening of the straps.  The result was much the same and Ms Russell waspishly added that the engineering prowess which had served Hughes well in aviation didn’t translate well to designing comfortable underwear.  The Outlaw was completed in February 1941 but, because of the focus on Ms Russell's breasts, faced opposition in obtaining the required certificate of release from the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (the MPPDA which administered the Hays Code) which was demanding cuts to thirty seconds odd of offending footage.  Hughes reluctantly complied and there was a brief showing in 1943 but the film’s distributer, unwilling to be dragged into any controversy, withdrew from the project and it wasn’t until 1946 there was finally a general release on cinema screens.  Given the pent-up demand, it was a commercial success but the critics were at the time unimpressed and it only later gained a cult following, at least partly on the basis of the gay undertone in the plot-line.

Lindsay Lohan in underwired demi-cup bra, photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine, 2012.  The "demi-cup look" can be achieved by choosing a bra with the correct band size and a smaller cup.  Someone who usually wears a full-cup 32D would use a 32C or even 32B to get the effect although, given the variation in cup shapes between manufacturers, some experimentation will likely be required and fitters caution this should be done in a physical store rather than shopping on-line. 

Underwires essentially fulfill part of the function of an exoskeleton in that, being designed to fit snugly against the ribcage, they provide a basic mechanism of location which means the back-strap, cups and shoulder-straps can provide the shape and support without having to compensate for excessive movement or changes in weight distribution.  The mathematics of structural engineering is really that of making push equal pull and what a well-designed (and properly fitted) underwire does is minimize the risk of movement in an unwanted direction (down) so the least energy is required to maintain the desired movement (up).  There are other ways of achieving this but such constructions typically are much bulkier and use often stiff, unaccommodating fabrics and thick straps.  The underwire is a simple technology which, in the abstract really can’t be improved upon although there are problems.  Washing machine service technicians note the frequency with which errant underwires end up in the mechanism and, being metal, damage can result.  For this reason, most bra manufacturers recommend they be placed in a sealed bag for washing.  Detachment can also happen while in use, a protruding underwire sometimes passing through the material in which its supposed to remain enclosed, giving the wearer a painful jab in a soft, fleshy spot.  Although the tips are usually plastic coated, repeated jabbing is still uncomfortable.  Being traditionally made of metal (usually stainless steel) brings it's own issues, most obviously with metal detectors but for frequent flyers, bras with plastic underwires (and hooks & clasps) are available off the shelf and plastic underwires are even sold as stand-alone part-numbers to modify existing models or for use by the small but devoted class of users who make their own.

Not all underwires are created equal: The Lingerie Addict explains.

Bra underwires typically are made from a non-ferrous metal (inside a plush casing surrounding the cup) such as stainless steel although there are some fabricated from some form of plastic which had appeal for frequent flyers not wanting to trigger the metal detectors at airports and a perhaps unanticipated market sector was among lawyers visiting prisons.  Although they might be presumed to achieve their structural effect by virtue of their rigidity, underwires actually have in them a very slight “spring” so they will splay just a fraction of an inch as the bra moves, something which enhances comfort and fit.  In that sense, an underwire can be thought of as a “torsion bar” which essentially is an unwound spring stretched straight.  The underwire has two functions: (1) to provide the superstructure with a secure location against the ribcage and (2) to distribute forces (downward, upward & lateral) in the same way the cables on a suspension bridge (which connect the towers to the deck) transfer the downward force from traffic up the cables to the towers, diffusing and distributing the stresses to the strongest point.  In a bridge, that’s the tower which, being anchored to the earth, means the forces end up moving from the structure to the ground while in a bra, they’re absorbed partially by the frame (mostly the band if well-designed and also to the shoulder straps if not) and partially by the wearer’s ribcage.  Manufacturers also use the comparison with bridges to illustrate the inherent limitation (at least when dealing with mass above a certain point) of wire-free construction.  Usually, they compare the wire-free design with a simple “rope bridge”, anchored on each side of the waterway or gap crossed but which sinks down as weight (which manifests as downward pressure) is applied.  The physics of this is that because there is no rigid support infrastructure to transfer the downward pressure away from the deck, there’s a direct relationship between the downward pressure and the sag of the deck.  For that reason, it’s important to distinguish between wire-free bras which are little more than an underwire bra without an underwire and those using a design which emulates what an underwire does, usually with a layered array of thicker, stiffer materials in the band and the lower parts of the cup.  In theory such an approach can achieve the same level of support as the most formidable underwire bra but the level of rigidity in the structure would likely render such a creation too uncomfortable to be tolerated by most although variations of the idea are used in short-duration sports such as boxing.

Playtex 18Hour (4745) wire-free bra (left) and 1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 fitted with car bra.  Car bras are also wire-free. 

Although common, not all bras use an underwire, the “wire-free” design used for a number of reasons.  For those with small breasts who require something merely decorative or desire only coverage rather than support, the wire-free bras are a popular choice and the majority of sports bras also use other methods of construction.  Like just about any form of engineering, there are trade-offs, the advantages gained in not using an underwire needing to be assessed by wearers considering whether they outweigh whatever limitations may be imposed.  Sometimes, the wire-free devices are marketed as a niche product such as maternity, nursing, post surgical or nightwear (ie for sleeping in, it really does seem a thing).  However, modern materials and forms of reinforcing do make the wire-free bra a viable choice for a wide range of wearers although the physical dimensions of the fabric do tend to be greater (the frame, straps etc), the principle much the same as when aluminium is used for an engine block rather than cast iron, the volume of the lighter material needed to be greater to compensate for its reduced strength.  In a sign of the times, although historically bras without an underwire often were advertised as “wireless”, the ubiquity of the word to describe various forms of digital connectivity (over WiFi, Bluetooth etc) means the industry had shifted mostly to calling them “wire-free” which may seem unnecessary given few would confuse a bra with a router but the internet-enabled bra can be only a matter of time so it’s good manufacturers are thinking ahead.  IT nerds actually already have proved they can deal with linguistic overlap and know about BRAS (broadband remote access server, known also as BBRAS or B-RAS), a device which routes traffic to and from devices such as DSLAMs (digital subscriber line access multiplexer) on an ISP’s (Internet Service Provider).

1989 Porsche 911 Silver Anniversary with car bra and mirror bras.

The Silver Anniversary edition was released in 1989 to mark the 25^th year of 911 production, a run of 500 (300 coupés & 200 cabriolets) made available for the US market.  Available only in silver metallic paint or satin black metallic, all were trimmed in silk grey leather with black accent piping & silk grey velour carpeting.  In the usually way these things are done, the package included a bundle of options including a stitched leather console with an outside temperature gauge and a CD or cassette holder, a limited-slip differential, a short shifting gear lever and the inevitable “25^th Anniversary Special Edition” badges, stamped in bronze.

The other wire-free bras are “car bras” (hyphenated and not).  Car bras are “protective garments”, vinyl covers designed to fit snugly over the front of a vehicle, stopping stones or other debris chipping the paint.  Their origin appears to line in the “cover masks” used by car-manufacturers in the 1970s as a means of concealing the appearance of vehicles being tested (a “shake-down” the preferred phrase) on closed tracks or public roads prior to their release and the purpose was to stop photographers getting pictures of upcoming models to sell to magazines, anxious to scoop the competition with news of what would soon be in the showrooms.  The practical advantages however were obvious and in the 1980s when chrome plated bumpers began rapidly to disappear and be replaced by painted surfaces, stone chips became more of an issue, the vulnerable frontal area in many cases more than tripled.

Wire-free: Covercraft's "Lebra" car bra for 2010-2013 Chevrolet Camaro.

The early implementations of the car bra were utilitarian but those who were (1) obsessive about such things, (2) drove frequently on roads where stone damage was more common or (3) owned a vehicle with a design which made such damage more likely (the Porsche 911 a classic example) were soon able to buy vinyl (nearly always black) covers which came to be called “car bras”.  In the 1980s they were very popular and the better ones were both easy to fit and fitted well but problems were soon observed, notably the trapping of moisture which, in conjunction with dust or tiny fragments of stone which tended to be caught around the edges, acted as a kind of sandpaper as the vinyl moved slightly while the vehicle was in motion; over time, this could damage the paint, the very thing the car bra was there to prevent.  As women wearing bras understand, chafing can be a problem.  For that reason, car bras fell from favour, especially as paint technology improved and finishes became more durable and less susceptible to being chipped.  Additionally, clear protective coatings became available which offered “extra layers” which were undetectable by the naked eye and by the time adhesive “wraps” (opportunistically now also marketed as "clear bras") in just about any color became a thing, the appeal of the car bra diminished although they remain available and the newer versions have been revised to reduce "chafing".  However, unlike other symbols of the 1980s (leg-warmers, shoulder pads et al), a revival of the fashion seems unlikely.  Car bras don’t use an underwire but some of the advertising does have something in common with the underwear business, one manufacturer listing some of the features of their car bra as including (1) double padding to prevent wear-thru, (2) a top double-stitch for better body-hugging fit and (3) double-covered & reinforced hooks which won’t scratch.  The available materials include both the basic vinyl and “textured carbon fibre vinyl”.