the cleavage as "of one hand-breadth between a woman's breasts". medieval courtiers in china during tang dynasty (circa 706), when the décolletage was quite liberal. 2014 chinese tv series the empress of china was briefly pulled off-air for showing the abundance of cleavage in tang courts. during the tang dynasty (7th to 9th centuries), women in china were increasingly freer than before and by the mid-tang, their décolleté dresses became quite liberated. the tang women inherited the traditional ruqun gown and modified it by opening up the collar to expose their cleavage, which had previously been unimaginable. rather than the conservative garments worn by earlier chinese women, women of the tang era deliberately emphasized their cleavage. the popular style of the era was long gowns of soft fabrics that were cut with a pronounced décolletage and very wide sleeves, or a décolleté knee-length gown that was worn over a skirt. 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. during this period, elaborate, opulent courtly dresses with wide décolletage became popular in the italian maritime states venice, genoa and florence. until the 12th century, the christian west was not cleavage friendly but a change in attitude occurred by the 14th century with france leading the way, when necklines were lowered, clothes were tightened and breasts were once again flaunted. décolleté gowns were introduced in the 15th century. in a breast-rating system that was invented at the time, the highest rating was given to breasts that were "small, white, round like apples, hard, firm, and wide apart". women started squeezing the breasts and applying makeup to make their cleavage more attractive; cleavage was termed the "smile of the bustline" by contemporaneous belgian chronicler jean froissart. a contemporaneous french courtesy manual la clef d'amors advised, "if you have a beautiful chest and a beautiful neck do not cover them up but your dress should be low cut so that everyone can gaze and gape after them". contemporaneous poet eustache deschamps advised "a wide-open neckline and a tight dress with slits through which the breasts and the throat could be more visible". the french catholic church, however, tried to discourage the flaunting of cleavage. it mandated the cleavage, which it referred to as "the gates of hell", and the opening on woman's bodices be laced. french priest oliver maillard said women who exposed their breasts would be "strung up in hell by their udders". monarchs like charles vii of france ignored the church. it was common for women in his court to wear bodices through which their breasts, cleavage and nipples could be seen. 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. early modern rajput painting of chitrashala dancer from bundi (circa 1640s) showing exposed underboob, which remained banned by laws and policies as late as 2020 in many places from the u.s. to thailand across europe, décolletage was often a feature of the dress of the late middle ages; this continued through the victorian period. gowns that exposed a woman's neck and the top of her chest were very common and uncontroversial in europe from at least the 11th century until the mid-19th century. ball gowns and evening gowns especially had low, square décolletage that was designed to display and emphasize cleavage. in many european societies between the renaissance and the 19th century, wearing low-cut dresses that exposed breasts was more acceptable than it is in the early 21st century; bared female legs, ankles and shoulders were considered to be more risqué than exposed breasts. portrait of hughes, with breast exposed, c. 1670 by peter lelyin aristocratic and upper-class circles, the display of breasts was at times regarded as a status symbol; a sign of beauty, wealth and social position. the bared breast invoked associations with nude sculptures of classical greece that influenced the art, sculpture and architecture of the period. in mid-16th-century turkey, during the reign of suleiman the magnificent, respectability regulations allowed "respectable" women to wear fashionable dresses with exposed cleavage; this privilege was denied to "prostitutes" so they could not draw attention to their livelihoods. the entari, a popular women's garment of the ottoman empire, resembled the corseted bodice of europe without the corset; its narrow top and narrow, long, plunging décolletage exposed a generous cleavage. around this time, cleavage-revealing gambaz gowns became accepted among married women in the levant, where bosoms were regarded as a sign of maternity. in 16th-century india, during the mughal empire, hindu women started emulating the overdressed conquerors by covering their shoulders and breasts, though in contemporaneous paintings, women of mughal palaces were often portrayed wearing rajput-style cholis and breast jewelry. mughal paintings often portrayed women with extraordinarily daring décolletage. contemporaneous rajput paintings often depict women wearing semi-transparent cholis that cover only the upper part of their breasts. in the 16th century, when spanish conquistadors colonized the inca empire, traditional cleavage-revealing and colorful inca dresses were replaced by high necks and covered bosoms. in european societies during the 16th century, women's fashions with exposed breasts were common across the class spectrum. anne of brittany has been painted wearing a dress with a square neckline. low, square décolleté styles were popular in 17th-century england; queen mary ii and henrietta maria, wife of charles i of england, were depicted with widely bared breasts. architect inigo jones designed a masque costume for henrietta maria that widely revealed both of her breasts. cleavage-enhancing corsets, which used whalebone and other stiff materials to create a desired silhouette—a fashion that was also adopted by men for their coats—were introduced in the mid-16th century. anne of austria, queen of france, was an early 17th century fashion icon wearing dresses that showcased her cleavage. throughout the 16th century, shoulder straps stayed on the shoulders but as the 17th century progressed, they moved down the shoulders and across the top of the arms, and by the mid-17th century, the oval neckline of the period became commonplace. by the end of the century, necklines at the front of women's garments started to drop even lower. 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 and la modiste in france). late elizabethan corsets, with their rigid, suppressive fronts, manipulated a woman's figure into a flat, cylindrical silhouette with a deep cleavage. around 1610, flat collars started replacing neck trims, allowing provocative cleavage that was sometimes covered with a handkerchief. during the georgian era, pendants became popular as décolletage decoration. anne of austria, along with female members of her court, was known for wearing very tight bodices and corsets that forced breasts together to make deeper cleavage, very low necklines that exposed breasts almost in entirety above the areolae, and pendants lying on the cleavage to highlight it. after the french revolution décolletage become larger at the front and reduced at the back. during the fashions of 1795–1820, many women wore dresses that bared necks, bosoms and shoulders. increasingly, the amount of décolletage became a major difference between day-wear and formal gowns. cleavage was not without controversy. in 1713, british newspaper the guardian complained about women forgoing their tuckers, and keeping their necks and tops of breasts uncovered. english poet and essayist joseph addison complained about décolletage so extreme "the neck of a fine woman at present take in almost half the body". publications advised women against "unmasking their beauties". 18th-century news correspondents wrote that "otherwise polite, genteel women looked like common prostitutes". during the french enlightenment, there was a debate about whether female breasts were merely a sensual enticement or a natural gift to be offered from mother to child. not all women in france wore the open-neck style without modifications; a self-portrait by adélaïde labille-guiard (france, 1785) shows the painter in a fashionable décolleté dress while her pupils have their bosoms accessorized with gauzy handkerchiefs. nearly a century later, also in france, a man from the provinces who attended a court ball at the tuileries in paris in 1855 was disgusted by the décolleté dresses and is said to have said; "i haven't seen anything like that since i was weaned!". in 1890, the first breast augmentation was performed using an injection of liquid paraffin. late modern detail of portrait of madame x (1884) by john singer sargent, whose cleavage caused enough controversy for sargent to re-paint and make the cleavage less daring. by the end of the 18th century in continental europe, cleavage-enhancing corsets grew more dramatic, pushing the breasts upward. the tight lacing of corsets worn in the 19th and early 20th centuries emphasized both cleavage and the size of the bust and hips. evening gowns and ball gowns were especially designed to display and emphasize the décolletage. elaborate necklaces decorated the décolletage at parties and balls by 1849. there was also a trend of wearing camisole-like clothes and whale-bone corsets that gave the wearer a bust without a separation or any cleavage. 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). in north america, the gilded age saw women adorning their cleavage with flowers attached to clothes and carefully placed jewelry. during the victorian period of the mid-to-late 19th century, social attitudes required women to cover their bosoms in public. high collars were the norm for ordinary wear. towards the end of this period, the full collar was in fashion, though some décolleté dresses were worn on formal occasions. for that purpose, the bertha neckline, which lay below the shoulders and was often trimmed with three to six inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm) of lace or other decorative material, became popular with upper and middle-class women but it was socially unacceptable for working-class women to expose that much skin. multiple pearl necklaces were worn to cover the décolletage. along with the bertha neckline, straps were removed from corsets and shawls were made essential. by 1904, necklines of evening attire were lowered, exposing the shoulders, sometimes without straps but the neckline still ended above the cleavage. clergymen all over the world were shocked when dresses with modest round or v-shaped necklines became fashionable around 1913. in the german empire, roman catholic bishops joined to issue a pastoral letter attacking the new fashions. in the edwardian era, extreme uplift with no hint of cleavage was as common as a bow-fronted look that was also popular. in 1908, a single rubber pad or a "bust form" was worn inside the front of the bodice to make cleavage virtually undetectable. the flapper generation of 1920s flattened their chests to adopt the fashionable "boy-girl" look by either bandaging their breasts or by using bust latteners. corsets started to go out of fashion by 1917, when metal was needed to make tanks and munitions for world war i and due to the vogue for boyish figures. in new zealand, the early appearance of décolleté clothes in 1914 was soon superseded by the "flat" fashion. breast suppression prevailed in the western world so much the u.s. physician lillian farrar attributed "virginal atrophic prolapsed breasts" to the fashion imperatives of the time. in 1920, paraffin was replaced for breast augmentation with fatty tissue taken from the abdomen and buttocks. italian soprano lina cavalieri, known for her décolletage as much as her talent, at the turn of the 20th century.marilyn monroe, in some like it hot (1959). she was voted a cleavage queen 50 years after her death. in 1914, new york socialite mary phelps jacob (better known as caresse crosby) patented the garment as "the backless brassiere"; after making a few hundred garments, she sold the patent to the warner brothers corset company for us$1,500. in the next 30 years, warner brothers made more than us$15 million from jacob's design. during the next century, the brassière industry went through many ups and downs, often influenced by the demand for cleavage. with a return to more womanly