Style Theory: Is the Bra Over?
I’m in a bit of a tailspin, festering over the same question that I can’t stop thinking about. Here goes: I listened to an ask for advice podcast – Lainey Gossip’s What’s Your Drama – and a question that is simultaneously trivial and loaded perked up. In 2020, do we have to wear a bra?
Let me back up. This pandemic has brought out many things in me. Things that I possibly took for granted before. In an effort to stay busy and stay sane – all while maintaining a safe distance – I’m open to learning about nearly any ding dong topic. Front porch sitting has never been more interesting (Free content in the safety of my home? Yes please). TikToks with dogs sharing moods and teenagers dancing, limbs jammed in sweatshirts is a go-to. Asking my friends about plants and food is even interesting these days. Basically, in this world state, I crave newness and entertainment with very few objections.
With this voracious appetite for content nipping at my indoor slippered heels, no media avenue is safe from me. Rewatching movies, check. Magazines online, check. Book swapping yard drop-offs with friends, check. Instagram and especially Instagram Stories, oh that’s a big roger check-a-roonie. Checking the mic for another round: Podcasts are fantastic, check, check. Many of my favourite Pods – thanks to Zoom or whatever they are distance recording on – are still able to safely produce new episodes. And new shows are popping up all the time. Technology for the win.
Making my way back to the topic of bras, on the aforementioned podcast, a late 30’s mother wrote in asking when it’s appropriate or not appropriate to wear a bra. She asked specifically about dropping off and picking up her kids at school where she said she doesn’t talk with anyone. A no muss no fuss get in and get out situation.
The first thing that popped into my head was this: the person wearing or not wearing a bra should be the one to decide. Your body, your choice. End of discussion.
As soon as that first belief crossed my mind, I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, there’s more here. It’s not so binary. Nothing is. (Especially in fashion).” Other thoughts, two, three, twenty, started crashing in:
What about corporate work settings with conservative dress codes?
What about shirt and dress styles that lack structure?
What about styles that look “better” without a bra because the garment designed with that in mind?
What about calling this all bullshit?
What about societies obsession with sexualizing breasts?
What about the gendering of breasts and the inequalities that result?
What about getting rid of bras altogether?
What about some wanting to keep their bras?
What about logistical things like the need for support while exercising, moving about, or playing?
What about if this is just another phase in fashion?
What about transitioning peoples?
What about gender non-conforming peoples?
What about back, neck, and shoulder pain?
What about breast size and shape in relation to the rest of the person’s body?
What about augmented or reduced breasts? Are the expectations the same?
And why did we replace corsets with bras to begin with? Why was that the winning option?
Ranging from serious to silly, these thoughts are all valid. Likely some are too personal and too far removed from my own experience for me to express anything worthy. I will say as far as trends go, underwire seems to be getting thrown under the fashion bus. Like Sex and the City’s Carrie falling on the runway and becoming fashion roadkill, underwire bras and maybe bras in general are dead? Or dying? Or taking a fashionable pause?
The rise of not your man’s disrupter lingerie brands like wire-free knix, True and Co, and ThirdLove are carving out a piece of the market share pie from the declining, one-aesthetic-fits-few mall brands like Victoria’s Secret. Simply put, breasts and the bras that dress them are more complex than a lot of what was available before online, direct to consumer shopping became a viable option. A more natural, easy going aesthetic, brought to us in part by the appeal of athleisure, has popularized sports bras, casual bralettes, or other layering tops instead of the formerly popular underwire. It’s all adding up to a total shift in what is in demand.
Cut to the Covid-19 pandemic and those staying at home more are lounging to the fullest. There are articles and memes declaring the removal of ones’ bra as soon as you are home as a true liberation and perhaps the ultimate comfort tactic. I understand the need to control something – like what you buy and choose to wear – during a times of anxiety and uncertainty. Being comfortable and dressing however you want is one way to take control of your environment when all else is in limbo.
Playing the other side, I will say that the myth busting, pun fully intended, interests me too. The assertion that underwire bras or sleeping in bras is linked to Cancer is no more scientifically valid than a wellness recommendation found on goop.com.
All of this to say I don’t know. It’s an evolution and revolution. In general, the world of fashion has become more democratic and fractured than ever before. There are endless options and opinions on what is best. That said, I think I’ll go back to my original reaction. In the questions of “to bra or not to bra,” I say, your body, your choice.
