It’s spring 2022. Running late for school pickup is stressful at best, leaving it alone when you are not wearing a bra. I knew I could do it if I ran, but when I was younger, I wore D cups, so running on the main street in the middle of the afternoon had a T-Rex stuck in my chest like it was no less ridiculous. Than holding my breasts. Everyone is watching meI thought Everyone is looking at me and they know I’m not wearing a bra.
Of course no one noticed or cared that I was dressed, but I kept walking with my hands on my chest. Lockdown may be long overdue but my lockdown habit – which started with smart clothes, then tights and finally, essentially, underwear bras – continues.
Back in the spring of 2020, nowhere to go, I welcomed it. I can’t think of a person wearing a bra who isn’t familiar with the underwear-gain crook’s knife, the border of his clothes slipping. Or exhale the essential breath that comes when unhooking a bra at the end of the day. Pre-epidemic, on rare evenings when I forget to remove my bra, I am reminded of its presence through the throbbing pain in my ribs, my body’s Morse code warning that the bra had overstated its reception. But in the last few years, I have been playing the game closest to the real bra. Is it any wonder that their sales have grown so fast that they have been added to the ONS measure of inflation? We’re back at work, but the idea of going back to our underwear seems far away.
For proof – if proof is needed – halfway through the epidemic, in October 2020, lingerie retailer Bravisimo reported a 30% drop in revenue. Figures from the global market research group NPD also confirm that sales of women’s clothing have declined modestly since April 2020, while sales of bras have declined by only 16%. “The fashion bubble doesn’t exist; it looks at how people are living, what they’re consuming,” says Loretta Roberts. Co-founder of fashion news site theindustry.fashion. “People’s lifestyles change and fashion has to respond to that.”
Of course, bras remain sacred for some women. Take 58-year-old Annette Weymark, who worked on the film: She told me she had never been barren. “I’m not the kind of person who could ever wear one without a top; I’d feel very open.” But there are other women like me. “I didn’t feel the need to be able to present myself to society.” Like me, Ashleigh’s shifting habit got into bed: “When everyone is back at work, I don’t want to wear a bra. So I wear a little crop top instead of full underwear. I find it more comfortable.”
Some high street companies like M&S and Cos have responded by offering comfortable bras that are not traditional or sporty. They sit in pajamas and lingerie, and come in unusual clothes like cashmere mix. They are also strong enough to wear alone (you should feel capable). Other companies completely removed the traditional bra. Underwear brand Parade, for example, does not feature a single underwear bra. The firm’s founder, Cammy Tellez, started the company in response to a change of heart. “We know there are still people who wear underwear because it makes them feel more supported, or gives the particular outfit structure, or they feel like they’re wearing the best outfit,” she tells me. “So, it’s less about the underwear’s death, and more about the alternative proposition.”
Now, at the age of 38, I have found my source of happiness in bralets – without bras, strings and padding in the soul. I always saw them as a young girl’s clothes, made of weak fabric and lacking any support structure. Times have changed, however, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the thick fabric and adequate texture.
Those I order online are small, medium or large – no cup sizes – keeping them further away from “proper” underwear. What arrived was a black velor, lace trim, sinking v-neck. Thick straps around the back and spaghetti straps around the shoulders, with more support than I thought.
When I tried, my daughter went inside. As a teenager, she described it as an outerwear, and told me it was the same “top” as a member of the Blackpink band. I replied that this is my underwear. “Oh,” she said. “Well, it’s nice and makes a good top.” Before I start talking about appropriate clothing, I remember that underwear as an outerwear is not an unfamiliar concept to me. That when I was her age, in the 1990s, black bra under white school shirt, without vest, was very popular.
In elementary school, at the age of nine, I remember the moment the girls in my class got their first “training bra”. I was so jealous – they thought the idea of wearing a proto-bra to train their body for real things was deeply serious. And who can forget their first real bra, no matter how embarrassing the experience? A few years later, my mother visually measured me – 30B – and left a dark red bra with a thin lace trim on my bed.
Changing my crop top’s bubbling cotton, which was like a vest on my head, for silk and my first bra hook-and-blind tie seemed to cross the threshold of femininity. With that, I stood up straight, finally realizing how fit it was. Until the PE class later that week, when I took off my shirt and looked at me, all the other girls were whispering and pointing to their talents. White bra
I’ve rarely taken off my bra in 25 years. As a teenager, I remember the “saggy tits” – a little woman like Amy sleeping inside me with fear. She is sleeping with a peg in her nose to keep it in a more attractive shape.
Then I got pregnant, at the age of 24, and as my body stretched and swelled, the idea of not wearing a bra was unimaginable. After the baby was born and I breastfed, I leaned against the cordless obstetrician to prevent damage to my fallopian tubes. I was grateful for the nursing bra, and their much-needed support, click claps and effort (albeit in vain) to stop the wet patches that spread over every one I wore, but I hated their asexual efficiency. When it came time to change the feeding bra for regular, I can’t wait to feel myself again, but post-nursing deflation was not something I was taught in prenatal class. Your breasts have run out of fatHealth workers said. TO Pregnancy may or may not return to pre-existing shape and size. Try to buy a smaller size. As my body stretched, slowed down, shrunk, so did my bra. I doubt that I planted this seed now.
For Téllez, it’s about the choice: “I know some people who never wear bras and I know others who wear sleeping bras. It all comes down to how comfortable you are and how well you feel – and it’s every day. “Clothing may be different. During the epidemic, we saw a shift towards collective casualization of clothing based on comfort and value. That will not change, but it will adapt as the world re-opens.”
When working from home, I usually wear sports bras and leggings most of the day. And I’d rather throw in a fit hoodie and a good pair of coaches to run the school than to change into an underwear sooner.
Recently, I wore a dress with a high neckline at the book release. I knew I would be almost completely in a room full of people I didn’t know, and I wanted to feel confident, or at least comfortable. On that occasion, only the underwired bra does. And as the weather changes, and our shoulders and shoulder bones come out of hibernation, I know (deep down) the thick straps of the sports bra don’t cut it with a strappy dress or vest top. But until then, I will enjoy my freedom.