A breakdown of your no bra summer

A few weeks ago, stylist Lou Heller saw a trend from her social media in real life at a New Zealand Fashion Week event in Christchurch.

A young woman at the event, who looked in her 20s, was wearing a sheer black dress. In lieu of a bra, she wore a bright purple bikini top, the pop of colour a perfect partner to the black.

Heller says the woman, who wore the look confidently on her fuller figure, a push against the new wave of skinny models recently returning to fashion runways, "looked amazing".

Heller was wearing the same sheer dress from designer Caitlin Crisp with underwear underneath, an adjacent trend where lingerie is no longer hidden but made to be seen. Ironically, it was one of the few instances of late that she wore a bra because normally she doesn’t.

You might have also seen Lorde wear a bikini top instead of a bra in her music video for 'What Was That'. Shot in a park in the middle of New York City and far from any beach, Lorde paired the metallic bikini top with loose jeans and an unbuttoned white shirt.

A bikini top as a bra is part of a larger trend where women are embracing comfort and their natural shape by wearing a minimally supportive bra such as a bralette (a light, wire-free bra designed for comfort). In some cases, they are wearing no bra at all. Take the singer-songwriter Charli XCX, a close friend and collaborator of Lorde, who made a recent appearance on Saturday Night Live in a black t-shirt sans bra, her natural movement and shape, including nipple show, on full display.

Sales and interest in underwire bras with heavy padding have been declining for almost two decades, says Deborah Lewthwaite, from the Fitting Room, a bra specialist store with locations in Christchurch and Wellington. It was a demise that sped up during Covid when lockdowns led to lax bra wearing and a revelation of comfort. However, Lewthwaite believes that an underwire bra can still be comfortable if it is fitted correctly.

The store’s most popular bra 15 years ago - a padded, underwire pushup - was recently discontinued because not enough people bought them. The trend is towards wireless bras or bralettes with a “more natural shape,” she says.

“Also, people aren’t concerned as much about nipple show,” Lewthwaite adds.

(The ultimate sign that nipples are in is a moulded bra with "nipple detail" made by Kim Kardashian's underwear line Skims so you can fake the no bra look.)

For Bella, a 24-year-old who lives near Auckland, body positivity has come from ditching the traditional underwire bra with heavy padding when she was 19. She was always self-conscious about her larger breasts - one a DD cup and the other an E - until she embraced her natural shape and movement.

“It's multi-functional. I'm probably going to go to the beach later, and I'm gonna have to get changed, you know, and it's there.

“And there are way cuter bikinis on the market than any bras, like for sure.”

Her standard look is an unbuttoned shirt with a bikini top, likely from the brand You Swim, which boldly claims to be the “world’s most comfortable swimsuit" It’s an ensemble she has even worn into Auckland city.

For Bella as well as Lauren Brodie, comfort is a key to their decision to ditch an overly controlling bra style, especially with underwire. Brodie is also known as the Wellington-based fashion content creator elbee. She hadn’t worn an underwire bra for years, but a strapless dress she wore a few weeks ago called for a strapless bra.

“... I had literally, you know, cuts underneath afterwards because of the sticky adhesive, and it's like, for what? What am I really doing here?"

It made her question who she was dressing for: the male gaze or for herself?

“There's something about reclaiming sexuality in there too, where I'm me in my natural form, not having any additions to it, not having it pushed up and pulled together to look attractive. It's just like, ‘Take me as I am'.

“I love seeing it. I love seeing the girls just be comfortable, whatever that may be, right? If that's wearing a bra, if that's not wearing a bra, I think that's great.”

Brodie sees a line between women going bra-free and the current political climate, especially in the US.

“Seeing certain men come into power, there is something you can definitely read into there that mirrors both the 60s and the 70s burning the bra, right?” she says, referring to President Donald Trump. He has denied any wrongdoing in the numerous instances where women have accused him of sexual assault.

Challenging underwear norms has a long history in feminism and women’s liberation movements, according to Katie Pickles, a professor of history at the University of Canterbury. Often it stems from health and safety reasons, such as restrictive corsets in the Victorian era, that at times permanently maimed some women.

“Symbolically, breaking away from old restrictive clothing is about embracing new, free, experimental ways of living,” Pickles wrote in an email to RNZ. That includes the era when feminists were labelled as “bra burners” later on in the 20th century.

But the current no-bra or minimal trend isn’t something only for the youth, says Emily Miller-Sharma from New Zealand fashion label RUBY.

She recently added a lingerie line to RUBY’s sister brand, Liam. The line is wireless and embraces the natural shape of breasts with limited concern for nipple show. The bras are also designed to be seen, with attention to detail on the back of the bra. So, if it does peek around the line of a dress or top, the wearer feels good, says Miller-Sharma.

While both brands have a youthful essence, customers are from every age group, and store managers have reported many older women buying the Liam bras, says Miller-Sharma.

“I'm so stoked because one of the things that we know about women as they get older, they have a clearer idea of what works for them...

“...they're less likely to put up with something that's uncomfortable in the name of let's say quote unquote fashion.”